The Citizen Review " A man goes to the movies. A critic must be honest enough to admit that he is that man." -Robert Warshow

Jack says: A-

If you ever watch a reality show on MTV, then I'm sorry. Those aren't realilty. There is one called "Taking the Stage" about teenagers at an art school in Cincinnati trying to become stars. It's not horrible but it's not very realistic. Well, Every Little Step gets everything right that TTS gets wrong. It's gritty, it's funny, personal, terribly entertaining and you can't help but get up and dance.

It follows the journey of severl actor/dancers trying out for a part in the revival of A Chorus Line, the tour de force of the 70's. It shows just how quintessential this show was and is in the lives of dancers and actors. There are parts where the director plays excerpts from the famous night where all the dancers gathered to talk about themselves. That premise alone is haunting and beautiful enough to sustain the movie.

To make things very interesting, it puts the story of the dancers struggling to get to the top in the real lives of the dancers trying to make the crucial cut.

The dancing is real, raw and out of control. The producers and directors and choreographers who worked on the original show are great to watch as well. They are true characters, especially Baayork Lee. She is the dancer from the original, playing the part that was written about her life. and she's a true force of nature, a creature of the theatre.

This film deftly moves from person to person, telling their story from callback to callback. It shows the pain and the risk that actors take when they do their job. It shows the letdowns, the happiness, the utter up-then-downness of it all. It's a documentary that is so electrifying and raw that I found myself wanting to watch it over and over again.

Matthew says: A-

Documentaries. No matter how riveting the subject sounds, the real film is rarely ever as intriguing. However, this little documentary will make you smile, cry, bite your nails in anguish, and want to leap from your seat and dance. In fact, that may be the only flaw in this film, having a sudden wish to burst out in song and dance and then realizing you can't. (I'm just speaking for myself).

Every Little Step is the story of the revival of the Broadway classic, A Chorus Line. The film goes off and on between the audition process of the revival and the history behind the original musical. The history is fascinating, and the auditions are insanely entertaining.

This movie really does make you feel deep sad emotion. With the true stories of these dancers with subtly troubled pasts. They may not seem excruciatingly horrible on paper, but as these real people tell their stories with full honesty, it's heart breaking. And then it shows these actors try to pay homage to these people and their stories, you really want them to. And in the end, seeing the finished show, after all the work put into it, you feel like a proud parent seeing their child chasing their dreams.

Jack says: C

The Lovely Bones is one of those confusing dramas where one must watch it two or three times to fully grasp or understand it's intent. Unfortunately, it's also one of those dramas where you don't want to endure it's wrath more than once.

There were parts of this film that I found enjoyable. The writing (which I hear is mostly derivitive of the Alice Sebold bestseller) was very good. Susie Salmon's monologue was poetically passive, if not slightly ambivalent. It was delicate and quietly beautiful. I thought the scenes that simply examined how the family reacted to the given situation were at times very good too. It showed how random the horrible act was, and how everything can suddenly change, and how we realize that we are so unaware. It also showed that life is so delicate and that very few things are needed for us to be alive, and how easily they can be taken away.

There were also parts that were in my opinion just unnecessary. Not unnecessary just in the aspect that they were frivolous and didn't help the story, but scenes that were probably not meant for the screen. The scene that leads up to the murder of Susie is so horrifying and taxing that I had to turn away. It wasn't exactly distasteful, it wasn't gruesome. It was subtly disturbing, but I don't think it needed to be. We all know how horrific murder is, we don't need a lesson.

The book The Lovely Bones is unread by myself but it seems like a book that doesn't translate well for screen. The scenes where she was in "the blue in-between" weren't inconsistent but they just were wrong. I don't know why. It seems like the film would have been better as a dramatic study of the family after Susie's death, and her just narrating it. But on the same token, those heaven scenes might be necessary. What I guess I'm saying is that this just can't be made into a film, at least not by Peter Jackson.

After leaving the theater, my friends and I were confused. We weren't sure whether it was good, or if we even liked it. But we were pretty sure we wouldn't want to see it again. I think we were so confused because the film was confused along with us.