"It's just that y'all are talking' about dancing like it's rocket science!" WARNING: Spoilers and filmmakers' Notes.9/10

Rating: 9/10 (20 January 2009)

Without TV's "So You Think You Can Dance", Eminem as a character model, and especially without writer Duane Adler's Baltimore past, this dance movie would never have become the minor classic alongside Adler's Save the Last Dance(2000) it's now seen as. A third movie is now in the works.
Many "fluffier" dance movies (Honey(2004), Stomp the Yard(2007), and the insufferable Centre Stage(2000)) have inadequate plots/resolutions. Socially relevant dance movies have tended to elude filmmakers--sadly because it often eludes the dance industry itself. Step Up(2006) actually refers to this with Tyler's line "I'm sorry, it's just that y'all're talking' 'bout dancing like it's rocket science"!
Screenwriters Melissa Rosenberg and Duane Adler, based on his original story, subsequently fought hard for a "great dance movie", flip-flopping with lead character back-stories for authenticity. They achieved it, only to have the rushed-to-cinemas 2008 sequel ruin it again: for some ungodly reason, the adorable and talented Ann Flether--choreographer/director of the original--was "not available" to direct the sequel, only Executive Producing the 2008 stinker which, shockingly, made more money.
Step Up(2006)'s opening credits immediately herald a movie which takes great care to "execute with precision", as credits are individually wiped by the digital recombination of dancers over text, challenging even 007 credit sequences for ingenuity.
Adler's timeless coming-of-age story concerns the clash of two dance worlds, which promises and delivers a Romeo-and-Juliet style romance. Setting the story in the writer's hometown of Baltimore gives the racial issues authenticity.
These are instantly turned on their head, reminding us of singer Eminem's bio, as a poor white "brutha" remains family to his black friends while the rich "white" girl is actually brown and from a broken home. Nora(Jenna Dewan) isn't "stuck up"--she's just every bit as neurotic and ambitious as most art school seniors who have all been abusively driven to self-obsession by an unforgiving performance industry. In other words, the leads are both well-drawn characters from real life who are only as flawed or complex as the story requires. Additionally, Tyler's foster mother Lena(Jane Beard) and his precocious foster sister Camille(Alyson Stoner) are at least honestly drawn characters with their own problems.
The film's most serious hiccup comes during the first act, with a terribly ham-fisted attempt to pull us into the art school world: the older of the three delinquents are both way too old to be throwing stones or trashing a school. This counterintuitive plot device is further stretched to incredulity by Tyler's martyrdom with the "rent-a-cop". What would've played instead is Tyler's self-sacrifice had it been Skinny(De'Shawn Washington) who was nabbed because he'd been the "recessive gene"-teen who did most of the trashing. That would've worked better--Skinny always was a crime scene waiting to happen.
The other supporting characters are, if anything, even better. Miles(Mario) and Lucy(Drew Sidora) have an even less stereotypical bickering secondary romance written for them than the leads got. For one thing, it's Miles who's kinder and smarter than the girl--how refreshing! In their role-reversing relationship, he finally tells Lucy off: "If you want to be with somebody who doesn't appreciate what a good thing he's (her cradle-snatching boyfriend, Colin) got, that's 100% your business; I just thought you'd be smart enough to know that you deserve better". Great words to say to the 17yr-old skanks in the audience too, but I'm wondering what will poor Miles do when he discovers that his skank really wasn't smart enough? Tyler is a surprisingly good fit into their group as he becomes Miles' "wingman", much as he (used to be) Mac(Damaine Radcliff)'s "wingman" at home; and he also gradually completes the first couple when Nora's boyfriend Brett(John Henderson) bails--on the school, his girlfriend, and his music partner Miles--to egotistically advance his solo singing career.(1)
Conversely, the movie also has a lot of social commentary about young people quitting everything they start. Obviously the propensity affects foster children more often, and Adler and Rosenberg must be commended for reaching out to such kids with their screenplay. Hope and self-worth is often what those kids need most if they are to end their days "being better" adults than the circumstances they were born into.(2)
Experienced choreographer/first-time director Ann Fletcher must be given enormous credit for pulling together a flawlessly edited "great dance" movie that tells its feelgood story with honesty and social relevance. Fletcher's staging and editing is almost impeccable for.....a choreographer (she did cut the key introduction scene between Miles and Tyler too short for accents to instantly matter). Her cast consisted mostly of dancers whom she coaxed into acting, yet they all have great timing. Even the likable hunky lead, Channing Tatum(She's the Man(2006)), exhibits some well-captured on screen reactions, and Fletcher wrote the funniest line in the movie as romantic vulnerability for him: "Is this where you, um (take me to) kill me?"
However, although the falling-in-love montage is natural and honest, Tyler and Nora's continued sexual abstinence is perhaps unrealistic for a couple of dancers. It is, however, great social modeling.
Thankfully the nightclub and finale scenes aren't disappointments, as is often the case in dance films. The first features a reworked Electric Slide that's surprisingly sold best by a vivacious (and not-so-well-hidden) blonde wearing a fuchsia tanktop and a baseball cap. Had she had more screen time, she'd have given Nora/Dewan a run for her money.
The second proves the director's good judgment in leaving the finale unseen till the very end. The Senior Showcase features Kwane Holland's incredible classical-and-hip-hop mix track 'Bout_It (soundtrack on Jive Records). Additionally, the track delivers the talents of Nuttin'_But_Strings, the director's own discoveries. They're a couple of brilliant young male hip-hop violinists whom Fletcher drizzled throughout the movie.
If Get Over It(2001) was Fame(1980) for junior high, Step Up(2006) acts as a Fame remake. It's so universally well-rounded and well-executed that it compares well to earlier minor dance classics Dirty Dancing(1986) and Footloose(1983).(9/10)