Trailer Review: Musical Chairs - Get into the Groove

I find it kind of nice to see the recent popularity of dance in American culture. With our life moving rapidly online, dance forces physical interaction, and old-fashioned opportunities for romance. It also looks great on film. The Step-Up franchise capitalized on the trend and has spread across TV with Glee and Dancing with the Stars to name a few.

The trailer for Musical Chairs follows a typical plot line of an out of step male dancer discovering a girl and a dance floor for a new passion against the consternation of his family and friends.

What makes this film interesting is its direction by Susan Seidelman, who made one of the best pop films of the eighties, Desperately Seeking Susan. That movie introduced Madonna, but also gave a tour through the funky underground of New York City punk culture for a wider audience. It was a comedy of mistaken identity with a feminist center about differences in domestic and unmarried life. Seeing Madonna get into the groove in a downtown bar was one of the visual touchstones of the decade.

So it's nice to see Seidelman return to the streets of New York. Following a Bronx-bred Latino who mixes it up with a respectable dancer at a Manhattan studio, there's a lot of bridge and tunnel rivalry to keep them apart. But like Desperately Seeking Susan, the trailer skims across the diversity living in and on the margins of the Big Apple. From uptown to downtown, handicapped to the cross-dressers, Seidelman seems to be returning to the music of the streets, a boulevard open for everyone.

Opening March 23, 2012, Verdict: Wait for the Critics