Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Step

There a plenty of things to say about the richly formulaic world of the Step Up movies, and the alternately lazy-intense, infuriating-charming stories they tell. Nobody needs to tell me about how these movies are awful because I'm aware of the ways in which they are shallow and mediocre; but in some ways they are wonderful - such as in Step Up 3D's reconciliation scene between Adam Sevani and Alyson Stoner, where the "you got served" logic underlying the dancing* goes to the lavatory for a few minutes, and the logic of the classical Hollywood musical takes over, and a - sincerely sincerely sincerely - beautiful, fantastic dance number breaks out. I guarantee you that this sequence will be better than any scene in at least eight (8) Best Picture-nominated movies this year.

* The pinnacles of the hip-hop dance battle in narrative film, that I know of, are Beat Street's amazing subway battle (the set-up is key, more so than the dancing itself), and Step Up 2: The Streets' fantastic final dance (which Step Up 3D alludes to in its own dance battle scenes more than once, but never replicates, let alone tops). I'm happy to accept nominations for other 'greats.'

9 comments:

Keith Uhlich said...

Damn straight about that musical number. This movie is exhilarating. And I'm prepared to argue a bit more for "SU3D" as a "good" movie. Amateur acting has its place, and I think it fits the spirit of this film beautifully.

ZC said...

Yeah, I was overall happy with the movie - some parts of it just seemed kind of lazy, like the 3-way confrontation between Luke, Natalie, and Julian. When Luke storms off, Julian calls out to Natalie, "What, you're made because of that?" Who was responsible for that line & that delivery!? Ugh.

I don't mind the amateurish quality of the expository sections - 'Hey guys, this is Smiles, from my high school crew, he's good at [fill in what he's good at]' (and Smiles dances upon introduction) - that stuff is fine.

Something I liked about this film in great contrast to the first two is that the characters actually "learn lessons." It's a simple, old-fashioned virtue but in this context somewhat welcome - the other movies are basically domino effect stories about how your disapproving friends, your fuddy-duddy parental figures, and your uptight teachers all initially fail to respect the "authoriteh" of your will-to-dancing-power ... but gradually come to respect it. It feels one-note very quickly, just endless congratulations about "being true to yourself." At least this film recognizes (in Moose's character) that this might entail a bit of internal conflict! Just a bit!

ZC said...

Sorry, meant "you're mad because of that." Still early in the morning.

Jake said...

Thirded on the reconciliation number. As for internal conflict, I was taken aback by the blatant way Moose is coded as a closet case ("I was born to be Ashley to your Mary Kate"). I was trying to remember where I'd last seen that living-between-two-worlds plot, then it came back to me: A Nightmare On Elm St 2: Freddy's Revenge.

ZC said...

Hmm, I don't know if I've seen that Nightmare, Jake ... at least not in the sense that I can meaningfully recall anything. Will keep it in mind.

Stephen said...

I really dislike the way critics throw the baby out with the bathwater and dismiss films out of hand through prejudice or because it makes for a punchier review.

Almost all films have something different and special about them, even if it lasts only a second or is hard to grasp.

I look forward to seeing this scene.

Stephen said...

It's in these overly earnest, sometimes soppy and conventional, films where you get nuggets of genuine emotional purity.

Better that then the cynicism of so many other films.

ZC said...

Stephen - sure. And when a film is in a genre to which established critics aren't particularly endeared ... these nuances or small (momentary/partial) beauties and strengths are more quickly overlooked.

It took me about three viewings to realize / come to terms with Mamma Mia, for example, as being mainly one of the better studio efforts put out in the last several years ...

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