Stomp the Yard
Length: Single
Studio: Sony Pictures Releasing
Rated: PG-13
Website: http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/stomptheyard/
Release Date: 2007-01-12
Cast: Columbus Short, Meagan Good, Ne-Yo , Courtney B. Vance, Darrin DeWitt Henson
Director: Sylvain White
Screenwriter: Robert Adetuyi
Music Score: Ali Shaheed Muhammed
WorkNameSort: Stomp the Yard
Our Rating: 3.00
The makers of Stomp the Yard clearly had Spike Lee’s phenomenal School Daze in mind when they decided to make a film about life at a historically black college. To be sure, they left out a lot of the smart and sophisticated humor, and Spike Lee wouldn’t be caught dead making a film as obviously bourgeois as Stomp, yet both function terrifically as recruiting tools for HBCs. Though marketed as a movie about step-dancing ‘ protagonist DJ is a stepper from the mean streets of L.A. who comes to Atlanta’s ‘Truthâ?� University after his brother is killed, and the central drama is the rivalry between two fraternity’s step teams ‘ the overarching theme is how transformative (and fun!) life at a HBC can be for wrong-side-of-the-tracks kid. Surprisingly, the many dance scenes throughout the movie are ruined by frenetic, MTV-style editing, sapping them of most of their organic, visceral energy and leaving only the glaringly predictable story to keep your attention. (There’s a reason these step competitions get so heated, and it’s not because a crew’s gonna fix it in post-production.) Nonetheless, while it doesn’t reach School Daze heights of greatness, Stomp the Yard evinces enough heart to elevate it quite a bit past most collegiate dramas.
This article appears in Jan 10-16, 2007.