Movie reviewer for a day

Mad Hot Ballroom

May 5, 2009

We've all been there before, as a shy little fifth or sixth grader just anticipating our teen years. "Mad Hot Ballroom" is definitely a blast from the past taking us all back to our "tween" years.

Taking place in New York City elementary schools, the film documents several students taking dance lessons. It's very important to keep art and vocational curriculum alive in schools. Therefore, this film is very important and shows how much these classes can save, and even change, a child's life.

Many of the children in the film come from low income, hispanic families. Most of these children are surrounded by bad influences and don't have many opportunities to succeed in life. The impact that the dance class had on these kids was immense; helping out their self-esteem, dance skills, and even life problems.

The film starts out documenting several classes from several different schools in NYC. There are different rounds of the competition, all leading up to the final dance off. As the competition goes on, it gets harder. Many schools get eliminated from the competition, and the screen. Never to be featured again. The final competition consisted of different couples competing in several dance offs. The ending was very inspirational and also a tearjerker to many people. Definitely a good ending, well only to the winners of the competition.

The movie leaves many of us wanting more, as to what happened in these children's lives after the competition. Some kids were profiled in the film, and a connection was made with the audience. Although it sounds impossible, the film makes the viewer start to care for the children. After the movie was over, I wanted an insight as to where are these kids now and what has happened in their lives. Especially because the movie is a couple years old, the children in the movie are now in high school. We all know that a lot happens during these years and an update would be really nice.

Overall, the film was great! Very educational and touching hearts everywhere. If you are looking for a good, clean, fun film to watch with the whole family, this is the perfect one!

Two thumbs up!