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Movie review: ‘Stomp the Yard’
BY MAGGIE SCOTT
Say the word “fraternity” and immediately (depending on your age) you’re either thinking “Animal House” or you’re thinking “Animal House.” Yes, the Greek houses for worthy young men have been known to provide opportunities for cutting loose. They also provide opportunities for forging personal bonds, excelling academically and giving back to the community.
If you would like to see another side of fraternities, in particular black fraternities, do not fail to check out the inspirational new film from director Sylvain White, Stomp the Yard. Along with formula plotlines about young love and proving yourself in the face of a crushing tragedy, here is dancing the likes of which you have not seen on the big screen.
L.A. street dancing loses one of its finest practitioners when Darnell James Williams (Columbus Short) arrives at Atlanta’s Truth University at the insistence of his uncle, who isn’t buying DJ’s assertion that “the college boy thing isn’t for me.” Uncle Nate knows DJ’s made of better stuff than what went down before DJ held his dying brother in his arms after a dance battle at an underground club.
A prison record has followed DJ across the country; but worse, guilt and grief have nearly shut him down. He needs a way to prove himself. Fortifying his uncle’s expectations for achievement is the challenge of impressing possibly the prettiest girl at Truth. April (Meagan Good) is the daughter of the university’s provost. And, she’s the girlfriend of Grant (Darrin Henson), the leader of the championship step team from Mu Gamma Xi.
DJ doesn’t let Grant’s status and his taunt of “bootlicker,” or a lowly grounds keeper work study job keep him from pursuing April, seriously hitting the books (with help from her tutoring) or resolving that he will do whatever it takes to lead the rival step team from Theta Nu Theta fraternity to a complete and thorough trouncing of Mu Gamma at nationals.
DJ injects the raw physicality of hip hop street dance into the more regimented routines of African Boot Dance-based stepping. Those routines are all about teamwork; about spectacular precision of movement and rhythm.
But, DJ knows it’s a new day and time to move beyond the “old school” and lay the groundwork for a new tradition. On the verge of winning love, respect and redemption, DJ’s past is about to threaten everything. Short has dramatic charisma to burn; and a body that refuses to pay gravity its due as it scorches the air it parts and the ground it shakes. A Screen Gems film, rated PG-13 for violence, sexual content and language.
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