Strictly Ballroom (1992)
A movie about the dull people who live in an intense little community Down Under obsessed with ballroom competitions. Virtually everyone in the film carries on in
close-ups and sweeping long shots whirling across polished floors with arms and knees jabbing the air like hammers.
At the core of the fever and sweat is a fairytale about a young dancer (Paul Mercurio) who wants to invent his own steps and ignore the rules, and a plain-faced gypsy girl and socially unacceptable
"outsider" (Tara Morice) who turns into Cinderella at the ball whenever the music starts.
Mercurio has a lot of the young John Travolta in
Saturday Night Fever in his pulsating gyrations, and the endless dancing is undeniably
energised, but the rest of the movie is amateurish and corny, requiring great patience.
It's basically an awkwardly directed, badly photographed Australian
version of Dirty Dancing, but there are enough waltzes, rhumbas, tangos and fox trots here to keep your feet moving under your seat.
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