Over the last few years, Netflix has waded quite thoroughly into the realm of teen comedies, specifically teen romantic comedies, and the latest is the teen rom-com with a dance twist, Work It. Though Netflix has had massive successes like The Kissing Booth and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and lesser known gems like The Half of It, the overall quality of Netflix movies is rather hit-and-miss – and in the case of Work It, it’s more of a miss. The movie is directed by Lauren Terruso (Good Girls Get High) from a script by Allison Peck (UglyDolls). Netflix’s Work It is bogged down by its trite and wholly unoriginal underdog story, but its charismatic young leads help the movie limp to the end.
In Work It, we have another teen movie where the main character – in this case Quinn Ackerman, played by singer and actress Sabrina Carpenter – has the sole focus of getting into the college attended by one of their parents; for Quinn, it’s Duke, the alma mater of her father, who died when she was young. However, Quinn’s 4.0 GPA and extensive list of extracurricular activities apparently aren’t enough for Duke admissions officer Ms. Ramirez (Michelle Buteau), and Quinn ends up lying that she’s on her school’s award-winning dance team. Instead of admitting her lie, Quinn tries to actually join the team, lead by Julliard (Keiynan Lonsdale), but she can’t dance and doesn’t make it. Still determined, Quinn forms her own dance team with her best friend Jas (Liza Koshy) and some kids from school. With the help of young choreographer Jake Taylor (Jordan Fisher), Quinn sets out to win the Work It dance competition – but first she has to learn how to dance.
While there’s a nice message at the heart of Work It about everyone being able to express themselves through dance, the movie’s story is largely a hodgepodge of cliches that have been done to death – and done far better – in teen movies already. The motivation of a teen character to go to a specific college to feel closer to a dead parent has been done many times before, and Work It never digs deep enough to make this storyline even a little bit original. Even in the scene where Quinn discusses her motivations with Jake, the dialogue is so similar to other movies that the viewer can predict what the characters will say before they say it. Of course, there’s something to be said for the comfort of a familiar formula, and rom-coms especially often stick to the same basic structure, but Work It doesn’t effectively put its own spin on the standard story. A couple off-color jokes and some charming actors does not a good rom-com make.
For their parts, Carpenter and Fisher – and to a somewhat lesser extent Koshy and Lonsdale – do what they can to bring some personality to Work It. After being the breakout favorite in Grease: Live, Fisher proved himself to be an excellent romantic lead in Netflix’s To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You, and he again brings his affable charm to Work It. Carpenter is similarly solid as Quinn, and the two have a decent amount of chemistry to carry the romantic storyline of the movie – and they both certainly have the dance skills, making their dance scenes together a treat. But there’s a forced aspect to their dynamic in the movie that becomes blatantly apparent when Fisher and Carpenter are goofing off in a blooper that plays during the credits, and this short clip is far more fun and compelling than much of the movie itself.
There’s much about Work It that fails to connect, the overdone storyline and cliche script chiefly among them. Even the dance sequences, which should be the movie’s biggest strength, aren’t all that spectacular. They’re fine enough for a direct-to-streaming Netflix movie, but don’t have the spectacle or personality of dance sequences in theatrically released films about dancers. Perhaps the movie’s best sequence is one when it embraces the different styles of Quinn’s ragtag dance team. When Work It effectively uses its dance sequences to develop the characters’ personalities or storylines, then it excels, but unfortunately this often isn’t the case in the movie.
In the end, Work It is far from a must-watch Netflix movie. Fans of Carpenter, Fisher and/or dance movies in general may find enough to like in Work It – and the movie’s short, roughly 90-minute runtime means it’s a quick watch. But those not already interested in checking it out would be fine missing it entirely. With Netflix releasing new movies and TV shows at a rapidly increasing rate, some of its originals can get buried if they don’t become breakout hits and Work It seems destined for this fate. Ultimately, Work It just doesn’t work.
Work It is now streaming on Netflix. It is 93 minutes long.
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