David Denby’s article in “The New Yorker” caught my eye because of a statement made in class a few Fridays ago relating the new dance videos ("Step Up," "How She Move") and their tie to old musicals ("Kiss Me Kate," "West Side Story"). Focusing on How She Move, Denby opens with historical context, placing the film in the same genre as “dance movie musicals” like “Flashdance” and “Footloose.” He complains, however, that such 80’s films and popular contemporary movies (see “Chicago”) “broke dance movement into fragmentary closeups—furiously tapping feet or thrusting elbows or churning thighs.” This detracts from the essence of dance, which is the fluid movement of the entire body. Denby praises How She Move for its steady cutting, and ample use of wide shots, allowing the audience to see all the dancers move together as they step. The review continued to say that the film incorporates aspects of the teen movie: “in the school sequences, the screenwriter, Annmarie Morais, and the director, Ian Iqbal Rashid, produce the same kind of taunting and jostling and romantic troubles seen in American teen movies.” This is a good example of how a film can cross genre boundaries, and I realized how subjective and powerful marketing is. Do you market it as a teen movie? An “urban” film? A girl-power movie? Or, go in an entirely different direction. Denby draws a comparison to the “original” dance musical: “Like Al Jolson in “The Jazz Singer,” eighty years ago, the heroine disobeys a parent in order to find herself in performing—this girl gotta dance.” The genre rule that community supersedes the individual also exists in the film, as noted by Denby: “the final meaning of [the lead’s] story is: you have a great personal style, but you also have to submit to group discipline—to steps.” This article kept surprising me with its overt mentioning of genre aspects and cross-over. It was good to see the old musicals get their due credit, especially since it might be hard to immediately see the similarities between stepping in an underground club in 2008 and Ann Miller tap dancing in a living room in 1953.
http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2008/02/04/080204crci_cinema_denby
1 comment:
I found the article interesting, primarily because it dealt with my main problems with the "urban dance" genre, or however you want to classify it; namely, it's recyclable plots and tendency to choose style over substance -- the very reasons why I never saw "Stomp the Yard" or "How She Move" in theaters. Again, I think it is a risky proposition to release cookie cutter films, especially within a year of one another. While the author describes "Move" as a welcome departure from the cliches of the genre, my disappointment in "Stomp the Yard" squelched any interest I might have had in "How She Move." In this case, then, genre becomes almost a hindrance, inasmuch as the expectations of this genre (jump cuts, recyclable plots, too much style, etc.), lowered by previous subpar films, make some hesitant to see the film. At the same time, it is the filmmaker's job to work within the genre conventions to create a neaningful and unique entry to the catalog. Perhaps "How She Move" is this entry.
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