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 
Breakin'
Music · Drama · Romance · 1984
A struggling young dancer joins forces with two breakdancers and together they become a street sensation.
Movie details
Breakin'
“Push it to pop it! Rock it to lock it! Break it to make it!”
1984 Music · Drama · Romance 1h 30m
Critical arithmetic
One number, for now.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
TMDB
6.7 / 10
Community rating
A struggling young dancer joins forces with two breakdancers and together they become a street sensation.
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 Breakin'?
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.
Heartbeats
Music · 2017
When a bubbly American hip hop dancer goes to India with her family for a wedding, she is impressed by a new dance style and falls in love with the man who introduced her to it.
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.
Step Up Revolution
Music · 2012
Emily arrives in Miami with aspirations to become a professional dancer. She sparks with Sean, the leader of a dance crew whose neighborhood is threatened by Emily's father's development plans.
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.
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.
Five Dances
Drama · 2013
A gifted young dancer arrives in New York City and joins the downtown contemporary dance world. With talent to burn, he soon must choose between his responsibility to his broken family in the Midwest, and forging a life and career for himself.
High Strung
Music · 2016
When a hip hop violinist busking in the New York subway encounters a classical dancer on scholarship at the Manhattan Conservatory of the Arts, sparks fly. With the help of a hip hop dance crew they must find a common ground while preparing for a competition that could change their lives forever.
Trapeze
Drama · 1956
A pair of men try to perform the dangerous "triple" in their trapeze act. Problems arise when the duo is made into a trio following the addition of a sexy female performer.
The Lost Husband
Drama · 2020
Trying to put her life back together after the death of her husband, Libby and her children move to her estranged Aunt's goat farm in central Texas.
Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Joel Silberg
Written by
Charles Parker · Allen DeBevoise · Gerald Scaife
Lucinda Dickey
Kelly / Special K
Adolfo Quinones
Ozone
Michael Chambers
Turbo
Ben Lokey
Franco
Christopher McDonald
James
P
Phineas Newborn III
Adam
Ice-T
Rap Talker
Court is in session
Put Breakin' 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.