Another Cinderella Story Full Info
In an era of prestige television and gritty reboots, Another Cinderella Story offers something rare: pure, unpretentious, sugary comfort. It knows you’ve seen this story before. It assumes you don’t care. And it bets you will still tap your foot to the final dance number. It wins that bet every time.
★★½ (Two and a half glass Zunes out of five) Stream if: You have a lingering soft spot for 2008 fashion (leggings under skirts, fedoras), need a nostalgia hit for the MySpace era, or want to see Jane Lynch teach a masterclass in elevating trashy material. another cinderella story full
Andrew Seeley—a professional dancer and ghost-singer for Zac Efron in High School Musical —has the physicality but not the acting chops. The chemistry is functional. The real scene-stealer is Jane Lynch as Mary’s eccentric, former-dancer guardian. Lynch delivers every line about "kitchen choreography" with the deadpan commitment of a woman who knows she is in a B-movie and is having the time of her life. In an era of prestige television and gritty
Gomez, then 16, was in her "sweet but sarcastic" transitional phase. Unlike Duff’s naïve Sam, Gomez’s Mary is a cynic. She wears a track jacket, listens to hip-hop, and has zero interest in fame. When Joey reveals he is a pop star, she scoffs: “You’re a puppet. You don’t write your songs, you don’t produce your beats, you just show up and look pretty.” It is a surprisingly meta critique of the Disney machinery that Gomez herself was a part of. And it bets you will still tap your
The film’s true innovation—dated as it is—is its integration of early viral internet culture. The inciting incident involves Joey’s choreography being stolen by his fake-girlfriend, the deliciously villainous Dominique Blatt (Jessica Parker Kennedy). Mary, masked and empowered, dances her way into Joey’s heart, only to lose her Zune. The ensuing search isn’t a prince combing the kingdom, but a YouTube-esque video hunt titled "The Mystery Dancer."