Yellow Reviews

Nearly 25 years after FLASHDANCE (1983), the tale of an aspiring dancer who strips while dreaming of her big break is reborn with a Latin spin. Amaryllis Campos has studied ballet since she was a child, and her first teacher was her beloved father, classical dancer Francisco Campos. But though the grown Amaryllis (Roselyn Sanchez, one of the film's producers and the story's cocreator) still loves the dance, she's set her aspirations aside, living at home and delivering pizzas to support her father (Jaime Tirelli) — now wheelchair-bound and depressed — and her alcoholic mother (Sully Diaz). Amaryllis' live-in boyfriend, minor-league drug dealer Angelo (Manny Perez), isn't interested in her ambitions, but she lacks the resolve to dramatically change her life until she's hit with the double shock of her father's suicide and Angelo's infidelity — with her own mother. Amaryllis moves to New York, takes over a conveniently abandoned apartment on the Lower East Side, befriends her next-door neighbor — cranky, high-strung poet and scholar Miles Emory (a twitching, jabbering Bill Duke) — and discovers that the only work she can get is stripping at Club Labrador under the stage name "Yellow." True, the Labrador girls perform their elaborate bump-and-grind routines in costumes a Vegas showgirl would envy, but Amaryllis still dreams of being a serious dancer, even after she begins dating regular customer Christian Kyle (D.B. Sweeney). Can she remain focused on her art, or will she get lost in the easy-money world of pole dancing? Directed by Alfredo Da Villa and scripted by makeup artist Nacoma Whobrey, Amaryllis' story unfolds in the kind of New York where people leave their doors open, landlords pay no attention to who's living in their rental apartments, and strip-club owners take a purely paternal interest in the young women who work for them. For all its "follow your dreams, stay true to your ideals" message, it's Yellow's elaborately staged routines that take center stage. The fact that Sanchez has real-world dance training is evident, though probably of little consequence to the fans she'll make through her enthusiastic gyrations.