MOVIE REVIEW: Rhythm Is a Dancer
Images courtesy of Circle Collective
RHYTHM IS A DANCER—3 STARS
LESSON #1: THE CHANCE TO TELL YOUR STORY— Artists create from their personal experiences all the time, and are often encouraged to do so, thanks to Mark Twain’s classic advice of “Write what you know.” There can be limits in how personal, accurate, or specific they can get if the finished piece—be that a novel, song, or film—has to go through several other hands before being shared with audiences. That being said, when a creative person gets the fullest chance to tell a piece of their autobiographical story through their chosen medium, that’s a special result worth celebrating. Lauren Caster is wonderfully granted that very freedom as she writes, directs, and stars in the gracious independent film Rhythm Is a Dancer.
Caster plays Ro Williams, a struggling dancer trying to climb the starving artist ladder in New York City. She is presented failing at an audition for a feminine product TV spot, ending a dead-end physical relationship with an older guy (voice actor Mitch Eakins), being let go from her gym instructor job, and receiving notices for overdue rent. Ro’s turning 30 soon and feels like she has nothing to show for her life. Arriving at this new lowest point, she limps back home to California to live and work for her tax specialist mother Susan (former Bosch series regular Amy Aquino).
Susan is, as Ro describes her to friends, a “butch lesbian” who wanted to have a child and got pregnant in the late-1990s by way of sperm donation. In the background of her struggling day-to-day life, she has been privately—as in outside of her mother’s knowledge—working with a genealogist service to find her biological father. After being declared a “cold case” for many years, the firm finds a solid 51% DNA and coincidentally local match. Her “bio dad” is an anesthesiologist by the name of Gregory Campbell (Tate Donovan of Argo and Memphis Belle) and, after receiving an introductory letter from Ro, he agrees to meet.
For Ro and Rhythm Is a Dancer, this is it. While Ro’s been taught to live life with “no expectations,” she cannot help but have nerves and all sorts of questions when she and Gregory sit down for breakfast at a diner. A different film would take that anxiety and turn this big scene into something as overblown as an episode of Maury. A bumbling carnival of errors would spill over for either comedic effect or creating an oppositional failure that requires an ensuing dramatic arc of trust repair for one side of the other towards some kind of manufactured emotional climax. Neither of those movie-ish developments happen.
LESSON #2: MEETING NEW FAMILY WITH OPEN ARMS— That’s because, to its great credit, palpable human decency exists in Rhythm Is a Dancer. Their meeting is genial and, with this type of candor, extremely realistic. The eager Gregory is completely forthcoming in talking and answering her questions. He’s not the least bit standoffish. Carrying a scrapbook, he can trace his family history as far back as the Mayflower in the 17th century, making her an important discovery to him. For Ro, the nerves and sensory spikes during the pleasantries of chatter lead to a foggy overload in this crucial scene. Even with the overwhelming weight of the moment, the mutual open-arms reception lightens any tension, and they agree to keep meeting.
Meeting and establishing a relationship with Gregory, and soon his established family, brings a new confidence to Ro’s life in Rhythm Is a Dancer. Occupying a sizable subplot, she is also lifted by taking a job as the activity coordinator at Leisure World, a local senior living facility. Using her youthful zest and dance experience to get old folks up and moving for a “senior prom” she’s planning, Ro makes a key trio of new friends—-delightful “that guy/that lady” character actors Marianne Muellerleile, Robert Costanzo, and Beau Billingsley—-and captures the attention of a potential new love interest closer to her age in her co-worker Zach (Conor Donnally of The Sex Lives of College Girls).
LESSON #3: OVERCOMING FEELING INCOMPLETE— Raised in the type of single-parent household she did, Ro has never felt complete. Hidden from Susan, she’s had bouts of depression over the years. Bringing forward the notion of genetic factors, Gregory stands to be a potential quotient to her broken emotional equation. When Rhythm Is a Dancer musters the courage to approach the biological father about worries and fears Ro’s never felt comfortable asking her mother, the reassuring and candid Gregory is not the least bit spooked. That said, Ro still needs to make things right with Susan, who also hides a share of anger and doubt, to fully mend the wounded valley.
LESSON #4: FAMILY IS FAMILY, NO MATTER THE ORIGIN— Even better, in a touching performance from Tate Donovan, never overplaying a single scene, the Gregory absorbing Ro’s challenges is open, accepting, and attentive. In unexpected ways, he brings comforting attention and instills helpful maturity for Ro to not dwell on guilt or blame where none exists. To him, family is family, no matter the origin, and that supportive portrayal of newly blended parenting, willing to weather complications together, makes Rhythm Is a Dancer an uplifting and soothing breath of fresh air against cynical norms. There’s no replacing a parent, but someone can still be present and show acknowledgement. The world needs more Gregory Campbells, and that’s a beautiful ray of hope provided by the movie.
Based on her own actual genealogical journey, this is entirely Lauren Caster’s brave and valuable stage, and we are being gifted an extremely personal journey, unshy of unwashed character flaws. Rhythm Is a Dancer has positive messages to impart, but has the restraint not to make them taller stumps than they needed to be. Sometimes, the most meaningful thing to say is, “It’s OK,” not requiring an extra apology or a grandiose monologue of further torment befitting Jane Austen or William Shakespeare. A strong feel-good movie can stay simple in size and words without missing a beat.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1419)
