AbsoluteBL

Basically gay Strictly Ballroom about 2 different competitive dancers who must work together to win a world championship… or something (that bit didn't happen). Despite the fact that this was decently shot and acted, script and director let it down. It felt like it owed a lot to 90s Australian cinema as well as darker JBL (read stylistically old fashioned) but also this was a very self aware movie. Too self aware. I get that the filming style was designed to reflect the respective dancers' attitudes, but also, it kinda beat us over the head with the metonymy of it all. We get it. We got it within the first 10 minutes. Surprise us, please. The dialogue was cliche and online complaints around casually racist stereotypes well earned. The voice over was a bit much MUCH (and I'm not as opposed to VO on principle like many are). In the end, the movie felt as full of itself as the characters. The fact of the matter is, I wanted this to be better. A better story, a better romance, a better resolution, better engagement resulting in better discourse. It was moody and pretty and not a great deal more than that. And I really like dance movies.