Movie review: ‘Go for It!’
“Go for It!” is a funny title for a movie that barely reaches for anything outside of what’s been done to death thousands of times before in inspirational dramas and dance films.
Asked by a junior college teacher (Al Bandiero) what her aspirations are, Mexican American student and underground club dancer Carmen (Aimee Garcia) snidely replies, “Hip-hop.” But her self-doubt and defensive attitude about following through on her dream — choosing a bland, rich white boyfriend Jared (Derrick Denicola) over dance practice or applying for arts school — threaten to derail Carmen.
Writer-producer-director Carmen Marron is clearly working out something more personal here than the standard “Step Up”-style genre flick — why else name your lead character after yourself? Garcia easily projects a troubled soul, but the real issues of Americanized immigrant children finding their way are given short shrift from the scene-to-scene lack of narrative and emotional focus — why do we get the teacher’s story on the side? — and a tone that veers from comic caricature (Jared’s hopelessly snooty, clueless parents) to left-field psychodrama in the case of her hotheaded partner-in-partying Gina (Gina Rodriguez).
Annoyingly, the dance sequences — mostly club battles between all-female crews — are over-edited mash-ups of close-ups and sloppy camera movement, chopping up the human form in a way that does no credit to the hard work of choreography and technique.
‘Go for It!’
MPAA rating: PG-13 for sexual content, language, brief violence and drug material
Running time: 90 minutes
In wide release
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