2 Best Movies to Watch by Tara Morice

Staff & contributors

Strictly Ballroom is an energetic, fun and hilarious movie. Baz Lurhman does an incredible job telling the story of a rebellious young dancer who just wants to dance his own steps in the face of conformity. When he finds an inexperienced yet determined dance partner it's the beginning of an unexpected love story like no other. This movie isn't like the usual rom-com, it has colour, vitality and passion. It's a Moulin Rouge but with even more character, and the work that put Lurhman on the map for everyone.

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

Actor: Antonio Vargas, Armonia Benedito, Barry Otto, Bill Hunter, Gia Carides, John Hannan, Kris McQuade, Lauren Hewett, Pat Thomson, Paul Bertram, Paul Mercurio, Peter Whitford, Pip Mushin, Sonia Kruger, Steve Grace, Tara Morice, Todd McKenney

Director: Baz Luhrmann, Baz Lurhman

Rating: PG

, 2023

Renowned choreographer Benjamin Millepied brings an 1875 opera leaping into the 21st century with this modern retelling — through dance and drama — of Carmen. The plot is reimagined along the US border and recenters the titular character (Melissa Barrera), a newly orphaned refugee from Mexico making her way to her godmother (a fabulous Rossy de Palma) in LA. In places, Carmen recalls Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet: aided by Nicholas Britell’s operatic score, it embraces its grand origins to evoke a star-crossed sense of looming tragedy over the romance that blossoms when reluctant border patrol guard Aidan (Paul Mescal) saves Carmen’s life and flees with her to California. 

Where Carmen really soars is in its translation of drama into dance. It’s an inspired move, pairing this almost mythical story with such a primal medium — but, while the movie achieves visceral emotion that words would struggle to produce in its choreographed scenes, there’s something lacking in the moments where dialogue is crucial. The conversations never move as fluidly as the dancing bodies do, and the passion and the fury falter as a result. That being said, this is largely still a boldly inventive filmmaking experiment, one that spotlights the thrilling potency of pure movement as a storytelling medium.

Genre: Drama, Music

Actor: Benedict Hardie, Elsa Pataky, Kaan Guldur, Melissa Barrera, Nico Cortez, Nicole da Silva, Paul Mescal, Richard Brancatisano, Rossy de Palma, Tara Morice

Director: Benjamin Millepied