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Directed by :
Sylvain White
Writing credits (WGA) : Robert
Adetuyi (screenplay) , Gregory Ramon
Anderson (earlier screenplay)
Cast : Columbus Short as DJ ,
Meagan Good as April , Ne-Yo as Rich
Brown , Darrin Dewitt Henson as Grant
(as Darrin Henson) , Brian J. White as
Sylvester
 Review
: In film, nothing signifies snobbery
faster than sticking a character with a
Greek fraternity or sorority pin. "Stomp
the Yard" will have none of it. The
movie reveres the storied
African-American fraternity/sorority
tradition, and it takes great pains to
mention everyone from Martin Luther King
Jr. to Esther "Good Times" Rolle as part
of this legacy.
There's another tradition at play in
"Stomp the Yard": the college musical.
Along with Spike Lee's "School Daze,"
the film bears more than a passing
resemblance to the 1947 version of "Good
News." Sixty years ago June Allyson
offered French lessons to Peter Lawford,
the least likely football hero in the
annals of sport. "Stomp the Yard" finds
Meagan Good tutoring the street-dancing
hero in the subject of history, though
those lips/those eyes keep getting in
the way.
An L.A.-to-Atlanta transplant with a
secret, DJ (Columbus Short) first spies
April (Good) in I'm-in-love-slow-mo at a
drinking fountain during freshman
registration. The fictional Truth
University is ruled by the highly
competitive world of stepping, wherein
movement and rhythm drills combine
gumboot-style African dance vocabulary
with contemporary flourishes. Hip-hop
ace DJ doesn't like the step nonsense.
He's more "ghetto," and has a dead
brother to prove it. (Early on he's
killed in an L.A. railyard rumble with
rival hip-hop dancers.)
The lure of the fraternity universe
proves too much, and DJ joins up with
Theta Nu Theta. Their chief step
competition is Mu Gamma Xi, whose leader
(Darrin Henson) is also DJ's rival in
love. "Are we doing a step show or are
we doing a rap video?" wonders one of
DJ's conservative Greek brothers, thrown
by the new guy's moves. Like the "Breakin'."
films of the 1980s and the deathless
lambada movies, "Stomp the Yard" is
determined to mainstream its dance sub
genre. The script by Robert Adetuyi was
based on a script by Gregory Anderson,
according to the film's unusual credits.
This explains why "Stomp the Yard"
contains 200 percent of your daily
requirement of cliche.
In the dance scenes director Sylvain
White keeps cutting everybody off at the
waist, and editor David Checel is so
into speed and dazzle the sequences keep
getting cut into tiny little bits. Yet
the visual noise is offset by the people
on screen. Short and Good are long on
charm, and DJ's uncle and aunt are
played by Harry J. Lennix (always a
pleasure) and Valarie Pettiford (a Fosse
dance veteran herself).
The results are corny beyond measure.
Yet there's something sweet about them,
in part because there's something sweet
about hearing the line "Congratulations!
Why didn't you tell me you pledged?"
outside the realm of comedy.
MEDIA PARTNER
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