Rize

I suppose there will be great numbers of viewers who will come away from this feeling good. The myth of the movie, pounded over and over, is that the art these kids devote themselves to elevates them, saves them. There are copious extra features on the disk where the same plodding testimony is given: these dancers are true and saved because of it.

I came away deeply disturbed. Deeply. Yes, of course I was impressed with the dancing. Well, not the dancing so much in most cases, but the sheer exuberance, energy and commitment these kids have. Its genuine and no one can fail to be swept up. In fact, I have fallen in love with Miss Prissy. Of everyone you see, she's the deepest; you can see her fearlessness, failure to protect herself. She's Janis Joplin in body. She's also not in any extras, those self-celebratory muggings that base a whole life on how each kid was once captured. She's moved on, and good for her.

If you like dance, or you care for performance, or you celebrate openness, or you are simply interested in cultural discovery, you'll be as entranced as I. So you will be similarly disturbed by the elements of this that contrast with this energy.

The main one is that this is a phenomenon that is wrapped around a myth, which happens to be the myth these kids have (partly) spun themselves. The entire complexity of their lives is given a simple shape that demeans them and insults us. They carefully explain things to the white guys from uptown with the camera in fairly articulate terms. Do you think they have that same story among themselves? Possibly they do in times of crises where they can reduce their life to the church or something similarly simple. But look at the dances; these are full, complex beings pretending to each other occasionally and us all the time that they are something simple.

There was a similar film, "Dogtown and the Z-Boys," from a nearby area. It really was pure. It was made by one of the characters in the midst of the trend. The cinematic style was exactly the same as the radical stuff they were doing on the skateboards. It really was honest, not only in what it showed, but what it was. This, "Rize," is only honest in what it shows, and because it is fabricated and assembled as a film in a sort of whitebread fashion, it makes us question much of what we see.

For instance, toward the end is the dance sequence that made me fall in love with Miss Prissy. A still from it is on the cover of the DVD. It isn't a spontaneous gathering the camera happens upon, it is something carefully constructed for us. Oiled black bodies, splashed water flying in the sunlight. Engineered lighting. Camera placed low with a restricted frame, which means the dancers need to arrange themselves carefully for the effect. Prissy's hair has clearly had some attention other than what we've seen before. The dance moves are terrific, hypnotizing, but quite different than what we've seen before.

This is a show for the camera, designed, not found. The fact that it is what sticks in my mind is what is so disturbing. All that went before with Miss Prissy was to establish her genuiness so that I could appreciate her in this somewhat ungenuine scene. The realization startles; it's a bit like "The Gods Must be Crazy," where the charm of the thing is seeing a simple bushman BE a simple bushman, until you learn that being in that film as a pretend version of himself drove him to suicide.

Though much of it is endearing, some of it is not good dance. Some of it is primitive belligerence, not much different than the gang culture that surrounds them. Some of the dance that seems good is so only because of the editing and the music - that music is ALWAYS added in during editing and is not what they actually danced to. So you hear and see something different than the random, uneven and grunting way it was.

The trick in these things is that you have to know who you are in the story, where you sit as viewer. I don't like the way I'm placed by the filmmaker, as someone whose acceptance of their homegrown art makes them "rise." And I'm not sure I like any of the other alternatives either. So it disturbs when I like what I see but the filmmaker hasn't given me a place, or a way to make a place.

About the dance. I am not a dancer, a watcher instead. For me, dance is deep. Sex is a simple dance, and the fuller dance expands that to the way the body touches everything around it. Dance is how your skin touches the world, my world, the space I rub against.

Some dance is constructive, it shapes space and creates small, turbulent structures that we step into. Nuryeyev.

This is different. These kids grab space, they reach deep into it and swim it closer to them. They expand, their skin dissolving into a blur that partly overlaps the space I call my own. They invade, and it is welcome. Not all of it, but some is. That shared vision that is a movement that is the tingle of living that is the knowing of body.

But, those are just words; I am in love. Prissy, call me.

Ted's evaluation: 3 of 3, worth watching

When I saw the "Rize" trailers at first I was afraid that this would be yet another movie depicting the African-American experience through slanted and distorted filters ignorance and the media would have "White America" and the rest of the world believe. After a few minutes though I found that I couldn't have been more wrong.

"Rize" is a wonderful piece of cinematic gold. It shows us what movies can really accomplish. It shows that what makes a movie "good" isn't a "Big budget" rehash of the same mindless drivel Hollywood has shoved down our throats for the past years. But a movie with substance.

If you have read the other reviews and summaries for this movie me telling you about the "plot" or "characters" is a waste of space. Also If you have read the other reviews you will see that quite a few people believe that "Rize" is just "You got Served" with face paint. People who have written this make me believe that they must have been watching a "spoof" on TV or watching commercials, and coming to there own conclusions.

"You got Served" is to the African-American Dance culture as "From Justin to Kelly" is to musicals. YGS was a the same type of group vs. rival group with "mild" drama of a betrayal of a former member that was depicted in "Bring it On" or "Good Burger" and countless other films for the 12-17 age demographic. It was a film mostly for fans to get a last few glimpses of the former music group B2k and leader of the former group immature (or IMX) together for the last time (sort of like "Spice World"). In this since it served its purpose well.

Knowing this you can see that it would be a "closed minded" and "ignorant" person to even link these two movies together. And my advice to those who choose to do so is: To actually see the movies you choose to harshly critique. You may even find that "One of these movies is not like the other" As one is a documentary and the other a "teen flick". Also I have noticed in reviews previous to mine that the movie "Be cool" is mentioned due to its brief "cameo-esque" snippet of the dance style. "Be Cool" was mentioned to be the first discovery of the dance style. This is simply not true, as ONE of the first showings of this dance style can be credited to Missy Elliot in her music video "I'm really Hot".

Another method of discrediting this movie is by attacking the director for just being "Christina's music video director" or a "photographer". Though I can honestly say that I am nor have ever been a fan of Christina Aguilera's work...I certainly do not hold this against Mr. La'Chappelle because unlike most respected and honored directors who turn a blind eye to movies like this because they aren't "Oscar worthy" he stepped in, and in his own artistic and beautiful way shuns the myths and stereotypes that have plagued the African-American people. (Especially young people residing in urban areas and ghettos for no fault of there own are labeled as "thugs" and "gangsta's" are now being known as "Artists" and "Visionaries" due to them turning back to their roots in Africa).

I hope more movies will come out like this and liberate all races from their own stereotypes.

I FELT this movie. I understood it on a cellular level. I'm Afrian American, I'm over 50, and I didn't grow up in a neighborhood like these kids. I had ballet lessons, was a Brownie and a Girl Scout, yada, yada, yada. But I FELT this movie. I understood how and why they danced the way they did. I would have liked to know how the Asian clowns/krumpers got started and if they compete in the dance-offs. The same for the white genexer who felt he belonged with the clowns/krumpers. My hope is that some of these kids will find their way into society. Not every producer/director can feel proud of his or her work. This one can.

Before the movie starts there is a note to the effect that none of the camera work has been speed-ed up. Once the kids start dancing, you know why this is mentioned.

The film starts with historical footage of the Watts riots in 1965, and then the Rodney Kind riots of 1992. Things are ablaze. People are getting beat up.

And then enters Tommy the Clown who is a hip-hop clown and I guess celebrity in Watts/South Central. He is a sweet man who has taken in kids who's parents are in jail, abandoned them, etc.

The dancing in this film is amazing, to be sure...you will wonder how people can move like that, so fast, so crazy, particularly when you see a 4 year old girl or a 300 pound woman do it.

But what was more astonishing was the kids in the movie. These kids have a right to be the most angry, aggressive, horrible kids ever. And yet they are generally thoughtful, generous, and very wise.

I realize some of this is in the editing, but a 20 year old kid who takes care of his siblings while Mom is in jail until she gets her act together is quite a human being, and most of these kids come across like that.

They dance as an expression of their anger, as a way to create family, and an alternative to the gang families that pop up in the void of traditional nuclear families in places like South Central.

Yes, at the end there is a scene with a bunch of them dancing in slow-mo and it looks like they've been oiled up and their hair is fabulous and you know, so what? David LaChappelle has a background in photography, and if anybody deserves to pretend to be supermodels, it's these kids.

Great great movie.

We need movies like this. we need to allow ourselves to be touched.

So we can learn to be human beings, people need to learn to be humane to each other. Forget gender, forget color, forget beliefs, we all human underneath, we all drown, we all bleed, we all are scared, we all want to express ourselves, and we all deserve that respect.

Learn to give that to everyone you meet. You might never see them again.

I feel privileged these people shared their lives with me. We can learn so much from what the people in this documentary are sharing with us about community, and culture, and humanity.