Stop me if you’ve heard this earlier: a father and his young adult daughter go on a road trip that takes some comically uncomfortable turns before they are finally forced to say the uncertain things that created so much distance between them.
Rick Gomez’s director’s debut ”She dances“Wins no points for originality, with a premise that could be found in one form of the festival circle in pretty much every year since The Dawn of Independent film. And it is a little too willing to indulge in clichés, especially in a first act that is dominated by tired plot points that “the teenage daughter does not know how to change a flat tire and dad insists on teaching her” and “The hotel mixed our reservation, so we are stuck to the worst motel in town.” But even though it gives experienced viewers causing to roll their eyes into Troper as they have seen a thousand times before, the film offers enough sincerity and dad-daughter chemistry to give a mild reminder of why these clichés worked in the first place.
Co -written by gomez and Steve ZahnWho stars beside their real daughter Audrey Zahn, “She Dances” starts with a series of seemingly happy occasions, but no one seems to enjoy them as much as they should be. Jason (Zahn) and his long -standing business partner Brian (Ethan Hawke) are preparing to sell their microdistillery (named two Jacks, because they met in school when both their sons were named Jack) as a liquor konglomed which promises to make it “into the largest bourbon in the world.” It is a deal that can put them both with General Wealth, but Jason’s plans to spend the weekend entertaining his buyers and close the deal is up when his ex-wife makes him run his daughter Claire (Audrey Zahn), for a dance tournament. He initially brushes the trouble, but Brian encourages him to go. It’s Claire’s last dance tournament before she goes to college, and she wants to any to be there.
When he accepts the job, Jason shows an admirable determination to bind with a daughter with whom he is not very close. But his dreams of making Father-Dotter memories is up when he finds out that he is responsible for pushing her best friend Kat (Mackenzie Ziegler) as well. He is soon to be drawing two teenage girls who do not want anything to do with him for a tournament and then delve into the strangely intense world of youth competitions.
It soon becomes clear why everything feels so rid of what should be a happy period in everyone’s life. The family still griefs the latest death of Jason’s son Jack, and no one has processed it enough. Jason medicated with self -destructive behavior and threw himself into his job, while Claire poured all her feelings into her dance. When the trip forces everyone to confront their feelings, the father and daughter both have to ask themselves if the paths they are on represent what they really want.
While the film suffers from some flat, uninspired writing, the ensemble Cast provides enough quality character work to the table to ensure that it remains vibrant. Steve Zahn goes seamlessly into the leading man’s status and delivers a nuanced performance that refreshing presents the foreign fatherar variety as a good man who consistently tries his best to be there for everyone around him. Hawke only shows up for some important scenes, but he gives the perfect amount of charisma and empathy as a worried best friend who captures how the world sees this broken family and reflects it back to them. And Audrey Zahn gives a fantastic debut performance and embodies the burdens of a teenage girl who has already endured unthinkable tragedy and shoulder the burden in a loneliness.
These performances are enough to save the film, and “She Dances” stops being a sweet, sincere viewing experience that sometimes exceeds its status as a road trip outside the racket. It is unlikely that it will remember as anything more than an apology for Steve Zahn to make a movie with his daughter, which should be a strangely appropriate legacy for a movie about how expensive and volatile moments can be.
Rating: B-
“She Dances” premiered at the Film Festival 2025 Tribeca. It is currently seeking US distribution.
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