Where Credit is Due...

September 07, 2006

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When it comes to movies, the end of summer is usually thought of as a dumping ground -- the time of year studios unload the crap that’s been taking up space on their shelves for ages like Material Girls. If that’s the case, then why have I been having such a good time at the movies lately? Maybe it’s a combination of high air conditioning and low expectations.

I knew I was going to like Step Up before I even bought a ticket because the plot was like nothing I had ever seen before. A street thug who dabbles in hip-hop dancing meets a snooty ballerina girl and after a series of montages ripe with sexual tension and petty bickering, the pair manage to meld their disparate dancing styles and come together for a triumphant final number. It’s such a compelling story that I’m amazed no one’s ever thought to tell it before.

As Tyler, the male lead, Channing Tatum, is charming, a good dancer and seems to know what kind of movie he’s in. The chick, Nora, played Jenna Dewan, seems more like a Pussycat Doll than a ballerina but she looks and acts a bit like Denise Richards -- which is a definite plus as the former Mrs. Sheen is one of the best good-bad actresses we’ve got. Nora has problems at home which I think stem from the awful colors her disapproving widow of a mother chose for the interior of their house. Every time Nora had a scene at home, the walls would be some depressing color like burgundy or hunter green. I know the mom’s in mourning but geez, get a gay guy in there to brighten it up a bit. We could send Oprah’s own Nate Berkus, the king of the V-necked T, but he’s got his hands full on Angel Lane.

Surprisingly, the person I’m most obsessed with in Step Up is not one of the toe-tapping teens (all of whom looked to be 30). It’s Rachel Griffiths from "Six Feet Under" as the head of the arts school. I found her performance as Director Gordon to be so odd ... and by odd, I mean bad. It’s like Angelica Huston dropped out at the last minute and Rachel was in, so in order to seem more matronly and authoritative she lowered her voice an octave and struck strange poses. It’s almost as if she realized at the table read, "This is going to be a bad movie so I should probably be bad as well," and then she overshot it. Did any one else notice this or is it just me? Let’s just say she was no Donna Murphy from Centerstage.

Speaking of which, how much do I love Centerstage, the behind-the-scenes at the American Ballet Company melodrama from 2000? The movie was directed by the respected British theater whiz Nicholas Hytner, yet when I saw the Tony-winning and, in my opinion, overrated "The History Boys" on Broadway recently, also directed by Hytner, Centerstage was conspicuously missing from his bio in the Playbill. Oh, he listed his other movies, like The Madness of King George, The Crucible and The Object of My Affection, but Centerstage didn’t make the cut.

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