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Poster for Rize

Rize

2005 · 1h 26m · PG-13 Documentary
Directed by David LaChapelle

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Overview

A documentary film that highlights two street derived dance styles, Clowning and Krumping, that came out of the low income neighborhoods of L.A.. Director David LaChapelle interviews each dance crew about how their unique dances evolved. A new and positive activity away from the drugs, guns, and gangs that ruled their neighborhood. A raw film about a growing sub-culture movements in America.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
84%
Tomatometer
Rotten

It's a well-known truth in the dance world that the body doesn't lie. As long as the characters in this film are dancing, we have little reason to doubt their sincerity. But once turned into talking heads, the dancers begin to sound like propagandists.

Susan Walker, Toronto Star
Fresh

A vivid portrait of art rising from deprivation and social hopelessness.

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail
Fresh

LaChapelle's powerful street-dance documentary Rize never lets us forget that its subjects are dancing in a war zone. But dance they do, in a kind of controlled frenzy, with music throbbing and limbs whirling and swaying and pulsing to the beat.

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times
Fresh

[LaChapelle's] not the world's best documentarian, but he saw something that needed chronicling. So he turned his camera on the krumpers and let them do the rest. Smart choice.

Robert Denerstein, Denver Rocky Mountain News
Fresh

Clowning and krumping are urban art and art therapy in motion.

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post

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