Fantasia Film Festival 2021: Dreams On Fire (2021)

Dreams On Fire (2021)

Director (and writer): Philippe McKie

Cast: Bambi Naka, Masahiro Takashima, Akaji Maro, Saki Okuda, Shizuku Yamashita, Medusa Lee

A vibrant and intoxicating look into Japanese dance and subculture communities. – IMDB

Dreams On Fire is a 2021 drama about the journey of a young dancer Yume who moves from her small-town against her grandfather and mother’s wishes to Tokyo to make it big in dancing however along the way, she meets a few good and bad people that assist and hinder her journey.

From the director of short film Breaker previously shown at Fantasia Festival, Philippe McKie has the North American premiere of his directorial feature film debut with Dreams On Fire that casts dancer Bambi Naka in her first leading role in the role of Yume. Yume’s journey through Tokyo isn’t exactly an unexpected one however, it is unique to the Tokyo landscape as it leads her from one place to the next that exceeds the hostess club that she lands her first job at to a lot of underground bars and clubs from fetish to cosplay and so on. Through the process she learns about the hurdles of becoming of a dancer on all fronts both from the people she meets to the things that happen to her, something like building a social media following having its importance and the importance of image, making her simple dream of being a dancer much more complicated than it seems. Much like most dance films, it all dials down to a big dance battle that almost rounds out as the movie also starts off in a dance battle.

With the different locations, the music style and dance styles all vary and change making the movie every more so colorful both literally and metaphorically. Along the way, Yume also breaks out of her shy shell and really openly expresses herself more and more. The film shifts through these locations mostly showing different dance scenes, dance studio, the hostess club where she works and anchoring itself in her little rental room which is an empty little box with a table and computer and nothing else, truly highlighting the starving artist part of her journey. The part of the charm of the film is the underground settings, each with their own distinctive elements starting with the gold and chandelier almost tacky cosplay hostess club that Yume’s starting working at where the people there are mostly horrible as expected to the darker settings from S&M club and her introduction into different music like heavy metal and folk. The film really dives deep into the diversity of Tokyo’s underground scene.

A good part of Yume’s journey is in the people that she meets along the ways. As much as she meets bad people like the hostess club boss who threatens her often to keep coming to work and has a lack of respect in general, she also meets a lot of good people along the way who appreciate her talents and while doesn’t quite understand her journey, refers to other dance-related gigs and jobs however, perhaps its the people the she meets on her own paths that are the most charming. Of course, that’s not to say that Bambi Naka as Yume isn’t great because she does a great job and it helps that her dancing abilities are really outstanding and the growth throughout the film moving from one dance choreography to the next is embodied so well. The one that definitely stands out is her dance studio teacher played by Genta Yamaguchi who is a colorful person in general. Every scene is so fun and light-hearted and absolutely bubbly. Much like later on when she meets ChoCho (Medusa Lee), a Chinese fashion school graduate that moved to Tokyo to be in what she believes is the no.1 fashion location and ends up teaming up with Yume with her costumes. Not to mention that, I strongly believe that the jacket she wears in final battle is the one that is in Breaker (not sure if anyone can confirm this or not?).

Dreams On Fire is an absolutely journey that keeps to familiar outline of a dance movie and yet also breaks out of it by highlighting its locations and stepping up the diversity of music and dance as it moves through so much variety on the artistic level. The movie is a trip, not only for Yume but the viewer. At times, the cinematography is also a trip from rotating camera angles to aerial shots to long neon-lit alleys or distorted dreamy sequences used blurs and bright colors. Overall, Dreams On Fire is an absolute treat.

Double Feature: Work It (2020) & The Prom (2020)

Today’s double feature is a rather musical pairing and both are Netflix films released in 2020. The first is a dance film called Work It and the second is the recently released musical The Prom. Let’s check it out!

Work It (2020)

Director: Laura Terruso

Cast: Sabrina Carpenter, Jordan Fisher, Kalliane Bremault, Briana Andrade-Gomes, Liza Koshy, Julliard Pembroke, Michelle Buteau, Drew Ray Tanner, Sabrina Snieckus

When Quinn Ackerman’s admission to the college of her dreams depends on her performance at a dance competition, she forms a ragtag group of dancers to take on the best squad in school…now she just needs to learn how to dance. – IMDB

Work It is mostly a dance film and yet its a comedy about a girl with perfect grades who realize that its not enough to get into college and as an extracurricular decides to go to her best friend’s dance troupe which doesn’t take her so she tries to put together her own group of misfits. The group itself has all different styles of dance and yet the biggest problem is that she can’t dance and needs to start from zero and its zero like finding her music flow and rhythm. That is the comedy part.

With any of these films, you need to throw in a little romantic flare and that’s when Quinn and Jake come into a picture: a girl who can’t dance and a renowned dancer that disappeared off the dance competition circuit after an injury. Its hard to talk about Work It without criticizing its issues but then that is usually the case for dance films, much like Step Up franchise, and yet, Step Up is one that I can see the flaws and still like it for exactly what it is. The same applies for Work It, except it suffers from coming later than a wave of better executed films. What is good is that it adds in those comedy moments and changes the vibe of the film a little. Simply put, its a lot of the same when it comes to these sorts of movies and it is fairly predictable especially when there doesn’t even feel like there’s a lot of dance sequences.

Other predictability, the execution is fairly unbalanced. The movie seems to want to do everything so its structured to go through the motions. Starting off with the characters and then what they need to achieve, the tear in the friendship and struggle to get their act together and then the big win at the end. Other than that, it adds in a little unpolished romantic flare here and then some bad dancing from Sabrina Carpenter’s character to her finally getting it. While the cast itself does what they need to do whether its Sabrina Carpenter or Jordan Fisher and even the sassy other team’s leader Julliard Pembroke, played by Keiynan Lonsdale or the best friend Jasmine, played by Liza Koshy, the script itself does have some lacking moments as well.

Work It is one of those films that is really for the soundtrack or some light entertainment. Its not meant to be reviewed in depth. Its a simple movie and a familiar sort of dance movie storyline. While I did have some cons more than pros, I do enjoy dance films so this one is just some harmless entertainment that you can leave for a rainy day keeping in mind that you do enjoy dance movies. If you don’t, then this one won’t do anything for you.

The Prom (2020)

Director: Ryan Murphy

Cast: Meryl Streep, James Corden, Nicole Kidman, Kerry Washington, Keegan-Michael Key, Jo Ellen Pellman, Ariana DeBose, Andrew Rannells

A troupe of hilariously self-obsessed theater stars swarm into a small conservative Indiana town in support of a high school girl who wants to take her girlfriend to the prom. – IMDB

Looking at the cast, The Prom is absolutely star studded with some big names and most of them, I do quite enjoy so the movie popped onto Netflix and I didn’t know about it in advance but I saw those stars, that it was a musical and it was an immediate play. Adapted from a Broadway musical of the same name, The Prom does come at a good time when the world is talking about LGBT rights a lot. I haven’t heard of The Prom before but at first glance, The Prom’s story almost feels like Footloose where that one is about not being allowed to dance, The Prom is about the PTA trying to stop one of the students to take her girlfriend to prom and wanting to cancel prom altogether. In the face of this serious matter, a bunch of theater stars comes in to try to fight for a cause to help themselves get back some positive press. Its hard to determine whether the journey for the film is for the girl, Emma or the troupe as both of them do have their moments of growth.

Being a fan of musical films, The Prom is the type of movie that I’d like and it is quite enjoyable. Most of the stars here have been part of musicals before so the talent is there. Perhaps what stands out more is some of the awkward moments between characters. It definitely is scripted to be awkward and was delivered pretty well. The Prom has a decent storyline even if sometimes the events feel slightly disjointed like its being pushed along so its forced to progress faster. What makes this film shine is truly some of the stars here delivering some great performances. Other than Meryl Streep and Nicole Kidman, they are joined by Andrew Rannells as this performer that’s wants to hang with them and adds comedy. There’s a lot of characters so its hard to say whether anyone had enough time for their characters to develop enough but Kerry Washington’s parent character against the whole prom situation and Keegan-Michael Key’s principal character were also done really well. In all honestly, the younger characters also did fairly well and Emma’s character is a much quieter one despite the unfair situation that she’s part of.

The Prom is an alright musical. Everyone does a good job and the story is pretty nice as well as how the characters develop throughout. It is structured well and the scenes are executed pretty good as well. Where I have issues with it is that it feels like it lacks the uniqueness to make it more memorable. None of the songs stuck in my head even if they were rather fun to listen and watch the choreography/performances in the moment. I know that I had fun watching it the first time and yet, it doesn’t make me want to go back to watch it a second time and yet, I can’t quite pinpoint where its lacking as everything seems to done good, just put together, it seems to not quite get that excitement of a musical for myself.

Double Feature: La La Land (2016) & In My Dreams (2014)

Welcome to the next double feature! Its also the second (and probably last) Valentine’s romance film double feature. This time, we’re looking at romantic musical drama La La Land and then, pairing with it romantic drama In My Dreams. Let’s it check!

La La Land (2016)

Director (and writer): Damien Chazelle

Cast: Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, Finn Wittrock, John Legend, Callie Hernandez, Jessica Rothe, Sonoya Mizuno, J.K. Simmons

While navigating their careers in Los Angeles, a pianist and an actress fall in love while attempting to reconcile their aspirations for the future. – IMDB

Its taken a few years to catch up with La La Land and with Oscar-nominated films, I always hesitate to believe all the hype, especially when it comes to musical and romantic drama type of films. La La Land is a fun little movie. Its not completely about romance but its definitely present throughout as these two find being with each other to find the courage to be themselves and pursue their own dreams. At the same time, its fun because it has a lot of the right elements lined up, whether its Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling being cast as the two main leads and deliver some charismatic performances, a lot of great choreography for their dance numbers and a beautiful soundtrack as well as how the whole film has some wonderful cinematography. It all adds to the whole viewing experience.

If I had to be a little picky, because I do watch a lot of these types of things, albeit lower budget and not with all the other elements, the story of inspiration and romance and succeeding in your dream and the whole journey sort of story line is always rather similar and the same applies to La La Land. The script is absolutely not the standout point here. What helps a familiar script, because I think being familiar isn’t always a problem, is that the other elements done well above, makes the script find its unique elements. Perhaps the best thing about the script is the beautiful bittersweet ending add-in that actually rounds up the film so well.

In My Dreams (2014)

Director: Kenny Leon

Cast: Katharine McPhee, Mike Vogel, JoBeth Williams, Joe Massingill, Rachel Skarsten, Antonio Cupo, Jessalyn Wanlim

Natalie and Nick are frustrated with their luck in romance. After tossing coins into a fountain, the two then begin dreaming about each other. But, according to fountain mythology, they only have a week to turn those dreams into reality. – IMDB

I think the best way to describe In My Dreams is that it has its heart in the right place. The story itself is not a bad one at all. We have movies like In Your Eyes which is about two people seeing through each other’s eyes (review) and then we have movies like The Lake House which is two people at different times, just as examples. In My Dreams success would lie heavily on the mechanics of how these two manage to meet in their dreams and then afterwards, how they end up realizing that they are actual people and not figments of their imagination and end up connecting in real life. For this point, it works and then it doesn’t.

In My Dreams is a TV movie so right away, the quality is probably more along the Hallmark movies kind of deal. And it does have that feel-good and inevitable happy ending. Its an okay movie in terms of those little elements of character building and making Nick and Natalie, played by Mike Vogel and Katharine McPhee respectively, rather decent characters. They don’t have a huge amount of depths, just like they only had a few conversations about not a lot that makes them feel like they would work with each other. However, they do have some fun supporting characters that make for some nice moments as these two characters work towards their own dreams.

Where this falls apart is in letting Nick and Natalie have this frustratingly slow way of connecting the dots of their little details in the conversations in their dreams to the events of themselves in reality as they had those missing each other moments (which is also rather expected in romance films). Those little cues that weren’t connected actually felt like it was ignored deliberately, making the script slightly inconsistent with these two characters who aren’t dumb especially as their conversations together is about deeper feelings and such.

In My Dreams is probably one that is okay for a rainy day but there are some plot holes and then its still a rather predictable movie.

That’s it for this double feature!
Have you seen either of these movies?

StreetDance (2010)

Some of you may know I’m very much a musically inclined person and I may not dance very well but I love dance movies, especially Step Up series.  I love them! They are fun and energetic and I sometimes pretend I can bust a move and try in my room (just never in public).  So, I always give chances to these movies.  They aren’t masterpieces but they are cool. I’ve heard of StreetDance but I’ve never seen much publicity on it.  Honestly, the poster looks a tad cheesy but its been sitting in my Netflix list for a few days and I needed to unwind with something less heavy after Contagion and Conviction (which makes this review pretty late), so here we are!

Let’s see what StreetDance is all about!

Director: Max Giwa, Dania Pasquini

Cast: Nichola Burley, Richard Winsor, Ukweli Roach, Frank Harper, George Sampson, Charlotte Rampling, Rachel McDowall

Jay 2.0 just passes the auditions to enter into the UK Champions Final.  If they win this, they get their big break to go to the World Champions in New York.  Right after this, Jay (Ukweli Roach), the leader of Jay 2.0 says he needs a timeout from everything including his girlfriend Carly (Nichola Burley) and passes on the crew to her care.  The crew doesn’t have money for renting space to rehearse and while on her delivery job, she meets Helena Fitzgerald (Charlotte Rampling), the head of the ballet school.  Helena is impressed by Carly and her crew’s talents and offers to let them rehearse in her studio for free but with the condition that they have to include her top 5 ballet dancers into their routine. With no choice, Carly decides to take on the challenge and see what she can make of it.  Could ballet dancers turn into street dancers? Will they have their routine ready and win in just 5 weeks? Or maybe, there’s something more, after all, ballet and street are both just different forms of dance. Maybe accepting to see the point of view through Thomas (Richard Winsor), one of the ballet dancers, would open up new possibilities.

StreetDance is just another dance movie.  I would agree with that completely because it has all the elements you would find in Step Up series as well.  In fact, what makes StreetDance stand out for me is that its not set in US (like usual) but rather in UK.  It gives a new style to the movie.  The language is a bit different and at the same time, the interaction and vibe is also different.  Its refreshing to see how they put together a dance movie with a different setting giving it a little something extra.  I really liked the change.  This also brought on some good music choices as well, a lot of which I haven’t heard before.

The story is about meshing ballet with street dance and seeing if the two worlds can actually go together.  The idea that dance is a universal language regardless of the style.  While its about two worlds, it also adds in the side story of Carly, the leader of street dance crew and Thomas, a talented ballet dancer and their romance that kind of grows. Why I say kind of is because there is a bigger emphasis on the infatuation of Thomas to Carly more than the other way around since she is still getting over Jay for a good part of the flick.  Although meshing ballet and street dance isn’t a new concept, Step Up did it, in many ways I found this one better than that one.  Maybe its because I like the characters more in this one, maybe its because its gives focus on not only two dancers but on a group effort, seeming a bit closer to Step Up 3 or 4.  Plus, it has some neat dance choreography and good tension here and there.  It brings in a good level of fun.

I don’t really know how to dissect a dance movie other than saying whether I had fun with it or not.  However, the acting here is not immense but it does make up for it with some unique dance choreographies and some pretty awesome dance music.  It made me really fall in love with the movie. In fact, I went back to watch the full movie for the whole week afterwards, which was probably one of the reasons why I haven’t posted this up yet and especially going back for the dance parts because its just fun.  I’ve always wanted to learn how to street dance so it particularly pleases me. I’ve also had all the music on repeat on my MP3 for the last 2 weeks.  Its upbeat and motivating and helps to wake me up during the day 🙂

In my last post, I talked about the movie that brought back Bodyrox into my life and this is it so before I wrap this review up, here’s a song from the movie:

Or maybe one thats more known:

The second video has clips from the movie so maybe you can get a quick idea of the movie.

Overall, StreetDance isn’t an epic dance movie but its new setting and style gives it something new and gives it a breath of fresh air.  The cast are not great actors but the characters they are given makes it attractive.  The best part is to sit back and enjoy some upbeat music and watch some brilliant dance choregraphy.  The idea of finding yourself and breaking out of the norm and that dance is an universal language works very well.

Are you into dance movies? Whats your favorite? Have you seen StreetDance?

 

Step Up: 3D (2010)

Since I was on vacation, I had lots of time to watch movies but not as much to do any workouts.  Not that I didn’t want to but the internet I had at the hotel was really slow and I couldn’t load any vids and most of it was hiking.  So because there is no Weekly Workout Roundup, I decided to put up an extra review on a motivating and energetic flick 😉  Step Up marathon continues! Now I’m just missing the 4th one and that might take a while to get unless my tablet lets me rent it for free! Lets do this: STEP UP: 3D! I did not see this in 3D though, just normal tablet 🙂

Director: Jon M. Chu

Cast: Rick Malambri, Adam G. Sevani, Sharni Vinson, Alyson Stoner, Keith Stallworth, Joe Slaughter

High school is over and its time to move on to college, Moose, from the Step Up 2, (Adam G. Sevani) agreed to focus on school and give up his dancing and go to NYU to continue his education with the company of his best friend, Camille (Alyson Stoner).  To his surprise, before he even starts, he gets mistaken to be competing against the street dance crew lead by Julian (Joe Slaughter) and winning.  After the mess he made in Central Park, he gets saved by Luke (Rick Malambri) who takes in passionate dancers who have nowhere to go and has his own original street dance crew Pirates.  While having a hard time to make ends meet even with his club downstairs, their only chance to keep their home is to win the World Jam Competition with the help of additional dancer and love interest, Natalie (Sharni Vinson).

Lets look back at the past few.  Step Up was a great start with great dance sequences and a pretty good story.  The second one didn’t have as many dance parts but had more background story to it.  Now, we get to the third one and even though the story isn’t anything new or strong (which isn’t particularly the reason of these movies as I say over and over again), it was kick ass dancing ALL THE TIME. I had a lot of fun with this one and it kept me amazed by all the pumping music and the frequent fun dance moves.  The story was fast paced because of that and it was just so entertaining.

Moose was one of my fave characters in Step Up 2 and I was really happy to see him come back with a larger role in this instalment.  He has great dance moves and in this, his story is our focus as he juggles through the actual life of choosing between his passion and the reality.  Can these two things converge and work out? How do you balance everything to make it all work? Everyone’s story is predictable but I tend to empty out my mind and just let it flow when I watch these.

All of the new cast are talented dancers and they were energetic and lit up the screen. Whats nice is how the Step Up series tries to pull together the previous flick to give it a bit of connection. The dance choreography and the visuals were just so great to watch.  I loved it!

There isn’t really anything else to say but that Step Up 3D is my fave (even if I didn’t see it in 3D).  It was upbeat, energetic, fun and just pure awesome entertainment!