Touches You

Let's be realistic.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

While it's nice to see a Canadian movie funded by the government that isn't another gawd-awful and boring art movie, "How She Move" isn't that much more comfortable to sit through than your typical Canadian movie. For starters, the movie looks HORRIBLE, with most of the movie depicted with washed-out colors. Some scenes taking place during night are so dark it's hard to make out what's going on. The movie also sounds bad at times, with some dialogue obviously dubbed during the movie's post-production period. Though even if the sound were better, the dialogue would still sound horrible. As one critic pointed out, no one here has a real conversation or expresses themselves to become a fleshed-out character. If you still want to see the movie for the dance and music sequences, you should be warned that the soundtrack is unexceptional, and the dance sequences are lacking juice due to their disappointing choreography and directing. Only worth watching if you want to know why Canada's population for the most part does not embrace its homegrown movies.

This film is shockingly underrated on IMDb. Like so many films, this isn't Shawshank. But it's a reasonably good, if predictable, dance competition / personal growth film. If you want to spend an hour and a half watching a sort of 8 Mile for a female step dancer, than I think you'll like it.Judging from the IMDb ratings, my guess is that this movie was approaching the top 250, and was "vote bombed" with many 1s, as happens to so many films that aren't about the mob, don't have special effects, or include non-white or non-straight characters.It's an American film, but it's not a US film. Set mostly in Toronto the cues are subtle, and some audiences may think it's set entirely in the US just because the final competition is in the border city of Detroit.I liked the music. I liked the dance (but not convinced it's worth $50,000 ... but what do I know). The characters were easy on the eyes.I do agree the title sucks. I don't remember anyone in the film saying those words, and it should have an "s". (No, it's not a foreign language).There's not a lot to hate about this film (and let's be honest, a vote of 1 means you hated it) so I can only assume that it's an expression of hate for the kind of people in it, and that's sad.

Don't waste your time. This is your typical, no-content dance movie. This movie is for sistas and brothers in the same way "Bring It On" was for white-girl cheerleaders. High-schoolers with no sense of what makes a movie good are the only people who will find this movie worth watching. The plot is stupid and is tries unsuccessfully to be believable. The soundtrack is good, and the stepping is great. This does not, however, constitute a full-length feature film. This movie would have been more appropriate for a special on MTV. The acting was questionable by the female lead, but the male lead's acting showed some promise. Granted, the script did not give them much to act with. Overall, the movie is a dud. Don't waste your money on the film. Buy the soundtrack instead.

This film represents every aspiring Canadian performance artist's dream- the chance to be noticed in the United States. To facilitate this ambition, all levels of Canadian Government funnel huge amounts of money to Canadian talent so that they can create vehicles to hock their wares south of the border. Nevermind that the work itself seldom represents the land or the people it comes from."How She Move" is a curious creature, a Canadian film that actually doesn't try to be set in America, or be about Americans. Notice my choice of words, though- it is an absence of a negative, not an outright positive. Even though Brooklin and Baltimore are mentioned directly by name, and a large section of the film is set (though not filmed) in Detroit, the only references to Canada are oblique: "T-Dot" "Scarborough" and "Jane Street Junta". Too bad the average American film-goer has no idea what those terms mean.Even the one shot of Canadian money is the backside of our $20.00 bill, the one Canadian banknote that is the same colour as the US Greenback.The settings are generic North American urban ghetto, with the high irony of the actual Jane-Finch corridor exterior shots not being gritty enough to pretend they have street cred, so the film crew travels to Hamilton Ontario to ramp up the film's "ghettoness". Not one exterior establishing shot to proudly proclaim "This is Canada".At least the interior shots of the characters homes are authentic and ring true to some tenements in the Jane-Finch area.The film even downplays the Caribbean origins of most of the characters, but not to any degree that it downplays its Canadian-ness. But, "downplay" is not "ignore" and there are many subtle references that only someone familiar with the Caribbean colony in Toronto would understand. And I use the phrase "Caribbean Colony" with deliberate purpose.The story itself is generic to many American films of the same ilk. It is still a valid story, in a sense, since various methods of uplift have always been aspirations of marginalized communities. It is as true in Toronto as any other city in North America.And the story is told with uncommon passion and integrity, from the characters' and actors' levels.What really shines in this film is the showcase of Toronto talent. To be sure, all this talent would love to kiss Canada goodbye for a lucrative career in the U.S., but they grew up here, and here is where they are currently shining! That too is part of Canadian culture, but no American would understand that.To my American friends, I mean no slight- I personally think you are big enough to embrace a true Canadian story if it has the production values that you are used to in your cinema. The mavens in Hollywood are so conservative though that you continue to get spoon-fed pap, and only rarely are you served true art with a degree of risk attached. When films have to make back a $150 Million budget, the owners of that money tend to be risk adverse! This film is getting a wide release in the United States. MTV Films has had a hand in it's financing or distribution, hence the reason why its Canadian-ness is being downplayed. But, in 2008, this is the best Canada can do in bringing its stories to you...by making them seem like YOUR stories.What a timid little country Canada is! Couldn't any of my tax money put one Canadian flag in a scene? A real TTC bus? A shot of CW Jefferies Collegiate? A Jane Street or Driftwood Avenue street sign? How much risk is there in that?