Image courtesy of www.impawards.com
Director :
David Lachapelle
Cast :
Tommy the Clown……….Himself
Lil Tommy……….Himself
Larry……….Himself
Dragon……….Himself
Tight Eyez……….Himself
Baby Tight Eyez……….Himself
Lil Mama……….Herself
Miss Prissy……….Herself
When it comes to the art of dancing, cinema tends to use it in the foreground of bad teen movies as of late. Underwhelming movies including Honey, You Got Served, Flashdance, and Footloose have dominated the dancing sphere of the past 20 years. The days of Gene Kelly, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers providing a higher level of dancing movie fun are long gone. Instead we’ve been subjected to artificially enhanced dance numbers buttressed with hip-hop soundtracks, beautiful people and inane, non-sensical plots. From this world of garbage and tales of urban decay comes the gritty documentary Rize.
Rize, set in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles, doesn’t feature rappers in supporting roles, Jessica Alba in a half shirt or a loud obnoxious soundtrack filled with excessive bass. Rize is a look at a type of dancing called “krumping.” Krumping is a combination of modern tribal dancing meshed with hip-hop stylings and set to bass-heavy soundtrack. Rize follows two teams of dancers: the Clowns and the Krumps.
The Clowns are led by Tommy the Clown, a hip hop clown who functions as a father figure to the group. A former drug dealer who served a jail sentence, Tommy meshes hip-hop dancing and the ancient art of being a children’s clown in a weirdly engaging way. His version of dancing is also readily popular in Watts as well; the film notes that there are over 50 groups of dancing clowns in Watts.
The Krumps don’t have someone specifically in the lead of their dance team; they are a collection of personalities as opposed to being more of the family that the Clowns are. They are all former protégés of Tommy as well, having left his clowning style of dance for their own style.
Rize follows both of these teams as they get ready for a dance showdown at the Great Western Forum in the krump version of a dance-off. And if the movie was just about the dancing it would be a spectacular work of film, as the dancing scenes are well shot. This may be a documentary but Lachapelle gets the best camera shot he can for the bulk of the movie; the dancing scenes are as well shot as anything you’d see on MTV.
The soundtrack behind all of this is also well-done. These aren’t the sort of tamed down tracks found in Glitter. The music matches the gritty nature of the film; it is harsh, unforgiving and in your face.
Lachapelle also evokes the personalities and characters of his subjects in a powerful manner. It would be easy to focus on the dancing, but Lachapelle showcases their world vividly. We are presented with numerous people throughout the film from both sides of the dancing rivalry and Lachapelle infuses their personalities throughout the film. With all of the personalities presented it can be cumbersome to try and delve beyond the surface of everyone. Lachapelle gives us the personalities and complexities of people often overlook or marginalize due to their location.
However David Lachapelle has put two separate movies inside of a look at this new form of dance. Besides looking at the people he looks at their situation. His social commentary about life in the ghetto is out of place at best and pandering at worst. It disrupts the story and the pace of the movie to stop and talk about social inequalities; it isn’t a pause or a quick aside about the brutal facts about life in Watts. Lachapelle veers off track and into the sort of neighborhood where showcasing a story turns into making a statement about your subject. It’s out of place and unnecessary.
