Driven to Dance (2018) User Reviews

Disappointing

[atlasmb · 6/10 · 26 October 2020]

I enjoy good films about dance. The fact that this one includes Juliet Doherty convinced me to watch it. Unfortunately, it was a disappointment. Though the main character, Paige (Doherty), has a passion for dance, the real focus of the film is the conflict between Paige and her mother, Lynda (Kaitlyn Black).

Paige's parents are separated and on the verge of divorce. Lynda is a bitter woman who takes her frustrations out on her children, especially Paige. Lynda's behavior is abusive, and others see that, but can do little to intervene. Paige's dance instructor does what he can and, eventually, makes a positive impact.

Doherty's dancing is the best part of the film, but the entire film feels incomplete and the ending is abrupt. See "High Strung Free Dance" for a better representation of Doherty's talents.

Interesting

[mosquitopoint · 6/10 · 31 January 2019]

I am familiar with the Arizona Master Dance academy. They turn out beautiful dancers. I would have like to have seen more dancing. I do not like the story. Ballet dancers mums and dads would be supportive of their children. The other review spoke of anorexia... Truth in that ...but I guess writer was trying to get the carrot thing in ... Truth is San Francisco Ballet would never hire an anorexic dancer. No company would. Good effort to show a bit of something... Next time show class training in real order for people to get what athlete's we are... plies to tendus etc. To Grands batement, to doing things right demonstrating our hard work.

Teens will like it

[jbdancer01 · 4/10 · 21 January 2019]

The main character is a beautiful dancer, but the acting is awful. The characters who don't have to dance were horrible actors which doesn't make sense because they didn't need to compromise on that. I guess it's the directing too. It's very slow moving and I almost shut it off. I also didn't like how the character doesn't eat. That should have been addressed. I expected her to faint or something, but nope. Not cool. Also the mother makes no sense. If she never had a job or did anything with her life then why on earth didn't she watch her daughter dance? You'd think she'd want her daughter to have opportunities-the whole fear of failure thing on the mom's end made no sense to me. The mom also seemed super young. 36? Real enough but wow my mom was like 50 when I was that age. Anyhow I feel like teenagers will like it. It's like a step up from the American girl movies and it's clean enough.

ugh

[shopping_again · 1/10 · 18 January 2019]

Really dfficult to get through this - i enjoy ballet and all kinds of ballet movies, but not this one. the drama/acting is just so below anything i have ever seen. juliette is a beautiful dancer, but she does very little dancing in the movie. the movie is trying too hard to be a story, and it just doesnt work. i seek out movies, old and new, with or about ballet, and this one falls way short. bad script. bad execution.

Beautiful dancer. Movie? Not so beautiful.

[verisww · 2/10 · 20 January 2019]

A real ballerina. A beautiful dancer. That's all that is good about the movie. If the whole movie had Juliet Doherty dancing then it would have been far better. Problem is none of the actors are believable. The script is redundant in such a way that the characters are all the same with same expressions.

You can tell most of the actors in the movie have no experience acting. You can tell who the professional actors are like Kaitlyn Black, the mother, and Asher Angel, the brother. All the acting is so wooden that it makes one not care about the story.

It's too bad for the premise of the story was good to begin with.

The Worst

[sandy-conners · 23 January 2019]

This movie is just a waste of time and eyesight? How anyone would like it, is beyond me? The WORST acting I have ever encountered in one film! Not one redeeming feature! Low budget and it looks as though they're reading cue cards.

Worst Movie I've Ever Seen

[aemazzone · 1/10 · 21 January 2019]

First off I've never felt compelled to write a review before. This movie was so far beneath the worst movie I had seen up to this point that I felt I must. I am a dancer and dance teacher and the only redeeming quality of this movie was that they used real and beautiful dancers. Acting skills were sacrificed to do so. That might be forgivable. The real torture lay in the script, lackluster characters, poor plot development and appalling audio issues. The music was too loud, too repetitive, and overwhelming and often times drowned out the characters' speaking. Actors were poorly miked and were difficult to hear. Had there been more dancing throughout the movie I might have felt suffering through was somehow worth it but there was very little dancing to be had. I can say this: I will never be quite as critical of all the versions of Step Up because compared to this, they're compelling cinematographic artistry.

A compelling tragedy, Dickensian in scope, Shakespearean in performance

[foxinsox-86283 · 1/10 · 24 January 2019]

A beautiful, talented, spectacularly smart young woman has dedicated her life to dance. Everyone envies her. Her dance instructor may or may not have a candle-lit shrine to her in the back of his studio. She drives a brand new Lexus despite the fact that she isn't out of high school. She is perfection incarnate.

She has no friends, because who would want to be friends with a beautiful, talented, spectacularly smart young woman with a hot car. Her most vicious enemy is her psychotically spiteful mother, who is mysteriously only five years older than she is.

But then, tragedy! Life comes crashing down around her after she gets a couple of B's on her math. Yes, B's. Suddenly she is forced to give up dance forever, ostensibly because they have no money (the Lexus must be a lease) but mostly because her mother literally hates her. Then her dad announces he wants a divorce, and no one can be surprised why.

Luckily her math tutor is the same age as she is, hunky, and plays a soulful guitar. That's as far as I got before this epic tale of a privileged white girl crashing into the depths of slightly less privilege made me run from the room weeping at the injustice of this cold, uncaring universe.

I really liked it!

[katyaparfemonova · 10/10 · 24 January 2019]

The intro is absolutely gorgeous!! I watched it while I was sawing ribbons on my pointe shoes. It gave me so much inspiration and to just focus on your goals and never give up! A beautifully shot movie, and they spent so little money. Didn't they raise 20,000 to make it? I loved it - acting was good. Juliet is amazing. I hope they'll do a second one.

10 Stars for Juliet Doherty

[skpn123 · 7/10 · 15 June 2021]

Loved Juliet Doherty in High Strung 2 and enjoyed seeing her in a different role.

The script, score and coherence of the movie is though very limited. The story had potential and there are many interesting aspects but it didn't quite come together.

Bad Acting, Terrible Forced Plot, No Redeeming Value

[hogank-53307 · 1/10 · 24 January 2019]

The acting is so bad I'm not entirely sure I'm going to make it through this movie. The mom appears to be struggling to find an entry level job, has told the daughter they can't afford a math tutor and ballet lessons and yet the daughter is driving around in a Lexus.

Loved it!

[davesantella · 10/10 · 18 January 2019]

Loved this movie! I felt Movie had a great story line and also connected well with the Ballet Dance Community. Can't wait to see the next one they make!

It's not all bad, and the bad bits make it watchable

[chasbayfield-07879 · 6/10 · 8 February 2019]

Firstly, the dancer is stunning. I wasn't sure if they were using a body double for the dance scenes as no one can be that good looking and that talented - surely? But no, it seems like she acts and she dances. And her acting is OK. She's pretty flat but that's her character, a slightly sulky dance-obsessed teenager.

Also, the little brother is a great actor - he should go far and seems to be overlooked in all the reviews.

As for the movie, there were lots of strands that didn't quite add up, many of which have been called out by other reviews. Why was the mum so convinced that her daughter would never make the grade to go pro? We needed to see how her own dreams had been crushed as a kid to make her so brutally realistic. And why would the mum agree to go to a sleazy pick-up joint after work with her colleagues? If this is where they always go wouldn't they have warned her? And what is with the two dancers who look at each other all the time? And why doesn't the math tutor make a move? A kiss followed by him leaving HER to follow HIS dream would have been more surprising rather than 'hey, good for you, I'm off too'.

As for everything else, I get that dad has left, mum has never had to work, dad bought the daughter's car and paid for the upmarket lifestyle and that his departure has left mum in pieces. And I get that two Bs is not the end of the world but it's realistic - not everything has to be a drama.The anorexia thing is possibly realistic too - films don't have a responsibility to show the world as it should be, this one shows it perhaps more as it is.

The director obviously coerced a mate to provide songs for the entire soundtrack - no doubt for budgetary reasons but a bit more variety / subtlety might have worked.

Throughout, I couldn't help thinking that, if this film had been made in France in the late eighties /early nineties and had starred Emmanuelle Béart, it would have been considered art house and would have been much better received. The pace and minimal plot felt very French.

Still, the director not only got this made, she got Netflix to buy it. Kudos!

Wanted to love it...

[sarahjoycewilson · 2/10 · 3 February 2019]

Juliet is a beautiful ballerina and my young dancer enjoyed the brief moments of dance. Everything else was awful...stilted speech and awkward scenes. It was painful to watch. 😞

So painful!

[avalon-36322 · 1/10 · 22 January 2019]

I really like dance but this film has way too much bad acting and not enough dancing to compensate!

Turn away! Turn away!

[stokessarahann · 1/10 · 21 February 2019]

While a number of other reviewers have thoroughly evaluated the "acting" and "plot" of this film (and I say those with sarcastic quotes for a reason), I'll point out some of the insanely frustrating questions that reside outside of those two sweeping statements.

• Two Bs in math = math tutor? While MAYBE this is a logical solution for some families, likely not one going through a divorce with one parent unemployed. And besides, no high school age tutor should charge so much that their students have to give up dance lessons...

• But the 17 YEAR OLD GIRL does drive a Lexus, so maybe it's a question of priorities.

• The mom can't leave her 17 year old and 12 year old (I assume he is 12, though I never caught this officially, because he goes to bed at 10 p.m. on weeknights) alone without a sitter? Again. Priorities.

• Do the parents share custody at all?

• BLASTING music, oftentimes suitable for a creepy psychological thriller (lots of depressing piano). Did any sound editors exist for this film?

• Why do they do so many close up shots of the brother's (didn't catch his name - but it's totally unimportant) hands? I half expected it to turn out into a jump-scare scenario, like where suddenly lobster claws burst out of his fingers or something

• The math tutor is also Shawn Mendes? He sure has some quality studio sound at the no-alcohol teen house party.

• Why does the mom wear "going out" clothes to work? No wonder it was hard to get a job.

• Creepy, creepy dance instructor vibes. Not a question, but a valid statement.

• OMG now ANOTHER teen is singing in the studio/teen party! Where is the (very loud) piano?!

Sorry, I have to turn this off.

Poor movie !

[AK1475 · 1/10 · 23 March 2019]

At the beginning I thought it a student movie . Everything is so bad : the script,the acting,the sound . I love dancing movies so much,after being a dancer my self, but this one ?!! Omg,so bad ! After 30 minute I stoped .

Beautiful dancer but horribly bad movie

[jacksplus4 · 1/10 · 29 January 2019]

I love dance movies. This would have been fine if all they did was dance and not act. The sound was horrible. Half the time you couldn't hear the talking if there was any background music. Some of the lost awful acting I have ever heard.

I loved it

[jesskuwamoto · 10/10 · 24 January 2019]

I feel this film to my heart. It shows what many dancers go through in life because no ones perfect and life can be hard on a dancer. My family does not like me dancing and rather have me do something else, but this film and the way Juliet portrays the character gives me courage to continue doing what I love. I was in tears throughout this film. Thank you for being part of this. Plz make more movies like this!!!!

Serious movie for Lifetime

[phd_travel · 7/10 · 10 January 2020]

This movie is more serious than usual for Lifetime and doesn't have wackos or psychos. A realistic slice of life movie. A girl played by pretty ballerina Juliet Doherty strives to get into the SF Ballet. Her Dad is leaving and her mom played by Kaitlyn Black in an unusually serious role. Struggles of starting over are quite realistic. Unexpectedly mom is not a dance mom quite the opposite. It's a change for Lifetime. Some eating disorder issue is shown. The music for the dance sequences is uniformly bad. Usually moms are so pushy for their daughters. Otherwise it's quite realistic.

Oye

[candacerain · 3/10 · 29 January 2019]

So um....ok the only decent actors are the mom and dad .......which is not saying much lol.....they're B actors that would be over shadowed by the better actors in a popular series.......sorry but true.....there are some times where the mom sounds natural then other times that sound so really horrible that she sounds stiff and......ugh......some of the music is pretty but I wasn't really paying enough attention to notice if the lyrics were stupid.......I don't really care if she eats or not as the story(if you can call it that) doesn't really need it.....yes they could've touched on that but then you wouldn't have the mom and dad fighting about the mom's smoking habits lol.......I've seen better ballet movies.

Family Drama

[brwnxpng · 8/10 · 10 May 2019]

Personally I love this type of film, it puts a spotlight on the drama's that happen in families. Paige is a 17 year old who has a determination to realise her dream of being a ballet dancer, her mother is going through a very painful divorce process becomes blind to the needs of her daughter.

The father left the mother and his children to live with another women, this was a particularly crushing blow to the self esteem of the mother who was left jobless and trying to look after her Children. Paige was a classic 'be strong' character who presented an outside face that everything was fine but was destroying herself from the inside. Her ballet coach was the only one to recognise that she was struggling and though strict with her was also compassionate, he played a great role IMO. The other character who was on board was Dylan, a potential musician who was/was not Paige's boyfriend and he drove her to an audition

I thought the acting was very good and it certainly drew me into the film.

The only aspect of the film that puzzled me was the role of a girl called Kate the girl who Paige met at a party- maybe I missed something as I couldn't figure out what her role in all this was she Dylan's girlfriend, a friend or sister

I have read several comments that are quite derogatory about this film, and yes the script was a bit lame in places - but to me the film was more about the family dynamics than about the ballet.

glorifies eating disorders and contains bad acting

[aseidl-44235 · 1/10 · 21 January 2019]

This movie glorifies eating disorders. The main character in fact never really eats during the movie and claims to eat only carrots and *yes* instead of passing out cold receives a contract. At the end of the film I thought she was finally going to eat, but she picks up a muffin and just puts it down in a classic disordered eating fashion. It's possible the the movie writers were just this clueless and didn't care about the triggering nature of the film or in glorifying eating disorders to young dancers, but that's just highly irresponsible behavior.

Oh, and while the young dancer is beautiful, the acting is really wooden.

Eh, just okay

[merdebrainz · 4/10 · 22 January 2019]

I'm a sucker for the Lifetime movie type, but this one just falls flat. The fault is completely in the script. I could take some less than stellar acting (and there is plenty of that). I'm okay with low budget filming. I could even tolerate the repetitive soundtrack and the fact that most of the songs aren't even a match for what was going on in the movie. (Did they just buy the rights to one album and play the entire thing for background music?) What I can't forgive is the utter lack of character development, the lack of an actual, sensible plot and the way that it was just all magically resolved in the last few minutes in a way that would never happen in real life. Shame on whoever wrote this screenplay. Their mother should have told them to be realistic about their career goals and they should have listened to her.

Can a dance movie not have real actors?

[stellakittypurry · 4/10 · 25 April 2020]

Okay, so the dancing part is good, real dancers, thank god! The acting, on the other hand, is horrible - so stiff, they all sound like robots. The mother is absolutely horrible, I usually have sympathy for "bad" characters, but I had none for her, she's just not a good character.. at all. I do, however, like the "storyline" in general, but it could've been a lot better with the right actors!