Movie Review: Mad Hot Ballroom
Mad Hot Ballroom: Torgo disapprovesI'm not saying it's a bad movie. But I think "reality" television has reached a critical mass in which documentaries, particularly ones centered around competitions, suffer and lose resonance.
The concept is interesting: mostly poor kids in NYC public schools participate in free dance programs, then go on to a city-wide competition. These kids are as young as 10 or 11, so not only is their coordination not developed, but the opposite sex is still icky.
Perhaps partly because of "reality" show fatigue, the competition element of this movie seemed inappropriate. It's great that the kids are getting into dancing, learning the tango, merengue, swing, etc. Yet the moment they learn it, they're pushed into this battle to be the best. As the movie notes, everyone who doesn't come in first is a loser.
It's still fun to watch the kids learn to dance. My favorite scenes were outside the lessons, usually involving the kids in 'confessional' style clips talking about dancing, girls, boys, the teachers, etc. In one great moment, a boy and girl launch into a tango on top of a large rock in a park as their classmates look on. In that moment, you can see their enjoyment of dance.
Or their drive to succeed. I prefer to see the former.
posted by Torgo @ 3:04 PM
3 Comments:
Never heard of this movie until you mentioned it, and then it came up as a Netflix recommendation.
I'm always really wary of different incarnations of the "art-saves-the-ghetto-kids" idea. But my sister made me watch Save the Last Dance too many times, so many I'm just scarred.
was save the last dance a "art-saves-the-ghetto-kids?" or more "non-ghetto-kid-learns-valuable-life-
lesson-from-the-ghetto?" i guess it's all just a variation on the theme.
You're right!
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