SXSW Film

Dance With the One

Narrative Feature, Narrative Competition
D: Mike Dolan; with Gabriel Luna, Xochitl Romero

Locally grown and cultivated, Dance With the One is the culmination of a graduate student project midwifed through the screenwriting, filming, and production stages by the considerable talent on hand at the University of Texas Film Institute. The film follows the exploits of Nate (Luna), a disaffected small-time dope dealer who longs to escape the confines of his life in Austin with his girlfriend, Nikki (Romero), while also assuring a better future for his younger brother. This leads to a chain of ill-advised decisions with somewhat predictable results. For what is essentially a high-end student film, Dance With the One is extraordinarily well done. While Luna and Romero deliver performances that belie their slim acting résumés, the predictability of the plot is a glaring weak spot, with the added problematic stereotype of yet another Latino family ensconced in the drug trade.

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Saturday, March 20, 2:30pm, Paramount