Susan Granger’s review of “Stomp the Yard” (Screen Gems)
Movie musicals about rival gangs aren’t unusual – remember the Jets and the Sharks in “West Side Story” – but this new one adds a hip-hop collegiate twist.
When DJ (Columbus Short), a sullen scholarship student from Los Angeles whose street-dancing brother was killed by thugs, enters Atlanta’s prestigious, all-black Truth University – with a heritage that includes Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., Coretta Scott King, Rosa Parks, Esther Rolle – he discovers step competition: a vigorous combination of marching, precision dancing and chanting.
With his smooth Southern California steps, he’s a prize pledge, so it’s not surprising that two fraternities rival for his favor in the upcoming national competition. But he has some lessons to learn about discipline and teamwork, curbing his tendency toward self-centered showboating on his own. Plus, he has to juggle his academic studies and his campus job of cutting lawns for his stern groundskeeper uncle (Harry J. Lennix). Of course, there’s the enticing co-ed (Meagan Good), daughter of the provost and girlfriend of the egomaniac villain (pop music choreographer Darrin Hensen).
Screenwriters Gregory Anderson and Robert Adetuyi (“Code Name: The Cleaner”) toss the trash-talking clichŽs, while director Sylvian White utilizes his quick-cut music video/commercial background. But they do reveal some of the complexities of black college life, a topic that has not been cinematically explored since “Drumline” and “School Daze,” although editor David Checel should have begged for brevity.
Actor/dancer Columbus Short, who performed in Savion Glover’s “Stomp,” gets an once-in-a-lifetime chance to show his stuff in this musical melodrama that’s enthusiastically choreographed by Dave Scott. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “Stomp the Yard” is a raucous, rhythmic 6. It’s a frenetic, exhilarating fable about finding your place in a group.
