Written by: Duane Adler & Melissa Rosenberg
Starring: Channing Tatum, Jenna Dewan, Mario, Drew Sidora, Rachel Griffiths
Rating: [3.5/5]
Dance serves as a level of physical self-expression anyone can do based on any level of physical mobility. It can look as simple as a shoulder shrug to spinning on your head, but it has a way to have the individual feel free in ways other forms of expression cannot. However, the way these moves receive interpretation and what they represent makes a big difference as seen in Step Up where two styles clash allowing for something great in their fusion.
After vandalizing the stage of the prestigious Maryland School of Arts, Tyler (Channing Tatum) gets sentenced to 200 hours of community service at the very school to demonstrate remorse. There he meets Nora (Jenna Dewan) as she prepares for her senior showcase where her dire need for a rehearsal partner leads to them beginning to dance together.
Nothing feels quite as 2000s as everything Channing Tatum wears in this film. From the jeans to the overly large shirts, this aspect dates this film to a specific era of fashion like no other where it never quite makes sense but it most certainly happened. The same goes for the attitude he carries throughout this entire feature as this guy who’s too cool for everything having to do with art until he sees the genuine benefit of it. This bravado puts Tatum in such a gated position through his character in how it limits him in his acting. The caginess of this ultimately displays the major fault of this film laying in the acting across the board, but when everything else works so well, it becomes difficult to complain.
At the forefront of this feature lies the relationship between Nora and Tyler where it becomes one of utility and then morphs into something much more. Nora has her classical dancing style in her hopes to work professionally with a company while Tyler employs a more street style dancing without the same form and much freer in the interpretation. These two styles initially clash just like the two characters but they need to merge in order to work in helping Nora for her senior showcase. This merging creates the chance for these two to bond and get to know each other from the archetypes they initially present where Nora represents a prissy private school girl and Tyler an unreliable troubled youth.
Therefore this feature presents itself as a romance between the two and it mostly works in showcasing what brings them together and ultimately presenting the chance where they move beyond the initial impression held for each other and build something special. Different dance sequences between them give the opportunity to express themselves to each other, which inevitably leads to physical touch only accelerating the inevitable we all know will arrive at some point in the future.
When it comes to the dance sequences, director Anne Fletcher serves as both the person in the big chair and also the choreographer. What she crafts as this fusion between Tyler’s and Nora’s style makes for something quite visually pleasing. As someone who knows nothing about dance as an art form and what necessarily makes for a great dance routine leaves me just focusing on how it looks. Particularly as we get to the final dance number, it gives each style of dance the moment to shine in their own way on top of bringing them together for a united front for the big finale. Having this all take place at a senior showcase of a fairly stuffy art school like the one featured in this film makes the fusion that much better as it begins to have the audience members in the crowd rethink the way they look at Tyler’s style.
While not having as much dancing as one would want with the focus on the lives of Nora and Tyler leading them toward each other, Step Up makes everything work because of the relationship at the center. They hold it down together as two individuals to root for together in the different backgrounds they come from and how the use of dance unites them. When we get to the dance sequences, it displays some fun choreography to enjoy bringing together all of the talents of Nora, Tyler, and all of their other friends into the fold to demonstrate a truly collaborative process.
Films with Josh 
