Musical Mondays Week 68 Dance With Me

[Cameron H. 23786]

Director: I have completed my masterpiece! A dance movie that’s nearly 2 1/2 hours long...

Screenwriter: But the script was only 8 pages long and two of those just had the words “they dance” written in highlighter.

Director: Masterpiece!

We watched:

 

NEXT WEEK: Watch Out for Snakes picks

[SlidePocket 707]

Whatever happened to Chayanne? This was his one chance at movie stardom and pretty much disappeared shortly after.

[Cameron H. 23786]

I think my biggest issue with the movie (besides the length) was Rafael was just too perfect. It felt like an old school romance novel where the love interest was completely flawless. Nothing ever phases him. He’s seemingly great at everything from ballet to fixing cars. Even when faced with a potentially awkward social situation he does exactly right.

He reminded me of those people that you meet that come off as disingenuous by trying to act perfect. Like that relative’s new boyfriend or girlfriend who gets to the gathering, says all the right things, laughs at the right jokes, and, like, pulls the children away for an impromptu game of hide and seek or whatever. I just don’t trust people like that. It comes off as do phony.

[Cameron H. 23786]

7 minutes ago, SlidePocket said:

Whatever happened to Chayanne? This was his one chance at movie stardom and pretty much disappeared shortly after.

I think he’s primarily a singer now. (At least, from what I can gather from IMDb)

[grudlian. 4725]

Maybe it's because I only took a year of Spanish or being wiped out from allergies when I watched this, but the movie opened with the grave saying "Familia Infante". I thought it was a grave for babies and this was a dark opening for a dance movie.

[Cameron H. 23786]

1 minute ago, grudlian. said:

Maybe it's because I only took a year of Spanish or being wiped out from allergies when I watched this, but the movie opened with the grave saying "Familia Infante". I thought it was a grave for babies and this was a dark opening for a dance movie.

I thought the same thing! Lol

[grudlian. 4725]

18 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

I thought the same thing! Lol

If I hadn't paused it and Amazon told me Chayanne's character was named Rafael Infante, I might never have known.

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

Honestly, I thought this movie was as bad as the HDTGM movies we watch. The two leads occasionally had some charisma (they are pop stars irl) but mostly everyone just talked quietly and slowly like they weren't interested in anything. The direction was weird, I thought, with the camera floating all over and around their heads and stuff. A lot of scenes were irrelevant and pointless. The script was generic and bland. I found it truly a chore to get through.

[Cameron H. 23786]

I also thought it was a weird choice to pair Rafael with Jane Krakowski’s character. It’s a movie! Why not have your leads together? It’s a weird “I dance, and you dance, but I’m going to dance with that person and you’re going to dance with that person.”

I thought the movie was going to be about blending her rigid training with his free-flowing style and that’s how you win. But...no. Not really.

[Cameron H. 23786]

Two things: 

1) Those sprinklers put out a TON of water.

2) Super cool of Williams’ babysitter to be like, “You should go into her house and dry off. Anyway, I’m leaving now...”

[grudlian. 4725]

1 hour ago, Cameron H. said:

I also thought it was a weird choice to pair Rafael with Jane Krakowski’s character. It’s a movie! Why not have your leads together? It’s a weird “I dance, and you dance, but I’m going to dance with that person and you’re going to dance with that person.”

I thought the movie was going to be about blending her rigid training with his free-flowing style and that’s how you win. But...no. Not really.

Yeah. Most dance movies I've seen are feeling the music vs. strict technical dancing or street vs. ballet. So, that seemed like what this movie was going to do. But no. Also, Rafael seemed to not understand choreography was a thing?

[AlmostAGhost 2718]

2 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

Also, Rafael seemed to not understand choreography was a thing?

Yea didn't he say that exactly in the beginning? When Vanessa was doing some steps without music and he was just utterly baffled. 

[Cameron H. 23786]

1 minute ago, grudlian. said:

Also, Rafael seemed to not understand choreography was a thing?

And she didn’t seem to understand that sometimes you can just dance. Like him, I don’t know technical terms, but I can dance.* Why was that so shocking to her?

*citation required.

[grudlian. 4725]

8 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

Yea didn't he say that exactly in the beginning? When Vanessa was doing some steps without music and he was just utterly baffled. 

Yeah. I think he literally asked what she was doing. How can you dance without music? It's like, dude are you for real? In his entire life, he'd never seen someone practice a dance routine?

[tomspanks 9039]

1 hour ago, Cameron H. said:

And she didn’t seem to understand that sometimes you can just dance. Like him, I don’t know technical terms, but I can dance.* Why was that so shocking to her?

*citation required.

He says "I'm Cuban, of course I can dance!" but that the concept of ball-change was too foreign.

[tomspanks 9039]

So I started this yesterday and I'm trying to finish it now, but I paused it and there's still 65 minutes left!  HOW?

[grudlian. 4725]

I have a question about dance contests because the world of dance seemed weird to me.

Would dancers in this kind of contest all be dancing simultaneously? Since everything is choreographed, it seems like that dancers would either be altering their routine on the fly or just bumping into each other constantly.

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

49 minutes ago, grudlian. said:

I have a question about dance contests because the world of dance seemed weird to me.

Would dancers in this kind of contest all be dancing simultaneously? Since everything is choreographed, it seems like that dancers would either be altering their routine on the fly or just bumping into each other constantly.

Most ballroom dancing I've seen is like other creative/sport competitions like figure skating where the dancers go out one by one and receive a score from the judges. This felt more like the high school dance-off a la Grease. 

That said, I think this movie was perfection! I don't see why anyone would have any nits to pick  

[tomspanks 9039]

1 hour ago, grudlian. said:

I have a question about dance contests because the world of dance seemed weird to me.

Would dancers in this kind of contest all be dancing simultaneously? Since everything is choreographed, it seems like that dancers would either be altering their routine on the fly or just bumping into each other constantly.

Ahem, as a casual watcher of other dance movies and a season or 2 of Dancing with the Stars, yes, it is normal for multiple couples to dance simultaneously on the dance floor, especially in the early heats.  The couples can be judged against other and the way a couple navigates around other couples can also be judged.  

[Cameron H. 23786]

There was a scene at the end that absolutely cracked me up. It was right after Rafael had his blow up with Kristofferson and everyone is in the dance studio is moping around. Rafael comes in and starts giving them this pep talk from behind a beaded curtain, stepping through it as he’s laying out his case. But then there’s a wide shot and you see that the beads are only about 3 ft on either side of this huge 25 ft (unbeaded) archway. 

I don’t know, I just thought it was hilarious to think he decided to go through the beads rather than just walk a couple of feet to his right.

[grudlian. 4725]

58 minutes ago, tomspanks said:

Ahem, as a casual watcher of other dance movies and a season or 2 of Dancing with the Stars, yes, it is normal for multiple couples to dance simultaneously on the dance floor, especially in the early heats.  The couples can be judged against other and the way a couple navigates around other couples can also be judged.  

 

1 hour ago, WatchOutForSnakes said:

Most ballroom dancing I've seen is like other creative/sport competitions like figure skating where the dancers go out one by one and receive a score from the judges. This felt more like the high school dance-off a la Grease. 

That said, I think this movie was perfection! I don't see why anyone would have any nits to pick  

I'm getting conflicting information here. Can you two do a dance battle so I know whom to side with?

[tomspanks 9039]

[SlidePocket 707]

Randa Haines went from making a film that earned a bunch of awards attention ("Children of a Lesser God") to this in a span of a decade, which I can't help but feel was a step backwards for her.

[WatchOutForSnakes 807]

4 hours ago, tomspanks said:

[Cam Bert 8145]

12 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

I think my biggest issue with the movie (besides the length) was Rafael was just too perfect. It felt like an old school romance novel where the love interest was completely flawless. Nothing ever phases him. He’s seemingly great at everything from ballet to fixing cars. Even when faced with a potentially awkward social situation he does exactly right.

He reminded me of those people that you meet that come off as disingenuous by trying to act perfect. Like that relative’s new boyfriend or girlfriend who gets to the gathering, says all the right things, laughs at the right jokes, and, like, pulls the children away for an impromptu game of hide and seek or whatever. I just don’t trust people like that. It comes off as do phony.

YES! This was one of my problems with the movie. There was nothing this guy couldn't do or wasn't perfect at. Like he was beyond fault and even when he was being mean, which I'll get to, it was fun or cute to everybody when it wasn't. I think Raphael was not interesting as a result. He got everything he wanted and with ease, even his conflict with Kris Kristofferson almost amounted to a non-issue.

My other issue, which you guys have already discussed, is he's kind of a dick. Constantly telling this kind welcoming people that he can't dance when he very well can. But it's also a horrible dickish gatekeeping thing as well. "I can dance, but what you people are doing that's judged at a professional level is NOT dancing. Trust me I'm Cuban." Then negging on Vanessa Williams about her hair and the moment she leaves just start dancing up on some rando. Then tricking her into driving him where he wants to go and a lunch with him because he has the hots for her. No. This guy is no good.