I had seen the first “Step UP” film from Touchstone with
director Anne Fletcher with bstar Channing Tatum back in 2006, and not retained
much of an impression.
But the fourth installment in the franchise, whose trademark
has apparently been sold to Lionsgate and Summit Entertainment, has some real
energy as a “musical”, and an important “lesson”. The film is titled “Step Up: Revolution” or “Step
Up: Miami Heat” (or “Step Up IV”). At least, the “Revolution” has nothing to do
with J.J. Abrams on NBC – the power definitely stays on.
Emily (Kathryn McCormick) comes to Miami from some place
like Cleveland to become a professional dancer and falls in love with an
appealing Sean (Ryan Guzman), who runs a politically active dance group called “The
Mob”. Emily’s dad Mr. Anderson (Peter
Gallagher – from “The O.C.”) wants her to become a respected real estate
professional like him after college, and comes to Miami with the idea of
gutting an old neighborhood, tossing out the poor people, and gentrifying it
with luxury, hurricane-resistant condos.
Emily is caught in the middle.
But “The Mob” takes to the streets, not only organizing “flash
mobs”, but hacking into Anderson’s computers (rather in the spirit of
Anonymous), and sabotaging his public presentation (for investors) with radical
messages, and then attacking a public gathering with a wild demonstration –
plenty of opportunity for song and dance. Emily wants to join "The Mob", not exactly as a pun.
A lot of the music sounds familiar from discos these days –
there is plenty of rap and hip hop, and some other music that is a little more
90s-like. (I didn’t realize so much of
what’s cool on dance floors on Saturday nights comes from this movie.) There is even a little classical music, from
a Mozart Quartet and the iconoclastic Shostakovich Quartet #8 (see Drama blog, June 2, 2013), which is a
very politically charged work in Soviet history.
The phrase “step up” has other moral significance. It refers to something a democratic society has
to expect every person to be able to do, sometimes. You know the occasion when you see it.
The official Facebook site is here.
The 2012 film can be rented on YouTube legally for $3.99
(that’s pretty quick availability this way). The DVD is available from Netflix,
but not instant streaming.
Picture: Boca Raton. FL, my trip, Nov. 2004.
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