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How She Move
User Score
4.8 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 9 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 4 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 1 out of 9
  3. Negative: 4 out of 9

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  1. [Anonymous]
    Jan 25, 2008
    10
    It is pretty good as dance movies come and the dancing is soooo good I would recommend it! (it helps that the acting is good).
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  2. ChadS.
    Jan 26, 2008
    6
    If the movie world offers a glimpse into the everyday realities of our culture, then by all appearances, Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech has been co-opted by today's black youth and applied to their goal of capturing first place in step-dancing contests. Nobody is going to finance a movie about a black girl who can cut up a cadaver, so "How She Move" offers this compromise: Raya is a pre-med student who can cut up a dance floor. When Michelle(Tracey Armstrong) invites Raya (Rutina Wesley) to join an all-girl step team, "How She Move" could've been a battle-of-the-sexes movie, since we are told that all the top money goes to the men. But Raya is no feminist; she's an opportunist, a girl who has grown accustomed to being on her own(Raya was a black girl in a predominantly white boarding school). She convinces Bishop(Dwain Murphy) to sign her up for his crew, in a scene reminiscent of "Grease"(a step-dance reinterpretation of the John Travolta/Jeff Conaway number "Greased Lightning"), and double-crosses him when her self-assertiveness(due in part to her educational background) butts heads with the patriarchal rules of the ghetto(even a Canadian ghetto). "How She Move" concludes tidily, but at least the story throws more obstacles in front of its inevitable happy ending. "How She Move" is also hindered by a heroine who doesn't really need to win the contest. The more you scrutinize Raya's actions, the more you realize that she's only in it for herself. Raya's no saint; she's a flawed person, which makes "How She Move" infinitely more interesting than last year's "Stomp the Yard".… Expand
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
  3. MelodeeG
    Jan 29, 2008
    9
    Great film with a fresh and talented young cast and electric dance sequences! Way to go, Canada!!
    • 0 of 0 users said yes
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Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
63 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 21 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 21
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 21
  3. Negative: 0 out of 21
  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Justin Chang
    70
    Title refers not only to its heroine's physical gyrations but also her moral maneuverings as she strives to break out of her lower-class surroundings in this moody, intelligent take on conventional material.
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  2. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Jim Ridley
    70
    Especially good are Wesley, whose expressions are a study in shifting thought, and Tre Armstrong as her street-hardened but good-hearted rival, a stock role that Armstrong fills with unmediated feeling.
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  3. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Kimberley Jones
    67
    This kind of a dance film lives and dies by the routines, and this one wins: Mixing elements of gymnastics, karate, and break with the almighty step – an exceedingly polite term for what is really an awesome stomp.
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