Review of Save the Last Dance, directed by Thomas Carter

If you’re new here, and stumbled upon this blog through the mythical powers of the Internet, welcome! I know a lot of visitors to my website are people who randomly come upon this website through search engines like Google, but I also do have a lot of visitors who come back. Regardless: my name is Ashley, and I started this blog in order to keep track of everything I’m coming across in the world.

About a year ago (at the time of typing this) I quit my job as a professional film critic to explore what was out there in the world when it came to publishing about the movies and books I wanted to see, not just what was popular in the moment. Digital media and working within it can be fun and all, but it can be grinding when you’re just chasing after all the latest trends and clicks for SEO.

I started this blog four years ago, during the pandemic, but never really took it seriously beyond the occasional post here and there about what I was up to. In 2023 I began to realize the impact this blog was having on me, and other people were reaching out about reading it, so I expanded. Once I quit my job, I decided to focus on the blog more while job hunting, as I do make a few pennies here and there from the display ads on the screen.

During my time job hunting, in-between applying to jobs here and there, it happened to coincide with an economic crisis worldwide, which meant I had even more extended time applying to jobs. Because I had all of this newfound free time, I decided to catch up on all of the movies and television shows I’ve been wanting to get to throughout the years, but never felt like I had the free time to get to them.

Save the Last Dance is a movie I’ve always kind of known about, but didn’t really know what it was about. I had no interest in watching it for the longest time, but because I had so much free time, it was suggested to me one day and I decided to press play. And I will admit: I was entertained by it more than I expected.

Let’s get into the review! I can see this introduction is getting a little long.

Ballet dancer Sara moves to Chicago’s south side, finding love and new inspiration while learning a little more about the world.

The main character in this movie is Sara, who, at the beginning is 17. She has big dreams as a talented dancer, and even an audition prospect with the prestigious Juilliard on the line. Her whole life could change with this one audition, so she begs her mother to drive her there, but when she’s at the audition nothing seems to go right. To make things worse: her mother dies in a car accident trying to get her there and back.

Sara gives up ballet after this and moves in with her father to Chicago’s South Side, which is unlike where she lived in the suburbs before. Her father spends his nights performing at the clubs with his trumpet, as he’s a jazz musician, but he doesn’t have much money or fame. She’s enrolled in a new school that’s majority Black, and she is now one of the only white students.

This is a completely different experience for this little white girl, but she makes friends with Chenille, who’s a single mother her age. Chenille has her problems throughout the movie with her ex, Kenny, which will boil later on in the film. but first, Chenille is the one to introduce Sara to hip hop and that style of dancing.

They go to a dance club, where Sara meets her brother Derek, the shining gem of the community who has big dreams of going to DC and attending Georgetown, then becoming a pediatrician. From the get go there’s chemistry between the two of them, and Derek clearly has a crush on her. He offers to teach her hip hop dancing, which might be a ploy to try and spend more time with her too.

It’s Derek who gets her back into dancing and ballet. As they grow closer, Sara tells him about her mother and what happened, but when they go back to the dance club and dance together, wowing the people watching them, his ex Nikki shows up and starts dancing with Derek. Sara is pushed away, but Derek apologizes to her later on about what happened.

Sara takes him back to her dad’s apartment, and Derek tells her that if he can achieve his dream, so can she. They start dating not long after that, but Nikki, at school, starts picking fights with Sara. While accompanying Chenille to a clinic, Chenille admits to Sara that she can understand how Nikki is upset losing to a white girl, as Derek is one of the few “good” Black guys at the school (emphasis on “good” being in quotes, as this in itself is a problematic statement in some ways).

This upsets Sarah, who leaves, and their friendship is fractured. She then breaks up with Derek when she realizes the implications of their relationship racially. At the same time, Derek’s friend Malakai is getting sucked into the gang life, and when he helps him with a drive-by, Sara goes off to an audition. However, he learns soon after what Chenille said to Sara, leading him to confront his sister, who apologizes and tells him that’s why Sara broke up with him.

She also admits Kenny hasn’t been treating her well, that she let her pent up emotions about it onto Sara, and how Derek should try again with Sara. She also tells him to avoid Malakai, as he can lose everything he worked for if he keeps up with the gang activities. Derek tries to stop Malakai, but he refuses to stop associating with the gang, forcing Derek to turn his back on his best friend.

As Sara nervously takes the stage at her audition and messes up, Derek arrives and gives her encouragement, much to the judges’ annoyance. With his help, she manages to give a riveting performance, and the judges are impressed to let her into Juilliard. Derek and she get back together, while Malakai is arrested on the streets.

The film ends with all of the crew celebrating Sara’s acceptance at the dancing club.

Overall Thoughts

To me, it’s interesting that this movie came out in 2001, as I don’t know of any interracial high school movies from that time like this. Chenille’s speech to Sara, which she misses the point of completely, is also an interesting monologue and dialogue that feels brutally honest, if not one of the most important lessons of the movie.

As Sara was invited into the worlds of these characters, we don’t know if the reverse would happen. If Sara were a Black female student, would she have the same support for the Juilliard audition in 2001? Would she have a white boyfriend who is the top of his class? She’s had an easy time being accepted in this movie, that’s for sure, but I wonder about the opposite story.

Besides that, this is a movie we’ve really seen before. I think I’m inspired to find more literature and movies about the South Side and Chicago’s Black community after seeing this, as I want to know more about this community and the Great Migration there. I read a bit in The Warmth of Other Suns, but now I want to dig deeper.

Go watch it if you’re interested in the film! It might be worth it to you.

Follow me below on Instagram, Letterboxd, and Goodreads for more.