STEP (film)

STEP

Theatrical release poster
Directed by Amanda Lipitz
Produced by
Starring
  • Blessin Giraldo
  • Cori Grainger
  • Tayla Solomon
  • Gari McIntyre
  • Paula Dofat
Music by
Cinematography Casey Regan
Edited by Penelope Falk
Production
company
Stick Figure Productions
Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date
  • January 21, 2017 (2017-01-21) (Sundance)
  • August 4, 2017 (2017-08-04) (United States)
Running time
 83 minutes
Country United States
Language English
Box office $159,669[1]

Step is a 2017 American documentary film directed by Amanda Lipitz. The film focuses on a girls' Baltimore high school dance team. It won the U.S. Documentary Special Jury Award for Inspirational Filmmaking at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and the Audience Award for Best Feature at the 2017 AFI Docs Festival.[2] It was released in theaters on August 4, 2017.

Story

STEP is the true-life story of a girls’ high-school step team set against the background of the heart of Baltimore. These young women learn to laugh, love and thrive – on and off the stage – even when the world seems to work against them. Empowered by their teachers, teammates, counselors, coaches and families, they chase their ultimate dreams: to win a step championship and to be accepted into college. This all female school is reshaping the futures of its students’ lives by making it their goal to have every member of their senior class accepted to and graduate from college, many of whom will be the first in their family to do so.[3]

Cast

Release

The film premiered at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and was released in the United States on August 4, 2017.[4]

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 94% based on 35 reviews, with an average rating of 7.5/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Step tells an irresistibly crowd-pleasing story in a thoroughly absorbing way -- and while smartly incorporating a variety of timely themes."[5] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 83 out of 100, based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[6]

Not all were on board. Ignatiy Vishnevetsky of The A.V. Club described the film as a flimsily "feel-good," surface-level exploration of the girls' experience, and noted that some crucial contextual information was missing: "The Baltimore Leadership School For Young Women itself is painted in the best light, but of course it would be; Lipitz’s mother founded it, a fact that Step doesn’t feel the need to acknowledge. Nor does it bother to mention the fact that the filmmaker’s father has an entire center named after him at Johns Hopkins, where he was formerly on the board of trustees. It might not teach you to be a documentarian, but money sure can buy some uplifting endings."[7]

References

  1. ↑ "Step (2017)". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  2. ↑ "‘Step,’ ‘Fish Story’ Win Audience Awards at AFI Docs Festival". Variety.
  3. ↑ "FOX Searchlight STEP Movie". foxsearchlight.com.
  4. ↑ "‘Step,’ ‘Fish Story’ Win Audience Awards at AFI Docs Festival". Variety.
  5. ↑ "Step (2017)". Rotten Tomatoes. Fandango. Retrieved August 4, 2017.
  6. ↑ "Step reviews". Metacritic. Retrieved August 7, 2017.
  7. ↑ Vishnevetsky, Ignatiy (Aug 2, 2017). "The dance-team documentary Step is as feel-good as it is flimsy". The A.V. Club. Retrieved 10 August 2017.
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