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Surprisingly incoherent and boring

Pretty Good

Don't listen to the negative reviews

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Each year within the New York Public School system is a ballroom dancing competition. This year we follow a couple of schools from inner-city areas and the pupils who find themselves sucked into the competitive dance-offs despite the reservations some of them feel.This film was billed as "this year's Spellbound", which was both a smart marketing move but also an unhelpful comparison. In regards the subject then it is a fair comparison because it deals with school kids in competition but unfortunately the quality is not quite as high. The weakness here is in the delivery and structure because I think it tries to throw its net too wide, taking in groups rather than individuals. As a result it never brings out specific characters as well as Spellbound did and as a viewer I never got engaged with individuals that much. In the general sweep approach though the film does work as a rather fun documentary. The kids are all wonderfully "Noo Yark", "BK" etc clichés and there is a certain pleasure in watching them get engaged in the dancing and enter into the competitive spirit.In a very white, middle-class way I suppose I'm suppose to take something bigger from this and certainly some of the reviews have come across as being "moved" in a rather condensing way. But this is the downside of having "underprivileged" (read "non-white") kids as a general group and not bringing individuals out apart from here and there – they become a mass and not a subject. The dance contests and the sass of the pupils does give it enough energy to carry it along but outside of this there is not a lot to get from it and I rarely found myself engaged in a general competition that I had little personal stock invested in. The classes focused on are all quite fun but again I did want the individuals to be brought out more.Overall then a colourful and quite fun film with plenty of energy but a weakness in the approach and structure. Unlike Spellbound we don't really have individuals that we can follow but rather groups and this approach stops stories and morals coming out. The result of this is an OK documentary but nowhere near as strong or as interesting as it could have been and in regards the quality of the film it certainly does not deserve its comparison with Spellbound.

As I was watching this wonderful film, I couldn't help thinking that it was the first, truly positive and inspiring documentary that I had seen in a very long time. The dedication and enthusiasm of the teachers was particularly wonderful. These are people who are completely invested in these children and it was a privilege to see them. Highly recommended film. It was also extremely encouraging to hear the evaluation of one of the principals who noted that, without the ballroom dancing program, one young man quite likely would've gone on to a life of crime but - instead - had demonstrated leadership qualities (and, I believe, went on to win the contest);another young lady, who had been having discipline problems, had become well-behaved and problem-free, largely because of this program.This is an inspiring film and well worth watching.

For many of the students who attend New York City's public schools, education often takes a back seat to the daily struggles brought about by poverty, language barriers and broken homes. It's small wonder, then, that so many students drop out of school, turn to gangs and drugs, and lose all hope for a bright, productive future. In an attempt to circumvent that scenario and to give its children a viable reason for staying in school, the district has implemented a program that introduces all 5th graders to the fine art of ballroom dancing. After a year of training, the best dancers go on to compete in a citywide competition that, for many of these kids, represents the one truly positive influence in their lives. The rapturous documentary "Mad Hot Ballroom" is a tribute to that program.Director Marilyn Agrelo has focused on three schools, two in Manhattan and one in Brooklyn, where the program is in full swing. Most of the film is spent chronicling the efforts on the part of the teachers and the students to get ready for the competition. However, the movie also offers a generous collection of clips showing the children in their off-school hours, at home or in local hangouts. The kids are not shy about opening up for the camera as they comment on all aspects of their lives, revealing their street smarts and their refreshingly candid, canny and thoughtful assessments of the world around them. And as the competition increases, the kids learn a little something, too, about the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat.The film-making style - which alternates between interviews and scenes of the children dancing - is straightforward and relatively conventional, but the subject matter is so compelling in its own right that any attempt on the part of the filmmakers to fancy it up would most likely have detracted from the movie's overall value as an instructional document. If there is a flaw in the film, it is that the movie isn't as successful at differentiating the individual participants as, say, "Spellbound," a movie about spelling bees which took great pains to zero in on specific children throughout the course of the film, the end result being that we really felt that we got to know them as people. In "Ballroom," however, the kids, adorable as they are, come across more as part of a herd than as a collection of clearly delineated individuals. But the scenes centered on the competition are as filled with suspense, emotion and high drama as those in "Spellbound." In this day and age in which funding for the arts in public education should have its own Endangered Species Act, it's wonderful to see such a program not only surviving but flourishing in such unpromising soil. Though the program is clearly no panacea for all of life's many ills, for these children, at least, it seems to be a major step in setting them on the right path to a future full of promise and hope.Steeped in emotion and beautiful in spirit, "Mad Hot Ballroom" is "inspirational" film-making in the very best sense of the term.

This is amateurish, camcorder-level shooting. The content is essentially an argument by teachers for why the program should be funded, and would have been better off used for this purpose with the NYC Board of Education.I was sorely disappointed by this film, as I am originally from NYC, went to a "P.S." grade school, and was charmed by the idea of reminiscing a little watching the opening credits.It is a boring documentary with a few cute moments when the kids are dancing, and a few interesting comments by two children -- one a 10 y.o. girl, who is a sort of philosopher, and one a 10-y.o. boy, who is quite talkative. The reasons for my rating of 2 and not 1.The cutting is terrible. I enjoy dance, and some of the kids were good dancers, but the photography tries to capture faces (poorly), and jumps, as in an action movie, every 3 seconds. The included announcements of winners is trying to sit through, slow and trite.A minor complaint: It was also annoying to see that although this is about 5th grade, the winners of the "contest" seem to be kids who are at least 13 years old. They therefore are able to manage "Cuban" motion better, as they are apparently already postpubertal. Although the teachers seem to struggle with making the competition fair, and with not hurting any child's feelings (although sensitive, this also got repetitive), the entire contest actually seemed unfair to many, who were only about 10 years old.