"She Dances:" Steve Zahn's Love Letter to Fatherhood at Tribeca 2025

This year's Tribeca film festival has seen the releases of a laundry list of high profile films starring some of the biggest names in Hollywood. One of these new films was the American feature She Dances starring Steve Zahn, Ethan Hawke, Rosemarie DeWitt, and Mackenzie Ziegler. A movie that largely features Zahn and his daughter, Audrey as their characters navigate their broken relationship, a chaotic dance competition, and the things they consider most important in life.

She Dances, directed by Rick Gomez follows the story of divorced Dad, Jason (Steve Zahn) who gets assigned the last minute task of chaperoning his daughter, Claire (Audrey Zahn) to her final dance competition with her best friend Kat (Ziegler). While at the same time, Jason is in the midst of selling his company with his best friend, Brian (Ethan Hawke).

She Dances is a film that will feel all-too-familiar with those who grew up in the world of competitive dance. The stress, misplaced costumes, the long days, the stage moms, need I go on? The close proximity of Claire and Jason forces them to work through their many deep-seeded issues with each other. It becomes obvious early-on that their family went through a pretty devastating divorce but we don't know exactly why until much later into the film. It's only when that pain is confronted that Claire is able to deliver her best performance and Jason gets to feel some semblance of normalcy for the first time in years.

This film is a lot of things, chaotic, relatable, and often overly-saccharine but above all, She Dances is a family affair, taking a lot of inspiration from the lives of the Zahn family. The film is at its strongest when its being honest and at its worst when its trying to adhere to a traditional story structure, like having a pretty ham-fisted villain and some shaky dialogue. The film also suffers quite a bit from being overly sentimental and sappy. There are also a few unorthodox cinematography choices in the final scene that come off as a bit jarring upon first watch. Unfortunately the weakest element of the film is Mackenzie Ziegler's performance as Kat, but she still has a lot to learn as an industry newcomer.

The Zahns also worked in close collaboration with director, Rick Gomez, who also served as both producer and screenwriter, doing everything possible to make this film come to life. She Dances is one of the first features to be released under Gomez and Steve Zahn's production company: Macaroni Art Productions, which prides itself on telling human-oriented stories.

This film is definitely going to strike a chord with parents, and that's due to Steve Zahn's incredibly honest performance as divorced dad, Jason. A great deal of the script relies on comedy that comes from his relatable struggle as a father who is hopelessly out of the loop with his daughter's life but trying his hardest anyway. It might very well be Zahn's best performance yet. Audrey Zahn also gives a perfectly decent performance in her feature debut and it's clear that she has learned a lot from her father's career.

While the film can be a bit sappy, and is definitely rough around the edges, She Dances has an incredible amount of heart. There are always going to be inevitable comments about nepotism when it comes to a film like this, but it's nice to see a film at Tribeca have such a sincere depiction of family both on and off screen.