Stop me if you’ve heard this one before: a father and his young adult daughter embark on a road trip that takes some comically uncomfortable twists and turns before they’re finally forced to say the unsaid things that created so much distance between them.
Rick Gomez’s directorial debut “She Dances” doesn’t win any points for originality, with a premise that could be found in one form or another on the festival circuit in pretty much every year since the dawn of independent film. And it’s a little too willing to indulge in cliches, particularly in a first act that’s dominated by tired plot points like “the teenage daughter doesn’t know how to change a flat tire and Dad insists on teaching her” and “the hotel mixed up our reservation, so we’re stuck at the worst motel in town.” But even if it gives seasoned viewers cause to roll their eyes at tropes they’ve seen a thousand times before, the film offers enough sincerity and father-daughter chemistry to provide a gentle reminder of why these cliches worked in the first place.
Co-written by Gomez and Steve Zahn, who stars alongside his real daughter Audrey Zahn, “She Dances” begins with a series of seemingly happy occasions, but nobody seems to be enjoying them as much as they ought to be. Jason (Zahn) and his longtime business partner Brian (Ethan Hawke) are preparing to sell their microdistillery (named Two Jacks, due to the fact that they met at school when both of their sons were named Jack) to a liquor conglomerate that promises to make it “the biggest bourbon in the world.” It’s a deal that could set them both up with generational wealth, but Jason’s plans to spend the weekend entertaining his buyers and closing the deal are upended when his ex-wife enlists him to drive his daughter Claire (Audrey Zahn), to a dance tournament upstate. He initially bristles at the inconvenience, but Brian encourages him to go. It’s Claire’s last dance tournament before she heads to college, and she wants someone to be there.
Once he accepts the job, Jason demonstrates an admirable determination to bond with a daughter he’s not particularly close with. But his dreams of making father-daughter memories are upended when he finds out he’s responsible for driving her her best friend Kat (Mackenzie Ziegler) as well. He soon finds himself hauling two teenage girls who want nothing to do with him to a tournament and then immersing himself in the strangely intense world of youth dance competitions.
It soon becomes clear why everything feels so off at what should be a joyful period in everyone’s life. The family is still grieving the recent death of Jason’s son Jack, and nobody has sufficiently processed it. Jason medicated with self-destructive behavior and throwing himself into his job, while Claire poured all of her emotions into her dancing. As the trip forces everyone to confront their emotions, the father and daughter both have to ask themselves whether the paths they’re on represent what they really want.
While the film suffers from some flat, uninspired writing, the ensemble cast brings enough quality character work to the table to ensure it stays watchable. Steve Zahn seamlessly steps into leading man status, delivering a nuanced performance that refreshingly presents the estranged father archetype as a good man who consistently tries his best to be there for everyone around him. Hawke only shows up for a few key scenes, but he provides the perfect amount of charisma and empathy as a concerned best friend who captures how the world sees this broken family and reflects it back to them. And Audrey Zahn gives a fantastic debut performance, embodying the burdens of a teenage girl who has already endured unimaginable tragedy and shouldered the burden in a state of solitude.
Those performances are enough to salvage the film, and “She Dances” ends up being a sweet, sincere viewing experience that occasionally transcends its status as an off-the-rack road trip dramedy. It’s unlikely to be remembered as anything more than an excuse for Steve Zahn to make a movie with his daughter, which should end up being a strangely fitting legacy for a film about how precious and fleeting moments can be.
Grade: B-
“She Dances” premiered at the 2025 Tribeca Film Festival. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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