“Stomp” steps over a deeper, richer story |It’s not the fault of “Stomp the Yard” that it arrives when Denverites are pondering the sad aftermath of male violence depicted but also glorified in film, song and music video.
After all, director Sylvain White’s sometimes rousing celebration of the African-American tradition of “stepping” isn’t meant to extol the dubious thrills of the gangsta life.
At least not once it relocates DJ (Columbus Short) from Los Angeles to a historically black college in Atlanta.
Yet, like too many redemption tales pitched at the so-called “urban market,” the movie has trouble shaking off its own attachment to testosterone-fueled volatility. It succumbs to the need to prove with visual pyrotechnics its street cred. So early on, tempers flare. Someone gets “disrespected.” A gun comes out of a waistband. A young man dies.
In a contest similar to the emcee showdowns in “8 Mile,” DJ, brother Duron and friends take on the reigning badboys at an L.A. event. What they perform can be likened to personification of “the dozens” – that storied African-American tradition of verbal insult. Consider it dance as reined-in, but highly inventive, antagonism.
Against Duron’s advice, DJ ups the ante, humiliating a Latino gangbanger in the process. Tragedy ensues. DJ leaves for Atlanta and the discipline of his middle-class uncle and aunt.
At fictional Truth University, the hardheaded but decent-hearted young man becomes entangled in the rivalry of two African-American Greek societies, the Mu Gammas and the Theta Nu Thetas.
The Mu Gammas are national step champs, full of themselves and populated by future investment bankers.
The Thetas, led by Sylvester (Brian White of “Brick”), are more thoughtful about brotherhood and service (OK, that last one’s only hinted at, which is part of the movie’s problem).
Meagan Good plays DJ’s love interest April. She’s curvy, brainy, and, uh-oh, the provost’s daughter and Mu Gamma snob Grant’s squeeze. Good – who has had better (“Eve’s Bayou”), similar (“Roll Bounce”) and worse material (“Waist Deep”) – is starting to tempt typecasting with this role.
The script forces Short to telegraph too much. DJ’s version of lust at first sight is strictly juvenile. The story hurries when taking its time would have given it emotional heft.
There’s enough material about black campuses to provide insights to newbies or audiences that didn’t see 2002’s “Drumline,” about marching-band throwdowns at the same schools.
Yet, for a pricklier portrayal of black college life, Spike Lee’s quasi-musical “School Daze” is still the right thing. And for a more generous tutorial on the style of dancing DJ does at the outset of the movie, rent David LaChapelle’s 2005 “Rize.”
Yes, you can build a Netflix list with these better films because “Stomp the Yard” isn’t quite good enough. Like “Bring It On,” “Drumline” and any number of the “Save the Last Dance” knockoffs – the film’s makers get just how rich, even ecstatic, these subcultures of movement can be. It’s aggravating then, to see how easily they trip up that vitality with uninspired storytelling.
When DJ doesn’t get the significance of Greeks, April sends him to Heritage Hall. There he sees photos of a roster of African-Americans who’d been in Greek societies, including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Coretta Scott King.
It’s a suggestive shout out to both the film’s – and the frats’ – loftier, yet not-quite-realized ambitions.
“Stomp the Yard” | ** RATING
PG-13 for a scene of violence, some sexual material and language |1 hour, 45 minutes|YOUTH DRAMA|Directed by Sylvain White; written by Robert Adetuyi, based on a screenplay by Gregory Anderson; photography by Scott Kevan; starring Columbus Short, Meagan Good, Ne-Yo, Darren Henson, Brian White, Laz Alonso, Valarie Pettiford, Jermaine Williams |Opens today at area theaters.
