Razzle Dazzle: A Journey into Dance (2007)

Regardless of tragedies happening globally our personal lives will always take precedence.Disasters happen. Mayhem abounds. But stubbing your toe will supercede all. T'is part of the human condition.In Razzle Dazzle, an excellent comedy, dance dominates the characters lives.Their raison d'etre, their whole rationale, superficially presented as terpsichorean.In truth, of course, there's far more involved - Egos, ambitions, needs and wants.The setting's no more than a convenient device. We all take ourselves too seriously.The deadpan delivery of patent absurdities. The self deception and lack of awareness. All these conspire to raise a chuckle along with a certain empathic engagement. You'll quickly forget it's a mocumentary. Mr. Jonathon's real - He's out there somewhere.Names may change. Locations differ. A mirror might well prove useful.

Yes. I, rooprect, am offering a money-back guarantee with this film. That's how confident I am that you'll think it's funny.When I saw this for $4 in the Blockbuster used pile, the DVD cover wasn't very convincing nor were the reviews on the back which made it sound like an ABC afterschool special. I figured it would be a dud. But since I'd never seen an Australian film & I like Australian accents, I figured it would be a decent way to kill an hour & a half.2 minutes into it, I LOL'd. A few minutes later I LMAO'd. And when they said that line about Brandon Lee, I actually ROFL'd. The gags kept coming, and at one point I thought to myself there's no way they could keep up the pace without becoming absurd. But somehow they managed to deliver laughs throughout AND also develop some very interesting characters and an engaging story with some super cool dance moves & super cute girls (not to mention 1 boy who's such an amazing dancer it'll make you want to try a backflip or two).It's hard not to compare this film to "Spinal Tap", "Mighty Wind" and the other great mockumentaries by Christopher Guest because the format is very similar. But Razzle Dazzle is refreshing enough that you'll never think of it as a Guest ripoff, even though it fits right in. What makes it so refreshing? The extras.Yes, the real stars of this film are the young, 11-13 year-old girls who play the dancers in this misfit dance troupe. They don't say a lot of lines, but whenever they're on camera their expressions & reactions are so hilarious you'll find yourself rewinding to watch them again in the background. In the "Making Of" featurette on the DVD, the director said he achieved this by not telling the girls the script beforehand, so their reactions are 100% genuine. There was also quite a bit of ad-libbing. The result is pure comedic perfection.The adult actors were great themselves. Each person plays a caricature of reality but they do it so convincingly that you never stop to think you're being had. There's a loser, a spaz, a bitch, a clueless mom, and a weird goth chick in one of the funniest non-speaking roles I've seen. Really, everyone did a fantastic job. I think this is one of the greatest examples of deadpan humour I've seen in a long time.I can't believe only 340 IMDb people have voted on this film to date. "Razzle Dazzle" definitely gets my vote for the best undiscovered gem in the last 10 years.

Few is the correct adjective which describes my viewing and experience with mockumentaries. Next in line is the fact that you don't get too many highly acclaimed Australian movies which literally dazzle all us couch-spectators. Such were the facts, experiences up my sleeve with this section of flicks, which propelled my mindset into the "must-see" mode. And there I was, curiously seated in front of the big screen.In a matter of a few minutes, it was apparent that the movie was so cleverly pre-wired to drag us into the sea of illusion that we were dealing with actual facts and figures that go behind the scenes in the Australian dance hype. It was only because of my high alert mode, that I kept on reminding myself that this was not real....only FICTION! For starters, this flick smacks of the determination, both mutual and individual, which the key characters subject themselves to, in order to play a role in the everyday competition saga which, it goes without saying, regularly repeats itself. Three categories of key-players in this game: the teachers, the students, and the parents, warrant themselves a lot of merit. For instance, not only do the children get on board, but their parents, pro-actively, push them towards the dance floor. It's an amazing game of desperation, commitment,effort by all parties involved.An eye-catching performance which steals the majority of the show is Mr. Jonathan. Crude? Clandestine? Do or die? Or determination verging on hysteria? Amazing how he tries to mold the mindset of his students in the bud, by asking them to imagine all sorts of shocking/horrific scenes, and making them fill in the action/reaction gaps through their dance steps.Good job Darren Ashton. We need more from you coming. And thanks for spicing up the scenes with such great tracks!

Razzle dazzle is a very poor excuse for a trip to the cinema. in fact so lame even as a dance pic it tanked completely and struggled to find even a morning session in week three. The problem? well there is no movie; it is yet another 'mockumentary' a sort of hybrid Waiting For Guffman or A Mighty Wind and too late in the cycle of so-called funny fake documentaries. Also it insults the very audience it seeks to draw... kids in the suburban dance schools and their fanatical parents... this is the sort of misfire typical of many Australian so-called comedies: no market research, obvious characters and a compete waste of resources and expertise. The whole misguided Mr Jonathan's school of dance disasters is simply not funny and basically smacks of being created without any thought to how asinine it actually is. The ads and posters for RD clearly suggest a teenage Strictly Ballroom but there is no movie, just this wobblecam 'making-of' nonsense. With a strong cast completely wasted mocking stereotypes they hope will actually buy expensive $16.50 tickets each to see this in a Sydney cinema, Razzle dazzle misfires on every count. Only two things are of genuine interest: Kerry Armstrong's great body and the fantastic interior of the Crest Ballroom. The boring rest? NO.