Mad Hot Ballroom

Delivery Time: 7 to 15 Working Days Format: DVD

Fun and inspiring, this documentary follows a group of 11-year-old students from elementary schools in New York City as they learn ballroom dancing. As the kids work on developing their merengue, rumba, tango, swing, and foxtrot skills in preparation for a citywide dance tournament, they learn about teamwork and reveal their hilarious--and often poignant--views on the world. 105 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtrack: English Dolby Digital stereo Surround; Subtitles: English.
If the delightful spectacle of preteen kids dancing the foxtrot and the merengue isn't enough to lure you in, add the pressure of a dance competition and the triumph of troubled kids finding self-respect through discipline--if Mad Hot Ballroom were a Hollywood movie, it would be too corny for words. Instead, it's an engrossing documentary about a wildly successful after-school program in New York City. Mad Hot Ballroom follows a handful of kids in three different schools from the beginning of their dance classes to the night of the inter-school dance finals. Regrettably, the movie fails to pursue the dancers themselves; a few scenes provide glimpses of some smart, articulate kids with vivid personalities and compelling emotions, but the filmmakers make a minimal effort to draw the kids out or explore their lives outside of the classes. Watching the kids develop as dancers is still gripping and the final competition will have you on the edge of your seat, but it could have been all the more so. Though certainly worthy and genuinely heartwarming, you can't help but feel that Mad Hot Ballroom lost an opportunity for something truly dazzling. --Bret Fetzer