cgraves04

I don't get the bad reviews. This is a melodramatic teen show with amazing dancing. I don't understand what else people are expecting. The acting and plot are not going to win any Emmys, but they are not nearly as terrible as people are claiming. The story is titillating enough to keep your attention, and it's worth watching for the beautiful dancing alone. I grew up loving the movie Center Stage, and this show is like a slightly darker and sexier, up-to-date, serialized version of that. The only negative review I would agree with is that the age group is inappropriate. For the amount of nudity and sex, I would have made the characters college-aged and aimed the series at older teens and young adults rather than high school aged teens.

I think the show is worth a 7 just for being entertaining and heartfelt in its commitment to portraying the dance world, choreography, and diversity, but I'm giving it a 9 to help offset the bad reviews.

I gave this movie 10 stars because it's a fresh take on a genre of horror that I really enjoy--the creature feature! It's melodramatic, it's campy, and it's a lot of fun! I love that it takes a new approach to the genre by predominantly featuring black women and black hair culture, an unexpected but genius turn. I also love that it lightly touches upon social commentary without being heavy-handed. The cast was perfect-Elle Lorraine was the perfect ingenue, Vanessa Williams was amazing as always, and Lena Waithe elevated every scene she was in. Setting it in the 80s was also a super smart decision, allowing the costume and set designers to have fun while heightening the camp factor. The callbacks to old horror films using lighting and framing were nicely done.

My one and only complaint was that the exposition took too much time. I wish the filmmaker had shaved a little off the beginning so that we could dive a little deeper into the folklore related to the story, spend slightly more time developing secondary characters, and see the hair do a little more slashing! That aside, this is a movie I could watch over and over again (and probably will)!

I'm going to go ahead and say first off that I think most of the users giving this visual and musical masterpiece a low rating did so out of spite against Beyoncé and not because they gave it a fair shake. Their malice is unfortunate because it diminishes the incredible amount of collaboration and creative talent contributed by various artists from African countries. This is not just a Beyoncé visual album-many African musicians, artists, and dancers were also heavily involved, and the message of the entire project is one of love and support for black people around the world. A shame that people would diminish that out of mindless hate for one singer.

The music alone, a mixture of R&B, hip hop, and Afro beat featuring artists from across Africa and the US, is fantastic. I listened to it on repeat when it was first released. But the visual album is on a whole different level. The sumptuous cinematography and costuming is a feast for the eyes (to borrow a cliche), incorporating gorgeous African landscapes and integrating high fashion with traditional African garb from Nigeria, Benin, South Africa, and more. Many faces make an appearance, emphasizing the cultural diversity and beauty of Africa, and the dancers are out of this world. The theme continually returns to one of identity and homecoming.

To be clear, this is a visual album made up of disparate songs joined to form an overall arc based on The Lion King. In other words, each song is its own music video, and together they are a loose creative interpretation of The Lion Ling. It's not supposed to be THE Lion King (if you want to watch the actual movie, then watch the actual movie!). These are also Beyoncé music videos, so yes, she makes an appearance in most of them. Don't most artists appear in most of their music videos? This work is meant to be viewed as art, not as a traditional movie. On that note, I highly recommend watching and judging it for yourself. It gets ten stars from me.