She Paradise

Naturalistically acted and scripted, with an island dialect that I needed subtitles for, this engaging story of young woman's journey into the highs and lows of the soca dance and music scene is well worth watching. Has something of the flavour of a music video but with a solidly dramatic underpinning. Recommended.

I recently watched the Trinidadian 🇹🇹 movie She Paradise (2020) on Tubi. The storyline follows a young lady living alone with her father who desperately needs money to support him. She decides to join a music video dance group but quickly discovers that the lifestyle may be more than she anticipated.

Directed by Maya Cozier, in her directorial debut, and starring Michael Cherrie ("Flight of the Ibis"), Kimberly Crichton ("Home Again"), Denisia Latchman, Kern Mollineau, and Onessa Nestor.

She Paradise does a fantastic job of portraying Trinidadian culture and lifestyle. It's enjoyable to hear their terminology and accents. The acting is brilliant and feels genuine, complemented by gorgeous backdrops that lend authenticity to the circumstances. The storyline is a nice blend of coming-of-age themes, desperation, and hope. I particularly appreciated the evolution of the main character and her outlook as she navigated various situations. The pacing of the storyline is well-executed and engaging.

In conclusion, She Paradise is a unique coming-of-age film that is worth watching. I would score it a 6-6.5/10 and recommend giving it a watch at least once.

This is a great look into life not mine but possibly someone else's. The acting and locations and music leave this to be one i would recommend ,a powerful and amazing performance by all .

I stumbled upon the 2020 drama "She Paradise" by sheer random luck in 2022. And with never having heard about the movie, of course I opted to sit down and watch it, despite of appearing to be a type of movie that I would otherwise never give a second glance.

And while "She Paradise" was watchable, it just wasn't a movie that particularly entertained me. But then again, I am not really into dancing movies and not enjoying the type of music in the movie one bit. Plus, the fact that this movie felt like it was aiming at a late teenage female audience, then I rather didn't fit the target audience.

The storyline told in "She Paradise", as written by Melina Brown and Maya Cozier, wasn't really a bad storyline. It was just one that fell short of providing me with much of any entertainment, as I wasn't the ideal viewer.

Needless to say that I wasn't familiar with a single actress or actor on the cast list, as this was effectively my very first Trinidad ang Tobago produced movie that I have seen. However, I will say that the majority of the performances were actually good. Lead actress Onessa Nestor (playing Sparkle) definitely carried the movie quite well with her performance.

If you enjoy dance movies and want something that transcends the traditional Western dance environment movies, you know the type of dance movies that are out there in an abundance, then give "She Paradise" a chance, as it also injects the storyline with some culture from Trinidad and Tobago.

Personally I have zero interest in dancing, so I can't claim to be able to say whether or not the dance performances in the movie were good or not.

I am rating "She Paradise" a generous four out of ten stars, given the performances and production value, since the story itself wasn't aiming to entertain me.