by Karyn L. Beach

Okay, I'm going to get this off my chest and then move on. Is subject-verb agreement that out of fashion? Would something as harmless as a little 's' on the end of move have killed this movie's 'cool' factor. This site is far from perfect grammar-wise, but at least we try. How She Move? Come one, black people! Everyone already assumes that we can't speak correctly; must we go out of the way to prove them right? Every single time I read it, it irritates me more than a wool sweater over an open rash.

Raya Green (Rutina Wesley) is a smart girl attending a very good and very expensive boarding school. Well, she was. Attempts to help her drug-addicted sister failed (she died) but not before they bled the working-class family dry. Raya has to return to the neighborhood and the public schools that go with it. Back in the neighborhood, Raya finds that nothing has changed. Her old friend/rival Michelle (Tre Armstrong) is still struggling academically and hanging with the wrong crowd. Her childhood crush Bishop (Dwain Murphy) is still there and so is their chemistry. Raya doesn't want her circumstances to define her and is determined to get back into school. She pens her hopes on the scholarship exam, but she's convinced that she didn't pass, so she seeks another way to pay her tuition: step-dancing. Both Michelle and Bishop have their own crews and winning step competitions means winning the cash prizes. Knowing that the prize money normally goes to the guys, Raya steps her way onto Bishop's crew just in time to perform in the big Step Monster contest.

If the film has a different feel to it, it's because it was shot largely in Canada and features a cast of newcomers (mainly Canadian as well). Raya's parents and others are Jamacian. Rutina Wesley did a credible job of playing Raya. I liked the fact that she was a genuinely smart and driven girl who just happened to step. The script didn't play down her education or make her try to be more 'hood.'

But the reason you see movies like this is to see the dancing ... and there is a lot of stepping. My problem is the way it's edited at times, it makes it difficult to get into the stepping. Focusing on arms and hands when I want to see the steps, showing facial reaction shots, it was frustrating! If you are going to showcase the dancing, then showcase the dancing.

Like most films released in the doldrums of January, there is no pressing need to run out and see this. It can wait. If your teen is looking for a movie to see, they could do worse.

I overheard several people buying tickets for How She Move and discussing it. All of them referred to it as How She Moves. Maybe there is hope after all.