I watched Step Sisters on Netflix last night on a whim. Netflix recommended it to me when it released, and my only reason for watching was Megalyn Echikunwoke. I’m such a fan of hers. I can’t explain the how or why, as I haven’t watched a lot of things she’s been in nor have I actively sought them out, but I’m always happy when I run into something she is in.
The first thing I remember seeing her in was a little MTV soap opera called Spyder Games. I can’t really recall the other actors from the show, but I always remember her and her character, Charity. Charity the police chief’s (maybe chief, he was a policeman though) daughter and was in love with this guy named Sascha. This show was on around 2001. The next thing I remember seeing her in was an episode of The Game and I instantly recognized her. The next thing was Injustice 2 where she is the voice of Vixen, and apparently, she is the voice actress for the animated show and there was an episode of Arrow (maybe, or one of the other CW DC shows) where she plays the live action version of Vixen.
It’s weird, I feel I don’t have the dedication to call myself a fan, per se, and it isn’t like I know her or anything, I just am really happy when I see actors from shows I watched as a teen who are still in the industry and doing well. I’m also that person who is really happy when I see co-stars of shows/movies are friends in real life. I can’t explain it.
Anyway, to the film itself. It got a lot of low scores, and I thought they were unfair. It wasn’t the greatest film I’ve ever watched, but it was nowhere near the worst. I appreciated it for what it was. For me, it felt like a Bring It On in a Dear White People universe, if that makes any sense (and it should, as it shares producers with Dear White People.)
I felt at times it was a bit too silly for what it was trying to say and there seemed to be times when emotions suddenly skyrocketed from 0 to 100 or vice versa ( and sometimes from 0 to 100 to 0) which felt a little jarring, but overall I was entertained. The premise of the film is Jamilah, Megalyn’s character, needs a recommendation letter to get into Harvard. Her parents, though Harvard graduates, will not write a letter for her, due to her not achieving a 4.0. She works for the dean, in some capacity I don’t think was really explained, and after a scandal with a sorority, he offers to provide her the recommendation letter if she teaches the sorority to step. I should mention, Jamilah is part of a black sorority, the Thetas, and the other sorority, SBB, is white (with the exception of one black member.)
I can’t really put my finger on it, but this felt like a Bring It On lite, like I imagine the sequels to Bring It On are. Again, I really enjoyed it, and it added its own flavor to make it unique, but if it weren’t for Megalyn, I would have just watched Bring It On. It felt like there wasn’t a lot of time spent with all the characters. In the end, when they have their step competition, I could point out maybe three of them that I knew for sure, the others, I couldn’t tell if they were just dance extras or if they’d been there the entire time.
It also did the thing in Bring It On where the main character has a boyfriend and he seems great, but then turns out not to be, so she ends up dating a guy she meets on her new journey, and I just noticed this part too, he is the brother of her new friend. Hmm. I had more of an issue with this in Step Sisters than I did in Bring It On. Again, I felt it was because I didn’t get to spend a lot of time getting to know a lot of the supporting cast. So, Jamilah’s boyfriend is white, played by the very sexy and very woke Matt McGorry. From my understanding of their relationship, they seemed very happy. All of a sudden, she meets this new guy, who is black, yet the brother of the white president of SBB, Danielle (we’ll get to her in a moment.) and she ends up dumping her boyfriend for him. The new relationship is very cute, but it felt like they made Matt’s character a villain all of a sudden, literally in one scene her criticizes her for teaching the SBBs step, to justify her dumping him for Danielle’s brother. It felt forced, in my opinion.
There were times when it felt like, ok, this is where we need to hit an emotional moment, and one would come out of nowhere, and it felt odd. And when things blow up in Jamilah’s face, the person who does it didn’t make sense to me, even though she explains why, and I felt Jamilah was a little quick to forgive, despite not having a reason to do so.
My favorite two characters in this film were Jamilah and Danielle, and I feel it is likely because of the actresses. So I already expressed my feelings about Megalyn, but the actress who played Danielle, Lyndon Smith, I need to discuss. I’ve never seen her before, but I loved her immediately. She reminds me of a Demi Moore: The Next Generation. She is the bitchy president of the SBB, and she has this way of talking that makes her seem like she has seen it all, heard it all, and is so exhausted by the conversation that she can barely speak. I don’t know if that is how she always speaks, but I loved it. Her character also reminded me a lot of myself. She is cold and distant, but underneath it all, she does care for her sorority sisters, in her own way.
Overall, it was a cute movie. I went into it with no expectations and ended entertained.
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