fluffbowl

The costumes, the sets, the people themselves - everything was quite breathtaking. The four main actors and actresses fit their roles perfectly. All their interactions were natural, with a good mix of subtlety and drama. The dancing was also very impressive. The train scene as well as the training sequences (and even the final dance to some extent) left an impact on me both aesthetically and emotionally. Luckily, the whole icy ballroom dancer meets passionate Latin dancer dynamic just about landed on the right side of the enjoyable trope vs. offensive cliché coin and is a classic for the dance movie genre.

Everything else though? The plot: not enough and badly executed non-linearity. The side and background characters: a bunch of hackneyed stereotypes spouting even cringier lines. The music: almost comically unimaginative. The treatment of the female dance partners: definitely comically unimaginative (Thank God for the couple nuances they were granted despite everything!). While I'm glad that 10Dance got the budget it deserved, I hope we get a little more creative and pay appropriate attention to all aspects that make up a good movie next time. On more than one occasion, I thought I was watching one of those American musician biopics. Many BL shows and movies have a certain charm to them that acts as a buffer against criticism. When you remove that, well, I'm tempted to rate them the way I would more mainstream productions.