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"Stomp the Yard" all about the moves |
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Written by Colin Covert, MCT
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Sunday, 14 January 2007 |
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‘Stomp the Yard’
2 out of 4
Columbus Short, Meagan Good
PG-13 / 1 hr. 54 min. / Cinemark 16, Carmike 10, Cinemark Greeley Mall, Metrolux 14
“Stomp the Yard” is by no means great drama, but if you don’t feel like cheering half a dozen times, check yourself for low blood pressure. Some plot maneuvers are implausibly convenient, some moments too earnest, but the movie is a musical, so we should allow for some cliches, pathos and a saccharine resolution to all the hero’s difficulties along with the dance, drama and dazzle.
The story follows an uncomplicated trajectory. DJ (Columbus Short), a Los Angeles teenager, is a champ at competitions where inner city crews work out their factional rivalries on the dance floor, the frenetic clash of whirling bodies channeling aggression that could otherwise trigger a drive-by shooting.
But it’s still a dangerous scene. In a last-ditch effort to salvage his future, he travels to Atlanta where his aunt and uncle arrange for him to attend a posh, historically black college. Adjusting to his new surroundings is difficult, but his dancing prowess attracts the attention of two fraternities that are longtime rivals in an annual synchronized-dance championship. He also catches the eye of a lovely but unavailable coed (Meagan Good) whose overprotective father is a campus bigwig.
The best dance sequences are the simplest, when the director Sylvain White holds the camera steady and the steppers go berserk. At first the spasmodic boogying is almost dizzying to watch: a relentlessly kinetic wrench of limbs that at first appears to be an epileptic seizure set to music. As the show goes on the technique, dexterity and variations of the form become more easily decipherable and more inspiring. | Only registered users can write comments.
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