When I was doing my reviews leading up to the Oscars I thought about watching CENTER STAGE, the ballet movie that was the big screen debut of Zoe Saldaña, who ended up winning the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for EMILIA PÉREZ (where she also danced). But I decided not to rush it because I knew myself and that I would end up wanting to watch both of its straight-to-cable sequels. Now I have done that and I present to you my review of the entire CENTER STAGE trilogy.
CENTER STAGE (2000)
Directed by Nicholas Hytner (THE MADNESS OF KING GEORGE)
Written by Carol Heikkinen (EMPIRE RECORDS)
Choreographer: Susan Stroman (Director/choreographer of THE PRODUCERS [2005])
The first CENTER STAGE picture introduces us to the American Ballet Academy, an elite (fictional) New York City ballet school run by revered stick-up-his-ass choreographer/director Jonathan Reeves (Peter Gallagher, SEX, LIES, AND VIDEOTAPE), who turns each year into a cutthroat competition between the students. Their education culminates in their performances in workshops that will help the faculty decide which three boys and three girls will be invited to join Jonathan’s very prestigious American Ballet Company. From the speech he gives on day one it kind of sounds like this school will be the golden ticket to dance stardom for a handful of students, and a miserable, torturous waste of time, energy and money for everybody else. Most of them. Almost all of them. And they should all be ashamed of themselves. Okay, good talk! (read the rest of this shit…)
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