[yasr_overall_rating]
When Casey, a dancer who is discovered on YouTube, gets thrust into the modern world of internet celebrity and culture, she must find a way to balance her true identity with her online persona, or risk losing everything she cares about.
Inspirational movies teach you the importance of believing in yourself and never giving up on your dreams. And they are absolutely correct. From as far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a filmmaker and I made my very first movie when I was 12 years old. I am now 43 and not just making movies, I also write about them and review them, a side of the film business I never thought I would be in until a few years ago. “Breaking Through” is one of those movies. It stars Sophia Aguiar as Casey Wright, a young dancer who dreams of making it big. In real life, Ms. Aguiar did exactly that. Dancing since she was 4 years old, she made her way up the music ladder, as a backup dancer for such vocal heavyweights as Britney Spears and Beyoncé and she is now breaking out on her own.
The film is filled with cliché after cliché and the cheese factor is so high, you could make a cheese casserole out of it but still, I found it very difficult to not like this movie. Although the story is conventional and you can see the ending coming a mile away, its young, talented and engaging cast is what keeps it from sinking into oblivion. While Casey and her friends make music videos and post them on YouTube, the response is underwhelming. One day, Quinn (Jay Ellis), the owner of a newly established talent agency who is seeking new acts, walks into the electronics store Casey works at during the day. He informs her that he has seen her work on YouTube and has an investor who is interested in her and her friends.
The group is signed to Quinn’s agency but no sooner has the ink dried, Quinn tells Casey that he has an eye for talent and wants to brand her by herself, without her friends. Reluctantly, she agrees, after all, this is her dream and in no time, her career begins to skyrocket. Naturally, she gets caught up in the fame and fortune that accompanies her success and leaves her friends in the dust but when tragedy befalls one of them, she realizes what a horrible person she has become and sets out to prove to her friends, once and for all, that they mean more to her than anything else.
The film captures perfectly, the atmosphere and tone of a new caliber of dancer and singer, one who only needs to stand in front of a camera and do their thing for the whole world to see. Much like the real-life success of Ms. Aguiar and other fellow artists, such as Rebecca Black, Lana Del Rey, and Justin Bieber, YouTube has opened the doors and allowed people to achieve their fame by sidestepping conventional routes and instead, allowing these artists to create their own.
Available on DVD now
