Feel the Beat

Feel the Beat (3 out of 5 stars).

Feel the Beat is a cute fair family film. When big shot dancer April (Sofia Carlson) blows an audition that turns bad. She moves back home to a small town where she tries to teach and coach a bunch of young girls dancers. Soon enough, they make go on a competition tour.

The plot is cute and charming. It can be predictable with its story. April lost the big leagues in dancing. And teaches a group of girls that has yet to compete. The girls and April do not easily get along. When the girls are looking up to her. But April is critical. She also runs into her former boyfriend which she ran out on cause she wanted to move to the city. And he stayed in there home town.

The direction and script is cheesy. With cheesy dialgoue. Can be cringing with its direction. But it tries to have a lot of fun.

Sofia Carlson is good with the role. She is fun. Charming. And beautiful.

This movie actually has kind the feeling of the 2020 version of The 'Step Up' movies, which I really liked as a kid. So it's good to know that this genre isn't dead, and there are still cute movies like this out there. It really is a good family movie. Especially if your family includes members who will always have a warm corner in their hearts for dancing.

This is a nice feel-good inspiring movie for the whole family.

Yes, it's another one of those "A former star helps misfits do *something* and they rock it" type of movie, but as if anyone cares, we're here to spend an evening eating ice-cream and trying to relax, nobody expects it to be an Oscar-material. And the movie just does its job as goof as possible. The kids are adorable and acting pretty good, the plot is cheesy and predictable but still cute, funny and not Hallmark-level predictable. The lead actress is gorgeous doing a great job performing a rather complex and unlikable character.

Really enjoyed watching it, actually almost didn't stop it to look at the phone, so would recommend it!

I expected this to be goofy and probably subpar but at least entertaining. It actually ended up being much better than I expected with fun storylines that kept me enthralled.

As a movie, it was splendidly fun and often took itself seriously one moment only to play around the next, keeping the pace and story alive and fun the whole way through. Sofia Carson also got to flex her intense skill in dance after years in The Descendants while also giving some serious proof that she's a great actress.

This is absolutely worth the watch.

Follows a typical formula: snotty princess goes down to her roots, discovers meaning through helping others, and finds love by foregoing the fast track to success.

In this case though the snotty princess is legitimately talented, focused and career driven, strict but realistic. She makes a compelling and original lead.

The "finding meaning through helping others" part is fairly predictable but also well developed with likeable supporting cast and charismatic and talented child actors as her dance class students.

The "finding love" part is very predictable, but there is chemistry between the leads, and they play off each other well. The backstory with the breakup by text is funny.

Many of the subplots are also well developed and the side characters are funny too. I like that the whole town supports the dance class and the dads learn the dance routines with the kids.

Overall a familiar plot with a very good cast and some surprising moments of insight, humor, as well as wry humor and realism about success in the talent industry.

I enjoyed this family film a lot. The running time is close to two hours but it goes by fast. The movie has many dance scenes but they could be more fully fledged.