The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
Back to trending 
Strictly Ballroom
Comedy · Drama · Romance · 1992
Brave new steps put Scott's career in jeopardy. With a new partner and determination, can he still succeed?
Movie details
Strictly Ballroom
“A life lived in fear... is a life half lived.”
1992 Comedy · Drama · Romance 1h 34m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.6 / 10
Community rating
Brave new steps put Scott's career in jeopardy. With a new partner and determination, can he still succeed?
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over Strictly Ballroom?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
Bootmen
Comedy · 2000
Sean Odkin loves to dance—much to his fathers distain. When the woman he loves cannot return his love, he goes in search of the only thing that can make him whole again—dancing.
Shall We Dance?
Drama · 2004
A bored estate lawyer spots a beautiful woman in the window of a ballroom dance studio. He secretly starts taking dancing lessons to be near her, and then over time discovers how much he loves dancing. His wife, meanwhile, has hired a private detective to find out why he has started coming home late smelling of perfume.
Step Up 2: The Streets
Music · 2008
When rebellious street dancer Andie West lands at the elite Maryland School of the Arts, she finds herself fighting to fit in while also trying to hold onto her old life. When she joins forces with the school's hottest dancer, Chase Collins, to form a crew of fellow outcasts to compete in Baltimore's underground dance battle The Streets.
Footloose
Drama · 2011
Ren MacCormack is transplanted from Boston to the small southern town of Bomont where loud music and dancing are prohibited. Not one to bow to the status quo, Ren challenges the ban, revitalizing the town and falling in love with the minister’s troubled daughter Ariel in the process.
Father of the Bride
Romance · 2022
A father comes to grips with his daughter’s upcoming wedding through the prism of multiple relationships within a big, sprawling Cuban-American family.
StreetDance 3D
Music · 2010
In order to win the Street Dance Championships, a dance crew is forced to work with ballet dancers from the Royal Dance School in exchange for rehearsal space.
The Goodbye Girl
Comedy · 1977
After being dumped by her live-in boyfriend, an unemployed dancer and her 10-year-old daughter are reluctantly forced to live with a struggling off-Broadway actor.
Step Up All In
Romance · 2014
All-stars from previous installments convene in glittering Las Vegas, battling for a victory that could define their dreams and their careers.
That Old Feeling
Comedy · 1997
A bride's divorced parents find their old feelings for each other during the wedding reception and over the course of the next few days upsetting the newlywed's honeymoon.
Save the Last Dance
Drama · 2001
After the death of her mother, Sara moves to the South Side of Chicago to live with her father and gets transferred to a majority-black school. Her life takes a turn for the better when befriends Chenille and her brother Derek, who helps her with her dancing skills.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Baz Luhrmann
Written by
Baz Luhrmann · Craig Pearce
Paul Mercurio
Scott Hastings
Tara Morice
Fran
Bill Hunter
Barry Fife
Pat Thomson
Shirley Hastings
Gia Carides
Liz Holt
P
Peter Whitford
Les Kendall
Barry Otto
Doug Hastings
Court is in session
Put Strictly Ballroom on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.