Jane Mulcahy
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What I'm working on - March 2025
🕑 Added 2025-03-25 17:12:04 +0000 UTCHi Patrons! Happy spring and happy 9-1-1 season 8B to all who observe.
This month I finally do have a big sprawling project I'm working on: It's still the early stages, but I'd like my next video to be about the STEP UP SERIES.
I stole this graphic from The Wrap
Yes, going on that rant about Step Up sequels in my Oscars video reminded me just how much I have to say about that franchise. And while rewatching the first film, the muses finally smiled upon me, Xanadu (1980)-style, and gave me a great idea for how to frame the video.
This happens to me every time I get a new video idea
Specifically, I'd like to use the Step Up franchise to discuss the larger context and history of the dance film as a genre. This is mostly inspired by my love of both the Step Up films and the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals. I'm envisioning using each individual Step Up film to discuss a different element of dance film history/influence. I don't have everything mapped out yet, but here are my ideas so far:
Step Up (2006) and the marrying of the classical and the popular - Here, I'd look into the origins of the central conceit of Step Up, this desire to intertwine classical dance and music styles with more modern, popular dance/music styles that may be considered more lowbrow or 'common.' I think I'd mostly tie it to the Fred and Ginger musical Shall We Dance (1937), in which Fred's ballet dancer wishes to blend ballet with popular jazz dancing, which he finally achieves in his romance with Ginger's Broadway starlet. I'm sure there are other movies to connect this to, but that's my starting point.
Step Up 2: The Streets (2008): Appreciation and appropriation - I don't have this one fully ironed out yet, but I know I want to discuss this film's messy race and class politics. On the surface, there are some unfortunate optics (white girl and boy + mostly white dance crew from preppy arts school show up a lower-class dance crew led by two black dancers who are framed as one-dimensional villains), but there are things that run deeper, like the film culminating in our white protagonist convincing a crowd at 'The Streets' dance competition that her lame preppy dance crew deserves to compete because "...it shouldn’t matter what we wear, what school or what neighborhood we’re from." It kind of does though, right? I'm fascinated by the way the film waves away the issues of class and race from street dancing. I think I want to refer back to early breakdancing movies of the 1980s, because it seems like there might be some connections in how those films appropriated and kind of whitewashed (politically, not necessarily literally racially) breaking for a mainstream audience. Again, my takeaway isn't fully baked yet, but I know this is the angle I'm interested in. I did find an article on race in the film in the Oxford Handbook of Dance and the Popular Screen (a book that exists, thank god) so I'm working on it.
Step Up 3D (2010) and the scene-stealing second leads - Okay this is a less cerebral one. I remember Step Up 3D being near-unwatchably boring and stupid, so I don't know that I'll have as impressive an academic take on it. But I do think the film bears a striking resemblance to the 1935 Fred and Ginger film Roberta. Mainly, Roberta features an utterly boring and sexless lead couple, Irene Dunne and Randolph Scott (good in other things but lifeless in this) being completely upstaged by the comic side pairing of Fred and Ginger, whose chemistry and artistry is electrifying as always. Step Up 3D features a similarly nothing lead couple and only comes to life when Fred and Ginger-style comic side pairing Moose and Alyson Stoner (I don't remember their character's name) are dancing. And funnily enough, at one point the film has Moose and Alyson Stoner love interest dance to one of Fred Astaire's recordings of I Won't Dance, a song he first performed in ROBERTA!!! It's just too good not to make the connection.
I'm not yet sure about my exact angle on Step Up Revolution (2012), I'll have to rewatch first, but I'm thinking it might be productive to compare it to Dirty Dancing (1987). From what I remember, Revolution is the Step Up film that most resembles Dirty Dancing. Rich girl and poor boy (played amateurishly by young ingenu Ryan Guzman), oppressive rich dad, etc. etc. Of course, they're both competent dancers at the onset of the story, which kind of makes it less interesting than Dirty Dancing, but such is the way of the Step Up sequel. There might be some things to say about representations of class conflict in both films. However, I do remember thinking Revolution was the worst film of the series in terms of straight-up quality, so that will be fun.
Just look at their outfits, man
Finally, I want to use Step Up: All In (2014) to discuss the SCREWBALL MUSICAL!!! One of my first thoughts when I first watched All In was that it was so clearly indebted to the screwball comedy. The opening montage of a now down-on-his-luck Ryan Guzman taking a slew of humiliating dance auditions, he and his crew struggling to make ends meet since the prize money of the previous film has dried up, the cynical, self-reflexive answer to the type of rags-to-riches story most Step Up movies are... it's kind of genius! Not to mention the film is a sort of spin on the comedy of remarriage. Not in the traditional sense, where the two leads have been together, since parted, and must reconcile, but in the sense that the leads of this film are both leads of previous Step Up films, now alone after having been abandoned by their previous film lovers. Again, it's a rather daring subversion of the happily-ever-after dance romance film conclusion, but it also calls to mind a different sort of remarriage, two components of other romances coming together to make a new whole. I might tie it to films like Swing Time (1936) (my least favorite Fred and Ginger movie but possibly the most relevant), It's Always Fair Weather (1955) for its subversive cynicism, and a couple classic comedies of remarriage. I don't know. I just can't wait to talk about Step Up: All In. I fucking love that movie.
Leaked footage from 9-1-1 8x12
All of this to say that it looks to be a pretty ambitious project. At the same time, I'm trying not to let the scope get away from me. About a year ago, I actually was planning to make a video reviewing all of the Fred and Ginger movies, but I ended up researching and planning so much that it became way too large in scale and I lost my way and decided to abandon it. But I feel better this time. I think I have a very specific methodology, and I intend to stick to it. I don't have a timeline of when exactly this video will be out, I'm still only watching and researching. But I'll keep you updated and share what I can! Here's my very broad watchlist if anyone's interested (bold are unwatched):
If you feel like watching all of the Step Up movies to prepare, and maybe all the Fred and Ginger movies, and perhaps some other famous dance films from the last ~96 years of cinema, be my guest.
Thanks so much for your support this month! Drop a favorite dance movie below....
Comments
Jane Mulcahy
Love to hear it! Yeah I was immediately interested in how these movies handle race because like you say it's kind of the elephant in the room-- all of the movies pretty much star white actors as the leads, but the entire premise is this art form with unambiguously Black origins. IMO most of the movies land in a fairly innocuous place even if there might be some awkward contradictions, but Step Up 2 is the one that struck me as the most sinister. It's the only one that actually purposefully hammers home this kind of 'I don't see color' message, all while hypocritically vilifying the Black characters and never offering any pov to them. I like the idea of enjoying Black-led dance films instead. I watched a great one from the 1980s breakdance movie craze called Beat Street-- It was soooooo much better and more interesting than the more famous '80s breakdancing movie Breakin'! (Which is about a white lady who discovers the 'exotic' world of breakdancing and legitimizes it to the highbrow elite....) And I don't know if I'll include Bollywood in a huge way, but so far I have at least brought it up in my introduction when talking about the revival of dance movies in the 2000s lol.
Dear Darling
OMG!!! So excited! LOVE classical movie musicals and it feels like you're going through my brain and just picking out my fav media and making fun deep-dives. As a casual watcher of these films, who mainly only ever watched them for the dance sequences and doesn’t know anything about the main characters outside of Moose, it kind of always left a bad taste in my mouth as a Black girl because these films seemed so uninterested in—or even vilified—the Black characters, yet used so much Black culture to make the white characters seem more in tune with Black music/dance and therefore enlightened. It felt sinister at times, but I always looked the other way because I felt crazy for thinking this (also, a lot of Black viewers of this franchise seemed to like it, so I felt it was lowkey a lost cause). To feel better, I watched dance films that actually starred Black leads and was choreographed by Black folk. Can’t put into words how much I’m looking forward to this. Love your video style and humor—I know I’ll be cackling whenever you cut to a campy scene from my childhood. As a big Bollywood musicals lover myself, I wonder if you will incorporate Indian musicals into this as well. The industry seems to have shifted away from classical dance musicals, with SLB probably being the main one still doing them, while other films have gone in a more contemporary/urban dance route. It might be too much, though, lol.
Jane Mulcahy
Well I guess that's why I said that would probably be my favorite episode if I watched it lol! My experience with what I watched was very tepid emergencies that didn't go far enough into the craziness, so it sounds like the shark attack episode might be the most suited to me so far. Maybe I'll have to go back and try to watch that one
marjorie
Hi Jane, sorry that this question is off-topic, but I have a Doctor Odyssey-related question. In the most recent pod episode you said that the scenarios weren’t crazy enough for it to be good-bad for you, but in the mid-season premiere, a great white shark attacks the ship’s propellers and then the ship is surrounded by a pod of vengeful orcas. Is this the sort of crazy you meant? Or something else? Genuinely curious. I never watched Grey’s or 9-1-1 so I have no schlock threshold like you.
raychle
this is gonna be so awesome. also, rest in peace Stephen "tWitch" Boss.
Jane Mulcahy
That's literally the same thing that happens with Ryan Guzman in the 4th one 😭
heyitzmae
i had a dream last night about step up i think i manifested this
Jordan P.
In the "Beggin" dance he just takes his shirt off and peaces out. Jon M. Chu supports the female gaze.
nei vilde
Honestly i think it has more to do with the dance sequences/vibes than the leads, i don’t think anyone cares about those 2 lmao, it’s the moose show + cool dance moments, go off on them lmao
nei vilde
I thought no one noticed lmao, he is NOT THERE
Jordan P.
I am SO excited for this! Step Up 3 is where I feel the franchise settles into it's style, and starts taking itself a bit less seriously. It's a lot of fun! It's also so clearly made with it's 3D release in mind with a lot of straight into the camera shots. Hot tip: Watch Luke (the lead) during the dance sequences. His immediate disappearances into the background are hilarious when you notice them.
Jane Mulcahy
I do think there's a difference! I think some movies are dance movies and some are just musicals that have dancing... even if it's pretty elaborate dancing. But also the lines can be very 'I know it when I see it' vibes-based
Jane Mulcahy
I think a lot of people like it! I'll have to tread carefully lmao
Jane Mulcahy
that one's been on my watchlist for years lmaooooo
Jordan P.
Step Up 3 is also my favourite! Moose and Twitch are a couple of my franchise faves.
taylor ice
dude Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights for whatever reason was so prevalent in my early childhood, even more so than the original Dirty Dancing-- but every time it comes up in conversation NO ONE ever knows what I'm talking about cause why would they. It's so terribly bad with such awkward dancing (but somehow they got Patrick Swayze for like one scene??) and does an absolute awful job at criticizing american involvement in cuba during the cuban revolution but by god did I eat it up every time it was on screen. Prime early 2000's cinema, I am so excited for this video
nei vilde
Okay well now I’m embarrassed that step up 3 is my favourite. But i mean, only the moose parts are my favourites so does it count? Who knows. To be fair, my favourite is always the worst in the franchise, like who likes honey 3? Me, that’s who
nei vilde
Love this
andie bansil
omg 😲 i love this concept! big fred & ginger fan here as well. what a fun undertaking!! my favorite dance movie is Singin' in the Rain, but my favorite movie WITH dance is Newsies (1992). (is there a clear difference here? idk. maybe i just wanted to say both.)
sorryimkyla
my one request is that when you discuss step up 2 you say it like “step up to..the streets ?”
