Breaking Through is a cautionary tale about the perils of fame. That's a sturdy formula, but here it is applied to the world of the Internet. And so instead of the universal allure of actual celebrity, the movie offers up the abstract satisfaction of gaining followers and likes. And through these low stakes, the film runs through the same formula, which makes everything seem even more ridiculous than it already is. Breaking Through is essentially the story of a person who ends up neglecting her friends because she’s too busy on Instagram.
Casey dreams of becoming a professional dancer and choreographer. She's spent a year uploading videos of her dancing with her crew, hoping to catch some attention. Just when she's about to give up, she's approached by Quinn, who heads up a new management company for YouTube creators. With his help, Casey finally gets the attention that she wants. But it turns out that being Internet famous is harder than it seems. Casey caves to the demands of her management, and ends up neglecting her friends in the process.
What the film really fails to convey is just how great it could be for Casey to reach her goal of becoming Internet famous. There is talk of sponsors and classes and whatever else, but the film never makes it feel like it's actually much of a big deal. And so, when Casey starts becoming an awful person, it near impossible to have any sympathy at all for what she's going through. It's easy enough to understand how actual fame might transform a person. It is much more difficult to grasp the drastic change in a character when all she's after is more followers on Instagram.
There is a story to be told about fame in the digital age, but this movie doesn't know how to tell it. It seems entirely baffled about how all of it works, never really bothering to explain the economy that might help one sustain an actual career online. It instead offers up rote subplots like a non-starter of a love triangle and an undercooked bit involving an illegal sex tape. Regardless of what it is that the film is focusing on, it manages to make it awkward through very stilted writing.
And the worst part is that the dancing isn't even fun. What works at home on a computer screen doesn't really translate on the big screen, it turns out. The dance sequences are painfully static, and most of them lack a narrative connection. They are just isolated sequences that don’t convey anything that relevant to the story. The acting is all pretty bad as well. Lead Sophia Aguiar is probably the best in this cast, but she’s hampered by a completely inorganic story. And she has no one to bounce off of, the rest of the cast unable to return what she’s giving.
Breaking Through might be the worst dance movie ever made. And that’s saying a lot. The genre hasn’t exactly been known for producing anything particular worthy of the price of a ticket. But this film features none of the meager pleasures that those other films provide. The thing is, the film seems to be completely baffled by its subject. Or at least, it really struggles to tell a story that works with the elements of Internet culture. It just lays on an old formula over this new setting, never bothering to figure out how to make these pieces fit.
My Rating:
