Alicia Veliz – Guest Writer
Sabrina Carpenter (Girl Meets World 2014-2017) stars as Quinn Ackerman in this dance comedy directed by Laura Terruso and produced by Alicia Keys. Quinn wants desperately to gain admission to her father’s alma mater. She unexpectedly backs herself into a corner during her interview and it is up to Quinn and her best friend Jasmine, played by Liza Koshy (Liza on Demand 2018, Escape the Night 2016-2019), to achieve the end goal – get Quinn into the Work It dance competition.
Honestly, I did not go into this movie expecting too much from it because the plot is not anything that we have not seen before. However, the strong chemistry and connection among the main cast is what makes this movie fun and engaging, even if you do not happen to be a teeny bopper. It is a great movie to watch if you want to invite some friends for a sleepover. The freestyle dancing is captivating and Jordan Fisher (Jake Taylor) had an excellent onscreen chemistry with Carpenter because they made it look natural and not too forced.
It is a fun movie filled with quirky characters, awkward moments, and a few deep messages thrown in for good measure. I believe that it is all about discovering yourself and what your true identity is. Many of us have become unknown victims of our parents in the sense that sometimes they (without malice of course) try to mould us and end up shaping us to carry out their dreams. And us as their kids do not want to disappoint them so we fight hard and follow through to make them proud of us. But unfortunately for those of us who don’t discover our true inner self it can mean a life ending up in the monotony of a job and career that feels like a weight around your shoulders, and your own dream or desire never realised nor fulfilled.
Many dancers will tell you that they experience a sense of freedom and exhilaration when they dance, and this movie captures that essence extremely well. Even though I must say that Quinn’s dance skills develops a little too quickly from clumsy and stiff to almost the level of Jordan Fisher, but I can understand that it needed to happen that way in order to facilitate the limited run time.
Finally, an honourable mention goes to Keiynan Lonsdale, better known as Kid Flash from CW’s The Flash and Legends of Tomorrow. He surprised me with his dancing chops. We can clearly see that he was athletic from the series, but I never pegged him for a dancer. He is actually a 28-year-old playing the role of an 18-year-old. He plays the role of Isaiah “Juilliard” Pembroke, the bitchy rival captain of the Thunderbirds dance team that are the returning champions for the Work It dance competition.
Work It is a movie that gives the cast their opportunity to shine and show off their skills in this Netflix original. It is a nice change of pace to the movies that have a bogged-down atmosphere of heavy, dark themes. So, pop this one on if you need a bit of cheering up and if you are looking for a funny feel-good movie to watch with the peeps.
Rating: 6.5 out of 10
If you haven’t seen the movie this next question is a SPOILER so you may want to quit reading at this point. Got it? Good.
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PS – Can anybody who has watched this movie explain to me why Harold died? Thanks.
For my review of the music comedy Eurovision Song Contest you can click here.