Metacritic Film

How She Move

Starring Tracey Armstrong, Clé Bennett, Nina Dobrey, Romina D'Ugo, Kevin Duhaney, Shawn Fernandez, Brennan Gademans, and Jason Harrow

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for some drug content, suggestive material and language

Paramount Vantage
Drama
minutes | Color
Canada
Released In Theaters January 25, 2008

Bursting with raw talent and intelligence, Raya Green, the daughter of Jamaican immigrants, has always been the family’s one great hope. She won the rare chance to break out of their drug and crime-infested neighborhood when she was accepted into the exclusive Seaton Academy. But when her sister dies of an overdose, the family is shattered and Raya is forced to return to the place she tried so hard to escape. It’s not easy to go back – especially when one-time friends, including the tough minded Michelle, see Raya as a stuck-up traitor who left the community behind. Feeling trapped and looking for a way out, Raya learns about a step competition with a $50,000 cash prize that could change her fate. Most of the crews that win the big money are all male, forcing Raya to fight her way in as the sole female member of the Jane Street Junta, led by the reining champ of the local steppin’ scene Bishop. As sparks begin to fly between Raya and Bishop, a false move by Raya leaves her without a crew, and she finds herself in a battle between her loyalty, her determination, her family’s ambitions and her heart. As the big contest approaches, she realizes it’s no longer just about the money or the opportunity, but also the one thing that she’s been missing in her life: a sense of self. (Paramount Vantage)

WRITTEN BY
Annmarie Morais

DIRECTED BY
Ian Iqbal Rashid

Overall Metascore

This is a weighted, normalized average of all individual scores given by critics, on a scale of 0 (worst) to 100 (best).

63 / 100

Critic Reviews

88 Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Mainly it’s a very solid dance picture, which is the point.
83 Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
Rutina Wesley glowers with just the right touch of sweetness as a brainy student (and stellar after-school stepper).
75 Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman
Choreographer Hi Hat and director Ian Iqbal Rashid kick the film into high gear every so often with dance sequences, climaxing with a dance-off in Detroit that seems too short.
70 Washington Post John Anderson
The movie, which is burdened by a rather mediocre script by Annmarie Morais but boasts some terrific performances -- is not just a sports movie. It's a girls-can't-do-it/girls-can-do-it/girls-do-it/girls-beat-the-boys-at-it movie.
70 Variety Justin Chang
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.
70 Village Voice Jim Ridley
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.
70 The New York Times Matt Zoller Seitz
There’s nary a twist you don’t see coming. But the film’s strong acting, spectacular dance routines and culturally specific details turn clichés into catharsis. It’s the sort of film that sends you home with a spring in your step.
70 The New Yorker David Denby
A rudimentary but thoroughly enjoyable step musical.
67 Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach
There's tremendous energy in How She Move, so much that the audience can't help but be swept up.
67 Seattle Post-Intelligencer Sean Axmaker
How She Move is the latest urban music drama from MTV Films, and it manages to give a familiar story a vivid jolt of character.
67 Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones
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.
63 USA Today Claudia Puig
How She Move has two key assets: powerful dance sequences and an emphasis on education.
63 TV Guide Maitland McDonagh
Formulaic but well-acted variation on the theme of pursuing your dreams through dance.
63 The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Jason McBride
Dialogue isn't Morais's strength, and it's only when the actors stop trading “Just give me a chance” chestnuts that the film really takes off. The deftly shot dance sequences are entirely satisfying, thrillingly choreographed by Hihat (most famous for her work with Missy Elliott) to music by the likes of Lil Mama and Toronto's Tha Smugglaz.
63 New York Post Kyle Smith
The atmosphere is convincing - there is an "Eight Mile" desperation to Raya's plight - but nothing makes sense.
63 Boston Globe Ty Burr
When the cast starts clomping atop a car, their synchronized bodies joining with the booming cross-rhythms, we're sold.
60 The Hollywood Reporter Frank Scheck
How She Move doesn't exactly break any new ground. But the terrific dance numbers on display should please its teenage target audience.
50 The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin
The film's good intentions gradually get lost in a sea of overwrought contrivances, stock characters, awkward cameos from B- and C-listers (R&B singer Keyshia Cole and not-so-funnyman DeRay Davis) and warmed-over family issues.
50 New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Gets it right in every dance sequence, but stumbles badly whenever the characters step offstage.
50 Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
Produced by MTV Films, this step-dancing drama is mired in cliche, but with its dingy ghetto settings and hardened, despondent young characters, it's marginally more interesting than "Stomp the Yard," the 2007 movie that inaugurated the subgenre.
50 San Francisco Chronicle David Wiegand
Movie cliches are supposed to be bad things because they make the movie too predictable. But you know, there are times when they actually work in a film's favor.

CLOSE THIS WINDOW

©2006 CNET Networks Inc. All rights reserved.