Work It review, wanna dance?

In Work It, Quinn (Sabrina Carpenter) has spent her entire school career making her credentials look good enough to be admitted to Duke University. She’s got a 4.0, does volunteer work, plays cello, belongs to some extracurricular groups. She should be a shoo-in, right?

The high school in Work It is famous for its dance team. Quinn’s best friend Jasmine (Liza Koshy) is on the team. The leader of the dance team is Julliard (Keiynan Lonsdale). He’s Jasmine’s nemesis.

Quinn’s mom (Naomi Snieckus) drives Quinn to Duke for an interview with the admissions officer, Ms. Ramirez (Michelle Buteau). Ms. Ramirez thinks Quinn is boring and wants someone who will break out of the box. Like someone on the school’s famous dance team. Quinn is very much not a dancer, but she tells Ms. Ramirez she is.

When she gets home Quinn begs Jasmine to teach her to dance. She puts together an unlikely group of dancers who agree to work together to try to qualify for a competition. That would make Quinn look good to Ms. Ramirez, right?

Quinn convinces a former dance champ from her school, Jake (Jordan Fisher), to coach her group of misfits. Jasmine will help. With a lot of work and time, Quinn’s team gets semi-good.

There are problems and setbacks, but also some successes. Just when it looks good for Quinn, Ms. Ramirez leaves Duke for a different university. OMG! Now what?

I recently reviewed another teen drama, Crush, with almost the same plot. It was a track team instead of a dance team, but very much the same idea. Honestly, Crush was better, but Work It was enjoyable and inspiring. Laura Terruso directed this one. She gave her cast plenty of room to show off their dance skills.

You may have seen Work It already, it came out in 2020. It’s currently streaming on Netflix if you want to take a look. Digging around through Netflix looking for shows and films starring women or directed by women often leads me back to older movies like this one that are still enjoyable and entertaining.