(spoiler free)
“Step Sisters is a 2018 dance comedy film directed by Charles Stone III. It stars Megalyn Echikunwoke as a black sorority girl who agrees to teach the art of Greek stepping to a house of party-obsessed white sorority sisters”
Though ‘Step Sisters’ is plentiful with its smart, honest discussions concerning cultural appropriation, it’s shamefully just frustratingly bad and, worse still, lazy and cheap. Strange choice as this may be, let us talk about a film that I bare no love for; one to compare each film’s discourse in order to understand how ‘Step Sisters’ is inhibited from being the smart film it ought to and could have been – ‘Ex Machina’.
How a commentary film (a film designed with its commentary as a priority) accesses its subject matter and plot motivation has a crucial affect on the effect of the discussion it plays with. This isn’t a particularly complex issue, but this is a film also hindered by being boxed in by too many cliché devices which dilute the message to make it more digestible and permeable.
‘Ex Machina’ has two modes of story: there is Caleb (Domnhall Gleeson) talking to the A.I. robot (Alicia Vikander) and Caleb talking to the inventor (Oscar Isaac) about the ramifications of the A.I.. The film is ninety nine percent talk. Every line of dialogue is laser focused on the literal subject and the authenticity of the A.I. while carrying the emotional stress of undergoing a nosedive into the disturbing philosophical implications. Without the plot being so direct, the film wouldn’t be making its point as it would be. To have a substitute A.I. would be meaningless, to not be conducting the interviews would also be meaningless – a real discussion is given credibility since it concerns the ultimate motivation, the sole invention of the literal subject. She is created, she is A.I..
I’m using the word literal a lot here because, until a better metaphor or device is used and/or discovered, the beating heart of the commentary film will always be the thing itself. Interacting with subject itself is the sole purpose of your film, it’s how you generate a valid, poignant discussion. It doesn’t have to be heavy handed but it has to be a conversation with consequence. Giving the Sigma Beta Betas (the ‘Mighty Ducks’ of this film, they who are in need of fixing) the excuse to step is by far the worst decision one could’ve made on a film discussing cultural appropriation. The “appropriation” here, as it is quickly deemed with high guarded sensitivity, is and always was a temporary product of circumstance – essentially, in creating SBB’s excuse, to save the sorority by learning how to step and thus bring respect back to the university, it exonerates them of intent and consequence. If Ava’s (from ‘Ex Machina’) entire existence is to be A.I. then she is the threat. If SBB’s entire purpose is to save the sorority, then it is never to appropriate anyone’s culture, nor are they valid for the discussion.
However, this film has an agenda. Everyone talks in bitesized diatribes; they sound neither like university students nor real people. They’re automatons of a credibly informative Tumblr blog. They’re machinations to espouse socio-political theories. In fact, ‘Step Sisters’ behaves like its lamest character it despises so much, Dane. This would be tolerable, had their analogous conflict been in any way relevant to the cost of the real problem.
The cost of SBB performing a step routine is relatively low – the goal is to save the sorority and then likely never perform again. You might consider it a gateway for white people to pick up and popularise the dance form; though this wouldn’t be a bad thing, provided that they do not “claim” it. To which the film also makes sure to defend itself against – it would’ve been easy to make the film about a team of white dancers learning to rule the dance, and then have the white character popularise the dance – instead ‘Step Sisters’ gives itself fair representation by having Jamilah as the viewfinder/appreciator/mentor/opportunist for the dancers. Jamilah is responsible for the popularity stepping gains from ‘Step Sisters’. The movie is about stepping being a part of black culture, and Jamilah is a literal participant in that. Ergo, my point reiterates itself.
Writer Chuck Hayward (and producers, in particular Lena Waithe) seems far more concerned with the problem of gate keeping than cultural appropriation, and therefore the heart of this story is a missed target since it only comes to purpose in the final moments. This is a shame, since this topic could’ve been a wealth of awakening considerations. No spoilers here, but here’s the main flaw of the movie, and this should give you a good idea of what the overall quality of this movie is: the major conflict of the theme is resigned and dealt with as a final dramatic beat. The real lightning bolt that it hits you with is the fact that systemic prejudice is a problem on both sides. The moment that scratches the surface of the message that we need to be fairer as human beings and recognise that we’re trying to solve our own problems and perhaps culture can be a shared identity where we can also acknowledge and respect its origins, is left as a finishing retaliatory monologue addressing a minor character and ideal were introduced five minutes ago. In fact, systemic problems had hardly been addressed before this plot point – the drama was mostly about cultural defenses. I thought it was interesting to show how culture shouldn’t be used by anyone, until the ending, where it said that it’s ok to be used by anyone – kind of defeating the arc, but whatever.
Great drama is effective when we see that everyone is accountable for their actions and responsibilities, at least ninety five percent of the time (because sometimes a portion of the opposite can be just, if not more fascinating – see ‘Magnolia’ and the famous rain scene). I think the best example of a film literally interacting with the idea and the heart of its story is ‘Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind’, a movie about two people who decide to erase each other from their memories and regret it woefully as they undergo the experience. The entire film is a discourse about the mistake of forgetting/erasing the bad in your life without understanding that it is a part of you which you just have to live with, and that in living with these memories, you would regret living without them when you risk losing every other memory of life, joy and happiness that came with it (among numerous other themes concerning the memories which connect us to others).
After everything is said and done in ‘Step Sisters’, nothing ever truly penetrates. If a film is to shoot me point blank in the face at least I’d know the bullet, where it came from and who shot me. ‘Step Sisters’ shoots from the shadows, with its eyes closed and its head turned in the opposite direction, afraid to buckle up and take authority for its message.
Written by Joseph McFarlane
Rating – 4/10
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