TrueJoshNight Truly Dreadful Film

Voxitype Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Fatma Suarez The movie's neither hopeful in contrived ways, nor hopeless in different contrived ways. Somehow it manages to be wonderful

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

capone666 Center StageThe main difference between attending ballet school and public school is that at ballet school they encourage you to sleep with your teacher to get ahead.A fact at least one student in this drama proves.With only a few openings for the prestigious ballet academy workshop, a group of aspiring dancers (Zoe Saldana, Susan May Pratt, Amanda Schull) compete against one another and themselves for the coveted positions.Meanwhile, there is a power struggle between the troupe's current choreographer Jonathon (Peter Gallagher) and Cooper (Ethan Stiefel), the lead dancer looking to replace him.Tackling the commonplace concerns facing ballet dancers, from eating disorders to complex love triangles that can only be explained through exaggerated movements, Center Stage is a realistic yet ridiculous look at the cutthroat art form.Besides, wouldn't sex with a ballerina have to involve 5 additional ballerinas, just to make it feel like there's someone else there? (Yellow Light)

siderite I understand that a movie must be about emotional expression, otherwise people would not like it, but a film about dancing should be, in my view, more about expression through dance. This film was not like that and, even if it had some nice dance scenes in it, the rest was sadly disappointing.I may be biased, since I am watching the second movie in as many days about a self-obsessed blonde dancer who believes her feelings are more important than anything else, but I found the main character hard to sympathize with and the rest of them really cliché. The black girl with talent but lack of self control, the black gay guy, the blonde dance god and the nice muscular perfect boyfriend, the bitchy perfectionist and the overcontrolling mother, they are all in here, playing their cardboard parts in hard to believe scenes on the music of Michael Jackson and the like.Bottom line: if you are passionate about dance and/or ballet, you might want to check it out, but bare in mind that the dancing here could have been replaced by sports or literature or automechanics and the script would have remained mostly untouched and the film very similar to something you've seen before on TV.

marymorrissey If he were to make a dance film it might be something like this only much more extreme and there would have been the unexpected, don't ask me what. Still when I watch it I think of Kuchar, I see a film that ought to be attributed to the master underground dramatist as the means of its redemption. So I have a great affection for this so bad it's so good movie. I am a big dance fan but I honestly don't remember anything about the dance sequences in the movie. Except that the last number is so over the top it's under the bottom and Ethan Stiefel is sort of painful to watch as the bad bike boy Anacin to the disco beat. Anyway the movie is succulent it goes down like cheetos and coca-cola.If you want to see something with more depth I'd suggest "Stepping Out" with Liza, which is actually a pretty profound movie that suggests that the audience need not only pay tickets and watch, that they might also do and that that might be even better. I'd like to think that's dangerous stuff but of course no revolution resulted. Possibly because when Liza kicks up her heels in a solo turn, we're put in our proper place! And probably in the film the benefit of doing your own things are linked to romance. Still, there are people in the movie, amateurs, rising to the occasion and in the end getting in their small way to be artists.And, of course, "The Red Shoes"!!

torigemi3 We are living in a world where disorders are engrossing both male and females of all ages. Eating disorders are particularly growing in numbers and affecting more people throughout the world each day. Occurring quite commonly with young female ballet dancers the film Center Stage offers insight for the audience to grasp this issue. To introduce and expose eating disorders is an aid to help recover and possibly prevent future victims of such a seriously physically and psychologically draining issue.One main eating disorder is Anorexia Nervosa which is a psychiatric disorder that causes a person to have a warped perception of their body image. They have a constant and obsessive fear of gaining weight so severe that the person will starve themselves. Along with the psychological issues of body image distortion highly serious physical tribulations begin to plague the body. Anorexia can negatively affect organ functions such as the heart and muscles and can ultimately lead to death. This is a serious problem especially considering that many young adults have the disease greatly affecting their growing process.While the film has a light an airy tone it substantially touches on many important issues that are present in the world of a young ballet dancer. The constant insistent from instructors and peers to be thin weighs down on character Maureen, played by Susan May Pratt, and she turns to Anorexia and Bulimia. At first Maureen rejects food and starves herself but then when she can no longer control her hunger begins to eat and then force herself to throw up her food. The stress is not being eased from her mother, Nancy, played by Debra Monk. Unable to make her own dreams of being a ballerina a reality, Nancy is constantly on Maureen to achieve them.Most Anorexics conceal their disease because they are ashamed. Their original disappointment for not being "thin" enough has now doubled to their embarrassment of being sick. To tackle such an important issue of our society Center Stage is one way to help make them known to the public. The media is constantly portraying flawlessly thin woman and also men, making it hard for people to accept themselves. It is critical that our current society help changes the perception of what perfect is.