Starring Naturi Naughton, Kay Panabaker, Kherington Payne, Asher Book, Charles S. Dutton, Megan Mullally, Bebe Neuwirth, and Kelsey Grammer
Directed by Kevin Tancharoen
Directed by Kevin Tancharoen
There's some talented young actors here in this movie, but there's far too many of them in order to make this movie work. We follow a group of teenagers at a performing arts school in NYC from their freshman through senior years. The point is that we get to know these kids, care about their problems, learn about their dreams, and hope for their success in the end.
Unfortunately, the problem is that there are way too many kids here. The screenwriter spread everything too thin. We learn a tidbit about this kid, a nugget about another, but none of these kids are fully realized characters.
And that's unfortunate because there are some decent performances here. Naturi Naughton, who I thought was great in Notorious earlier this year, is quite a find. She can sing, she can act, and I look forward to seeing her in other things. Naughton plays Denise, a young classically trained pianist who really just longs to sing. Kay Panabaker is Jenny, an actress who is too shy for her own good. Asher Book is Marco, a singer with a great voice. These descriptions that I'm giving of these kids may seem overly simplified, but that's all we get to know about them. There's nothing there...and it's a shame. [In addition to some decent performances, there's also a really bad one from Kherington Payne who was apparently a dancer on "So You Think You Can Dance." She should stick to her day job because acting is not her thing.]
The director has an annoying tendency of juxtaposing two scenes against one another -- for example, the Asian girl is speaking to the principal at the same time the rapper is revealing the reason for his anger. The scenes really don't relate to one another, but they're played off of each other in a ridiculous manner.
And I'm not gonna even get into the first "musical" act of the film where all the kids in the cafeteria come together and spontaneously break into song. It would be one thing if the movie was a musical -- if the characters were supposed to break into song, okay...I'll suspend disbelief. However, this film isn't a musical. It's a movie with musical elements in it. It was a ridiculous scene and it started the movie off on a bum note.
The screenwriter and director did a disservice to the kids here. There may have been something here, but the writing is too bland and the direction is too tv-movie-ish to rise above the standard movie clichés.
Unfortunately, the problem is that there are way too many kids here. The screenwriter spread everything too thin. We learn a tidbit about this kid, a nugget about another, but none of these kids are fully realized characters.
And that's unfortunate because there are some decent performances here. Naturi Naughton, who I thought was great in Notorious earlier this year, is quite a find. She can sing, she can act, and I look forward to seeing her in other things. Naughton plays Denise, a young classically trained pianist who really just longs to sing. Kay Panabaker is Jenny, an actress who is too shy for her own good. Asher Book is Marco, a singer with a great voice. These descriptions that I'm giving of these kids may seem overly simplified, but that's all we get to know about them. There's nothing there...and it's a shame. [In addition to some decent performances, there's also a really bad one from Kherington Payne who was apparently a dancer on "So You Think You Can Dance." She should stick to her day job because acting is not her thing.]
The director has an annoying tendency of juxtaposing two scenes against one another -- for example, the Asian girl is speaking to the principal at the same time the rapper is revealing the reason for his anger. The scenes really don't relate to one another, but they're played off of each other in a ridiculous manner.
And I'm not gonna even get into the first "musical" act of the film where all the kids in the cafeteria come together and spontaneously break into song. It would be one thing if the movie was a musical -- if the characters were supposed to break into song, okay...I'll suspend disbelief. However, this film isn't a musical. It's a movie with musical elements in it. It was a ridiculous scene and it started the movie off on a bum note.
The screenwriter and director did a disservice to the kids here. There may have been something here, but the writing is too bland and the direction is too tv-movie-ish to rise above the standard movie clichés.
The RyMickey Rating: D+
While I do agree that there was too many characters to develop fully, I did think that it was cute. Also, the whole cafeteria thing really was over the top and Kay Panebaker was good for what little she had to do. I had to idmb her when I got home.
ReplyDeleteKay Panebaker is apparently the youngest member of the cast at 19.
ReplyDeleteNaturi Naughton is 25.
o_o
Also, I would have given it a 2. Simply because of the thing that made me laugh for 30 seconds straight
ReplyDelete