Work It

Sabrina Carpenter sporting her optical white chucks in the library.

 

Sabrina Carpenter is everywhere these days. She owned the Summer of 2024 with her massive album, Short ’n’ Sweet, and the two number one hit singles it produced, “Espresso” and “Please, Please, Please”. Since then, she’s headlined a tour, won Grammys, released a Christmas special, and been the talk of the pop culture world. Before all that, though, she was a kid on the Disney Channel on Girl Meets World. She released a lot of music as a Disney artist before moving into more adult content. During this time, she was also acting in movies like Tall Girl and The Hate U Give. One of her biggest breaks was in this dance comedy film. Work It stars Sabrina Carpenter, Liza Koshy, Keiynan Lonsdale, Michelle Buteau, and Jordan Fisher, and was released on Netflix on August 7th, 2020.

 

Other members of the troupe also wear chucks in this film.

 

Quinn Ackerman (Carpenter) is a quirky and intelligent high school senior who works as the technical director for the Thunderbirds, her high school’s elite dance team. The Thunderbirds are the reigning champs of the Work It dance competition, the biggest dance competition in the state. Quinn, being the quirky and clumsy girl she is, accidentally sets something on fire at a practice. This causes Julliard Pembroke (Lonsdale), the ruthless leader of the Thunderbirds, to fire her from her position with the team. Things go from bad to worse for Quinn when her dream to attend Duke University is dampened by the school’s admissions counselor, Veronica Ramirez (Buteau). Veronica believes that Quinn’s chances of standing out to the admissions team are not good. Quinn, thinking quickly, lies and leads Ramierez to believe that she is a dancer on the Thunderbirds, even though she only worked the lighting rig. Ramirez is instantly impressed and vows to see her perform live at the Work It dance competition.

 

Quinn’s chucks show the scuff marks of someone who stumbles a lot

 

Though she considers telling the truth, Quinn instead decides to commit to the bit. She enlists her best friend Jasmine’s (Koshy) help to teach her how to dance for the team’s open auditions in two weeks. Jasmine is also a dancer on the Thunderbirds, but she is the exact opposite of Julliard. Quinn’s dancing skills improve substantially, but Julliard still rejects her. After Jasmine stands up to him and defends Quinn, Julliard sarcastically suggests that the two start their own dance team. This gives Quinn the perfect out: start a new team and enter the Work It competition to still impress Duke. Jasmine reluctantly agrees to quit the Thunderbirds in favor of Quinn’s new team, and the two bring together a merry band of misfits and name the troupe the TBDs.

Do a twirl!

 

The plot of this film is nothing special. It follows a classic formula that has been run into the ground, so much so that you’ll know exactly what happens. The main character tells a white lie they don’t immediately own up to, they slowly bond with a new group, just as everything is going well there’s the reveal of the lie, then there is a big fight where the main character loses the new friends they gained from the lie, before they all come back together and reconcile while winning in the end. You can copy and paste this plot to so many movies it’s comical. While the film’s plot may be formulaic, its star is anything but. Sabrina Carpenter was always a star, and that much is evident in this five-year-old film. Her charisma and comedic timing are traits you can’t teach, and it’s evident in this film that she was born to be in comedies. It’s a double-edged sword that her music career has blown up in the way that it has, because she could have easily been a mega-star in comedies and other films. Due to being one of the biggest pop stars we have today, it is unlikely she’ll ever come back to acting full-time, but here’s hoping that she does at least a few more movies in the future.

 

This is not the fit of someone who was born to be a dancer.

 

Best Chucks Scene

 

Step up… to the streets!

 

The best chucks scene in the film comes when the TBDs perform for retiree Harold. Sabrina Carpenter’s Quinn wears a version of the same outfit for basically the whole film: sweater, mom jeans, and white low-top chucks. This outfit, along with her clumsiness, really sells the idea that she is not a born dancer. She just looks like she doesn’t belong, even though chucks are a great dancing shoe. The TBDs perform to a Big Freedia song, and their routine couldn’t be more distant from what someone of Harold’s age would like. They’re twerking and getting all up in his face, and he is not reacting whatsoever. They end their routine, and it looks like Harold has fallen asleep. He’s so asleep, he isn’t moving. He’s also not breathing. Oh no, Harold’s dead. Quinn asks if he liked it, and then they hardcut to a body bag being carted out of the nursing home. It’s an incredible visual. There’s just something funny about a bunch of teenagers giving their all to a dance routine that an old person couldn’t care less about. The punchline of him dying takes the setup to another level.

When you and the crew put on a killer performance

 

Work It. (2020) Sabrina Carpenter, Keiynan Lonsdale, Liza Koshy, Briana Andrade-Gomes, Kalliane Brémault, Bianca Asilo, Alyssa Trask, Kiana Smith.
Categories: Comedy, Musical.
ChucksConnection Rating: MPAA Rating: TV-14

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