Tropic Sprockets / Finding Carlos

By Ian Brockway

“Finding Carlos” by director Lance McDaniel is a well-intentioned hip hop dance film based on the RACE production of the Nutcracker.

Unfortunately, the self-conscious preachiness of the narrative undermines its message. Instead of an authentic coming-of-age film, it feels like a soap opera outlined in graffiti. 

Carlos (Maximus White) is a young teen troubled by his mother who is in rehab. His father is absent and he is raised by his relatives,who don’t understand him. Carlos has a chip on his shoulder. He hates authority but wants to dance. He spends his days skating through the park. 

Through his grandfather, he re-connects with his estranged dad (Michael Andreus).

Dad wants to put on a version of the Nutcracker with a hip hop slant. He takes his son along to different dance groups. Meanwhile Carlos’ mom is in rehab chewing the scenes. 

What we see is several dance segments, needlessly accompanied by kitschy reaction shots. One with a Native American group break dancing is well done and fun in keeping with the genre, but another is cringe-worthy, showing an octogenarian group performing moves as one dancer collides with another. 

Overall the segments feel like 1980s (or 1970s) music videos with not much going on. Some of the dancing is entertaining but the weird moments tend to spoil the lot. A few interludes have the performers merely stepping about in hip hop poses as they make overdone faces. 

The actors appear to merely read lines of dialogue and Maximus White is charming, so much so that his hangdog and surly manner feels hammy and misplaced. The angry young kid story is the stuff of melodrama. The cinematography is arresting, featuring vibrant colors and graffiti, of course.

If this had been interspersed with some wit, “Finding Carlos” might have been a cult film of sorts on par with Joel Silberg’s unapologetically silly but amusing “Breakin” (1984), but the acting and momentum is so ho hum here it falls, if not fails, however well intended.

At the end, one is preached to with titles in big block type and it is off-putting. One wonders if this is meant for children. Whatever the case, some subtlety would serve the film well.

This story is in dire need of humor and jokes. Sadly, the only real rolling here will be done with the eyes. As is, “Finding Carlos” is a gesture without much verve or motion, the very elements that make the hip hop movement so compelling.

Write Ian at [email protected]

[livemarket market_name="KONK Life LiveMarket" limit=3 category=“” show_signup=0 show_more=0]