KarenKay It was really interesting to follow up on their lives. They have had so many struggles through the years trying to find their way in life. Although the guys don't hold resentment, I must say that this makes me dislike Madonna even more than I already did. In my opinion, she took hold of "kids" who thought they were family and when she was done with them, she was done...She's a very cold person.

clytamnestra Many documentaries try to depict a hart-warming story of success, this one is all about the harsh realities of failure. And not just the failure of someone-who-never-got-a-chance, but the failure of a group of people who used to have-it-all. The background: in 1990 Madonna takes on a bunch of starving young dancers, handpicked from the then thriving underground gay art community which was all about 'attitude'. They are featured prominently in her tour and in the corresponding documentary.This should be their ticket to stardom and riches, but it isn't, at least not for very long. A few short years later they are embroiled in lawsuits against Madonna, and struggling with debilitating drug- addictions. Is it their fault for being naive and letting Madonna build them up as 'sexy and arrogant' and burn all their bridges? Madonna's fault for exploiting them to make herself look young and edgy and underground? The movie doesn't take a clear stand and that's okay, the truth is probably in the middle anyway.The view the movie gives of their present life isn't pretty: moved back in with his mother (who openly blames him for letting it all slip through his fingers), tries to carve out an existence as a dance-teacher, the occasional 'i used to dance with Madonna' show for small uninterested audiences. They try to desperately hold onto their glimmer of fame when the rest of the world has long moved on. Bragging about all the 'you changed my life, made me okay with being gay' letters they supposedly still receive.A large part of the movie is a reunion dinner. The movies makes no attempt to hide that this is staged (they don't seem to like each other very much, they just play along with the 'family' idea when it might help their career). There is even a new truth or dare game in which they all play their designated part: a dude comes out of the closet with his HIV, the straight kid tells us how he used to despise gays and their diseases, they angle for a new endorsement from Madonna, etc.

Red-125 Strike a Pose (2016) is a Dutch documentary that was directed by Ester Gould and Reijer Zwaan. It tells the story of the six surviving members of the seven-man dance group that accompanied Madonna on her Truth or Dare tour.It's a truly sad film. These young, talented men reached great heights during the tour. They became famous in their own right. They were like a family, and Madonna, who was in her 30's at the time, was like their mother hen.When the tour ended, they learned that they weren't really a family. Some of the dancers complained that Madonna had outed them in the movie Truth or Dare (1991). The conflict ended in a lawsuit.One died of AIDS, and the others have struggled with HIV, alcohol, and drugs. None of them maintained the heights they had achieved during the tour. All of them are struggling. (Some more than others, but still struggling.)In retrospect, these talented men would have probably done better if they hadn't been chosen for the tour. No one would have believed it then, but we can see it now.I didn't enjoy this film. The men may have been great dancers, and they may have felt like a family, but they each went their own way, and that way was down. I had hoped the movie would have had more dancing, but there wasn't very much of that either.Not my kind of movie, but the film carries an high IMDb rating of 7.7, so obviously I'm in the minority. I think dancing works better on the large screen than it does on the small screen. However, this movie will work well on either, because there wasn't much dancing.We saw the film at Rochester's excellent Little Theatre, as part of ImageOut, the wonderful Rochester LGBT Film Festival.l

Bram The first 30 minutes are okay, perhaps even enjoyable, the story is set up and quite interesting. But after that.. It's just pure TLC style. The story is nice, but it just did not add any new information after a while. I have never walked out of a movie in a theatre before, but I did on this one.I like what this group did, together with Madonna, for the acceptance of homosexuals in the world, only this movie does not do the tour, these men, or any of the people involved any good.I think that even if you are very interested in Madonna, you would not enjoy this movie.