Groove (Special Edition) (2000)

The film's cast which includes Rachel True ("CB4"; "Half-Baked"; "The Craft"), Denny Kirkwood ("Never Been Kissed") and Steve Van Wormer ("Idle Hands") are all fantastic, as well as the many actors who were casted via casting calls in the San Francisco area. The appearance of many popular rave/techno deejays such as DJ Polywog and DJ Digweed also add realism and authencity to this great film. However, the two scene stealers in this film have to be Lola Glaudini who plays "Leyla" and Hamish Linklater who plays "David" a workaholic writer who can't seem to enjoy a good time. Their encounter, and instant romance was the film's main subplot, and it made the film a feel-good movie at the conclusion. Ms. Glaudini who has appeared on television's "NYPD Blue" is one of today's talented young actresses, and after seeing her in this film, I anticipate a promising career in the near future.

Just like the film's tagline, "Are you feeling it?", I definitely felt the force of this independent feature film. When I read that the Catholic Archdiocese of New York City classified this film as morally offensive, I ran off to see even more so, however I found nothing offensive about it. As a Catholic, I probably will be casted to hell, however if so, I have no regrets in seeing this film. If you liked the film, I highly recommend its' soundtrack as well. Overall, groove is an experience you would not want to miss. Truly it is one of the best films of 2000.

The actual dialogue between the characters seemed a bit forced, such as the exchange between the promoter and one of his buddies who questions why he goes through the hassle of putting parties together anyway. Other aspects such as acting, and I hate to pick on the DJs but snaz and digweed seemed to me like they were trying to act as DJs, not actually being them, slowed the film down a bit.

The energy brought into Leyla's character was a nice boost to the movie, and the scene where Dave is outside beginning to feel the effects did make me feel a bit queasy :)

The film did a good job on trying to develop characters throughout the party instead of developing them beforehand and watching how they react to the different situations that occur. A nice twist since there have been many times where me and my friends will go and be completely open with people we've never met before. So, the film kind of caught a special element of the scene, which was a nice plus.

It seemed most aspects were covered in the movie....there were the candy ravers, the kid who just went so he could take as many drugs as possible, the guy who goes solely for the purpose of hooking up, the first timer, the sober veteran who watches after the first timer, the happy-yet-really unstable raver girl, the ravers who go just to hear their favorite DJ, and of course, the DJs themselves. Some of these characters were developed and represented nicely, but as noted before some of the lines they were fed seem to be more pointed towards people who have no idea what goes on in the scene...a "How to..." if you will.

Another neat aspect of the movie was the actual switching of the DJs themselves, and how they all had their own styles to bring. There was Snaz, who at times did a good job of representing the DJ who had to get the music going before the partiers had arrived, made some rookie spinning mistakes when they did come, only to give way to crowd-pleasing DJs who have an enormous amount of confidence in their abilities. A particular interesting turn came for Snaz, who had to perform an anxiety-riddled second set because another one of the DJs had a serious problem which prevented him from going on.

I'm glad the DJs themselves got their deserving chunk in the movie, since they are an ever-growing phenomenon in the industry. When Polywog turned up the volume during "Twenty Minutes of Disco Glory" at the build-up point, it reminded me of everything that is fun about the dance scene in general.

To summarize all this non-sense.....this movie could have been made better, but not all groundbreakers are masterpieces. If you've never been to a rave before, this would definitely be an interesting one to check out. If you have, it makes a good start to a collection that will hopefully grow as more and more people realize that the underground-yet-coming-up dance scene offers much more to the mind, body, and spirit than TRL on MTV ever will.