Rize: Critic Reviews

A vibrant eruption of motion and attitude.

The stories and personalities that do emerge are touching and intriguing.

LaChapelle reveals the captivating qualities of gritty street dancing, and his film is a touching story of hope, vitality and art rising from the bleakest conditions.

Visually stunning.

It's a feel-good film that actually makes you feel good.

Few of the interviews get much further than recording surface boasts and assertive self-definitions; LaChapelle connects all their stories with common threads of resisting gang culture, but at the expense of flattening out each person's character.

Tells this story simply and effectively, with an uncharacteristic restraint that prioritizes genuine sentiment over high-gloss style.

Rize soars on the wings of breathtaking images.

Clowning and krumping are urban art and art therapy in motion.

The most remarkable thing about Rize is that it is real.

Rize is a compelling, bittersweet hybrid of a movie, one celebrating an enormous and hitherto unsung underground talent, while suggesting that art goes only so far in solving the enormous challenges of the underprivileged life.

Captures the spirit and astounding agility of its krump constituents with appreciative zeal.

Rize is actually a film about how art can be subverted and perverted by the same social and internal pressures that spawned it in the first place.

Eye-popping lensing and an appreciation of social complexities combine for an entirely satisfying experience.

David LaChapelle's documentary is, in its happiest moments, a summer party and a hip-hop milestone.

'Trend' or fad, Rize should endure as a piece of history.

It's a well-known truth in the dance world that the body doesn't lie. As long as the characters in this film are dancing, we have little reason to doubt their sincerity. But once turned into talking heads, the dancers begin to sound like propagandists.

A vivid portrait of art rising from deprivation and social hopelessness.

An exhilarating portrait of a groundbreaking, up-from-the-L.A.-streets strain of athleticism as performance art, Rize would make a provocative companion piece to skateboard documentary Dogtown and Z-Boys.

There's no way to take your eyes off it.

Enthralling.