When I think of a Netflix Original, coming-of-age dramedies come to mind. I’m drawn to them because they acknowledge and help power through the stress of the 21st-century youth experience.
Netflix attempted to do this once again with Work It, the streaming service’s latest coming-of-age movie.
The story centres a teen named Quinn (played by Sabrina Carpenter). Quinn finds herself forced to start her own dance team after lying to admissions at Duke University—her dream school.
With the help of a choreographer, Jake (played by Jordan Fisher), she and her friends compete against the other dance team in her high school. Julliard (played by Keiynan Lonsdale) is the ringleader of the established team and a bully.
The movie speaks to the insane amount of pressure people of Generation Z feel about starting their lives. The characters question, “If Einstein were alive today, would he have even gotten into college? I mean, sure he was good at math and science, but did he have extracurriculars?”
Lack of purpose
Although the movie starts out by providing emotional comfort to an anxious Generation Z audience, it forgets its purpose by the midpoint and becomes a generic dance movie.
At the midpoint, Quinn learns that (spoiler) getting into Duke isn’t that important and she should dance for the love of the art and to preserve the friendships with her crew.
What message am I supposed to take from that? Ignore your responsibilities and prioritize your hobby?
In the final scene (again, spoiler) Quinn gets into a different university and everything turns out ok—laying the groundwork for a potential sequel. This ending doesn’t feel as comforting as it could be because half of the dilemma in that the original conflict is now gone.
Furthermore, the movie has problems with character motivation; namely that no one other than the protagonist has any.
Let’s compare this to Mean Girls. Here, we know Regina’s motivation: she desperately wants to keep her status as Queen Bee. So when Cady threatens her status, all the shady things Regina does feel real.
Work It doesn’t have that. Instead, Julliard is a one-dimensional character who seemingly has beef with Quinn for no reason.
Character development aside, Work It excels at being a light-hearted teen comedy. It’s reminiscent of other Netflix Originals I love. While watching the opening scene, for example, I couldn’t help but think about the pilot episode of The Politician.
Both feature their respective protagonists explaining through voice-over how they worked their whole life to get into an exclusive university, followed by an admissions counsellor telling them they’re still not good enough.
The film also made good use of symbolism, namely in the audios Quinn wakes up to. At the start of the movie, Quinn is seen listening to a Ted Talk as she gets ready. Not long after, the admissions counsellor makes fun of her for how boring this morning ritual is.
By act two, when Quinn is holding onto her dance team (and by proxy her chances of getting into Duke) by a thread, she gets ready in silence, symbolizing her emptiness.
As the movie concludes, Quinn learns that dancing is an end in itself. She cranks Taylor Swift in the morning, symbolizing finally having a life goal that she’s happy with.
Worth a watch
Even if the plot and symbolism go over your head, the movie still makes for an aesthetic treat. The song and dance capture your attention, the costumes look good, and of course, Jordan Fisher is really hot.
Work It turned out to be more of a chill movie to distract yourself from your surroundings than some sort of parable for Generation Z truth, but it might still make you laugh and dance along.
Featured image from Netflix via IMDb.
