Critic Reviews

• David Denby, New Yorker

  How She Move was shot on the cheap in 16-mm. film, and some of it is a little drab-looking, but it has energy and bravado.

• Kyle Smith, New York Post

  As we replay last year's step-dance hit Stomp the Yard, the ostensible message about working hard in school gets stomped out of the yard.

• Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

  There's not much that's surprising in How She Move, but watching how she moves is a pleasure.

• David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle

  How She Move isn't a great film or even a terribly well-made film, but it has its moments and, of course, it has the ending it's promised all along.

• Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel

  Even if the setting is novel and the leads seem authentic, How She Move is all too content to step down a well-worn path.

• Matt Zoller Seitz, New York Times

  The strong acting, spectacular dance routines and culturally specific details in How She Move turn clichés into catharsis.

• Peter Bradshaw, Guardian [UK]

  Another week, another urban dance movie from the United States.

• Austin Kennedy, Sin Magazine

  The formula is so old that you can almost forgive it. What I couldn't forgive is the soap opera/O.C.-like subplots.

• John J. Puccio, Movie Metropolis

  ...has little new going for it beyond a boatload of energy and enthusiasm. And pure formula.

• Prairie Miller, NewsBlaze

  Thumbing its nose at music video ho's as sex wallpaper, How She Move's got muscular gritty girl power, as females challenge the greater strength and energy of the male performers on their own turf.

• Paul Byrnes, Sydney Morning Herald

  The film does have great energy, and some fabulous dancing, but the script could have done with another draft.

• Anna Smith, BBC

  It's a familiar set-up, but while the story falls back on clichés and trite moral messages, a few dance scenes deliver in spectacular style.

• Tony Horkins, Empire Magazine

  The dance scenes are fun to watch but the script's not too light on its feet.

• Urban Cinefile Critics, Urban Cinefile

  With its trite story the film is never going to impress the average critic, but there is energy and passion that make the film work for its target audience, and the choreography is inventive.

• Tim Cogshell, Boxoffice Magazine

  Seriously, it is nuts the way these kids dance.

• Matthew Turner, ViewLondon

  Disappointing dance drama that suffers from a badly scripted plot, dull performances and poorly choreographed dance routines.

• Matt Brunson, Creative Loafing

  The screenplay saddles the characters with too many scenes revolving around tired dialogue, but director Ian Iqbal Rashid compensates by staging the vigorous dance sequences as if his life -- or at least his career -- depended on it.

• Tricia Olszewski, Let's Not Listen

  How She Move is as lazy about its good intentions as most of the other recent dance dramas that may vaguely come to mind.

• Jeffrey Westhoff, Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, IL)

  Newcomer Rutina Wesley brings dynamite physicality and haunted intellect to How She Move.

• Linda Cook, Quad City Times (Davenport, IA)

  Where, oh where, did this beautiful film come from?

Read all 25 critic reviews