Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 78
Fresh: 52 | Rotten: 26
Despite a formulaic plot, the energetic and gritty How She Move is elevated by a commanding debut performance by Rutina Wesley.
Average Rating: 6.1/10
Critic Reviews: 22
Fresh: 14 | Rotten: 8
Despite a formulaic plot, the energetic and gritty How She Move is elevated by a commanding debut performance by Rutina Wesley.
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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 32,155
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An aspiring medical student whose drug-addicted sister has recently died and who may be forced to relocate from her posh private school to the crime-infested neighborhood in which she was raised enters a step-dancing competition in hope of securing the funds needed to continue her education. Unable to afford the tuition needed to fund her private-school education, ambitious teen Raya returns to her family home in the city and is reluctantly forced to reevaluate her future. Upon learning that the
Jan 25, 2008 Wide
Apr 29, 2008
$7.0M
Paramount Vantage
All Critics (79) | Top Critics (22) | Fresh (55) | Rotten (27) | DVD (8)
How She Move was shot on the cheap in 16-mm. film, and some of it is a little drab-looking, but it has energy and bravado.
As we replay last year's step-dance hit Stomp the Yard, the ostensible message about working hard in school gets stomped out of the yard.
How She Move isn't a great film or even a terribly well-made film, but it has its moments and, of course, it has the ending it's promised all along.
Even if the setting is novel and the leads seem authentic, How She Move is all too content to step down a well-worn path.
The strong acting, spectacular dance routines and culturally specific details in How She Move turn clichés into catharsis.
How She Move gets it right in every dance sequence, but stumbles badly whenever the characters step offstage (or a car hood, or the sidewalk, or wherever they happen to be practicing).
Another week, another urban dance movie from the United States.
The formula is so old that you can almost forgive it. What I couldn't forgive is the soap opera/O.C.-like subplots.
Handles an array of pressing teen dilemmas in a refreshingly intelligent fashion for an inner city melodrama.
How you react to How She Move may depend upon how well you like the film's music and dancing, which is about all there is to it beyond the clichés.
...has little new going for it beyond a boatload of energy and enthusiasm. And pure formula.
Thumbing its nose at music video ho's as sex wallpaper, How She Move's got muscular gritty girl power, as females challenge the greater strength and energy of the male performers on their own turf.
Thumbing its nose at music video ho's as sex wallpaper, How She Move's got muscular gritty girl power, as females challenge the greater strength and energy of the male performers on their own turf.
The film does have great energy, and some fabulous dancing, but the script could have done with another draft.
It's a familiar set-up, but while the story falls back on clichés and trite moral messages, a few dance scenes deliver in spectacular style.
The dance scenes are fun to watch but the script's not too light on its feet.
With its trite story the film is never going to impress the average critic, but there is energy and passion that make the film work for its target audience, and the choreography is inventive.
Disappointing dance drama that suffers from a badly scripted plot, dull performances and poorly choreographed dance routines.
Seriously, it is nuts the way these kids dance.
The screenplay saddles the characters with too many scenes revolving around tired dialogue, but director Ian Iqbal Rashid compensates by staging the vigorous dance sequences as if his life -- or at least his career -- depended on it.
How She Move is as lazy about its good intentions as most of the other recent dance dramas that may vaguely come to mind.
I was shocked to find out at the end of the movie that it was filmed in Ontario. What do Canadians know about step-dancing? The movie is pretty good. Pretty difficult for the hero to balance relationships, studying for the scholarship and step-dancing.
June 2, 2009Super Reviewer
The killer dance moves are quite okay in this choregraphed flick as you know what I really like all-black extraordinary dance film called Stomp the Yard the best. This is much like what break dancing was to the 1980's, but is more of a team sport, with just a few individual moments of solo focus.
January 22, 2008
Super Reviewer
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