Bravetown

Often filed under the “guilty pleasure” category, an abundance of films peddle this familiar trope: A misfit protagonist uses music and/or dance to navigate the troubled teen and young adult landscape. These heroes/heroines in films like Footloose, Save the Last Dance and Step Up are often left to fend for themselves because the adults are usually just as clueless about life as they are.
Fitting perfectly—at first—into the genre is Bravetown, the debut feature by Venezuelan director Daniel Duran. Josh Harvest (Lucas Till, X-Men: First Class) is a 17-year-old who lives with his uncaring mother (Maria Bello) in New York. He leads a secret life as one of the city’s hottest club DJs and remixers. Josh overdoses during a gig and is sentenced to drug counseling instead of jail. (He has “priors” for forgery and other crimes, thus cementing his bad-boy clout for the audience.) His mother doesn’t want to deal with him and ships him off to stay with his estranged father (Tom Everett Scott) in North Dakota.
For its first two acts, Bravetown follows the fish-out-of-water formula, set to an electronic dance music (EDM) soundtrack and a thoughtful score by Angelo Milli. As Josh travels through America’s heartland, the EDM fades into the background, replaced by folkier sounds that complement cinematographer Angel Barroeta’s pastoral landscapes. It’s in North Dakota that Josh’s icy exterior slowly melts away as he begins his Good Will Hunting-esque therapy sessions with counselor Alex (Josh Duhamel) and gets closer to Mary (Kherington Payne), the captain of the school’s terrible dance team.
In a cheesy—yet awesome—scene, Josh steps behind the turntables for one song during a dance team performance because the DJ’s mix offends him. Though Mary doesn’t want his help at first, the team improves with Josh’s music and eventually makes its way to the state championships. The first few dance routine scenes are entertaining and exciting, but there are too many similar scenes included throughout the film. It doesn’t help that the routines are filled with elements of cultural appropriation, with the squad taking on Bollywood, hip-hop and Asian and Latin influences, with the music and costumes to match.