Dancehall Queen

Amazon.com Price: $9.39 (as of 02/01/2024 13:12 PST- Details)

Description

Product Description

Ghetto street trader and single mother Marcia (Audrey Reid) seeks a way to free herself from lowlifes like Larry, who lusts after Marcia’s daughter Tanya, and Priest, a violent street thug. She begins attending the local dance hall by night, becoming the new sensation and entering a competition. If she wins the substantial prize money, she can build a better life for herself and her family.

Amazon.com

A Cinderella story from the mean streets of Kingston, Jamaica, the alternately comic and gritty Dancehall Queen is an intriguingly dark crowd pleaser. Marcia (Audrey Reid) is a single mom and street vendor barely scraping by even with a financial assist from the seemingly avuncular Larry (Carl Davis), a gun-toting strongman with a twisted desire for Marcia’s teenage daughter. Complicating things is Priest (Paul Campbell), a murderous hood who killed Marcia’s friend and now is terrorizing the defenseless woman. Facing three big problems–Larry, Priest, and a lack of money—Marcia arrives at an inspired solution: develop an alter ego, a dancing celebrity called the Mystery Lady who can compete in a cash-prize contest and pit both of the men against one another. Which is exactly what she does, and it’s great fun watching Marcia instigate her complicated plan with a little help from sympathetic friends. Colorful, rowdy, funny, and dangerous, Dancehall Queen is a clever and ceaselessy energetic movie steeped in Kingston street life and the desire to keep body and soul together at home. Reid is a delight as the everyday figure who transforms into an icon in the evenings, and the dance scenes are amazingly bawdy. –Tom Keogh