A sweeping aerial pan of New York City after dark takes us inside a happening club called Overdrive, where we meet Honey Daniels (Jessica Alba), a cheerful bartender clearly popular with the customers. Near the end of her shift, Honey's friend Gina (Joy Bryant) shows up to join her for a night of dancing.

On the dance floor, club patrons show off their moves in a series of spontaneously choreographed moves as a young man shoots digital video from an upstairs balcony. Honey and Gina hit the dance floor and Honey busts some moves for a delighted crowd, while a rival dancer named Katrina looks on, annoyed.

As Honey and Gina are leaving the club, an altercation erupts when a member of Katrina's posse bumps into Honey, who counsels her, "'Excuse me' would work!" Gina pulls Katrina's hair and the two walk away.

In the alleyway behind the club, Honey and Gina observe a group of street kids break dancing. They beatbox and take turns dancing, until a kid named Benny (Lil' Romeo) shows off his moves to raucous applause. Honey informs Benny, "Your flavor's hot!" before asking about his mama. Another kid reveals that Benny's mom is dating a crackhead.

Honey encourages the kids to attend her hip-hop dance class at the Center, but they laugh in her face. Only a young boy volunteers to show up, but just then, two police officers emerge with nightsticks drawn and command everyone to scatter.

Honey kicks off with some energetic B-roll, a cinematic device used to swiftly place the audience within a certain context. Introductory shots of the Manhattan skyline are ostensibly meant to tell us that Honey takes place in New York City, though the city in which Honey Daniels operates bears little resemblance to any version of New York throughout history, cinematic or otherwise.

As we first lay eyes on our title character, we can immediately understand that she is optimistic about her future as much as her present. Within the first moments she appears onscreen, the viewer is fortunate enough to witness Jessica Alba's entire performance in Honey -- welcome to 94 minutes of this exact dippy smile. One can almost hear Honey's internal monologue: "Hey, my life ain't perfect, but I'll make it! Hang in there, Honey! You're doing great!"

Smack dab in the middle of one of the world's most expensive real estate markets, Overdrive covers two stories, an enormous bar, and dance floor large enough to accomodate every mover, shaker, posse, krumper, and booty-popper who ever dreamed of making it as a dancer. The myriad synchronized dance routines performed by and around Honey serves to dramatically highlight the challenge she faces as an individual concerned with making it on her own terms.

Our introduction to Gina raises several questions which intrigue the viewer, such as "What gender is this person?" and "Was one of its parents a giraffe?" Though they come across as initially quite dissimilar, Honey and Gina are only logical as best friends, due to their shared disproportionate optimism; as she casually excuses her tardiness, saying "You can't rush perfection," common sense suggests that Gina may be referring to someone else entirely.

As Honey continues conversing with Gina in a perfectly normal indoor speaking voice, which is remarkable considering the club hits blasting around them, Honey offers drinks on the house not only to Gina, but two other guys as well, just because she's so darn lovable. But at the stroke of 1 AM, Honey stops working so suddenly she never even collects money from her last patrons. Simultaneously pouring two bottles at the moment her shift ends, Honey's departure is so abrupt it's a wonder those bottles don't hover in the air and continue pouring when she walks away.

In its gritty depiction of New York City as a place where crime exists, Honey doesn't hesitate to portray that most heinous of urban transgressions, dance-on-dance violence. Dance rivals are the real gangs of New York, and if you aren't careful, one of them might inflict on you the most scandalous offense possible: informing you that you are not a good dancer. In Honey's case, when Katrina deems her a "Section 8, no-rhythm-having club ho," she has the good sense to walk away from this potential dance rumble.

Nevertheless, Katrina and Honey seem to share a long history of tension, made even longer by the fact that Katrina looks about 100 years old and was probably dance rivals with Honey's grandmother, as well as her grandmother's grandmother. They each command the floor as their own, Honey certainly no less of a ham than Katrina as she demonstrates her exceptional dance moves, leading us to question why we should like her any better than Katrina when plenty of clubgoers must be wondering who either of these women think they are, clearing this much space in a crowd for themselves.

Notice Gina's enthusiastic support of Honey's career. Though she verbally encourages Honey to quit bartending and "bottle" her astounding dance talent, Gina takes more direct action in the form of physically attacking Katrina; surely, Gina's intentions are pure and Honey-centric, as there is no better way to kick-start her best friend's dance career than trying to get her canned as a bartender. Though Honey objects to Gina's behavior, the careful viewer will recognize the complementary relationship at work here: while Honey might be faulted for being too nice, Gina can always stand up for her using her brashness and terrifying, giraffe-with-boobs exterior.

The street dancing taking place outside Overdrive leaves plenty to be desired, at least until Benny takes center stage to show off such moves as "brushing invisible dirt off your shoulder" and "swaying." Benny's raw talent at these activities inspires Honey to take an interest in these kids, demonstrating her innate care for children of the ghetto. In return, the kids laugh in her face, demonstrating the innate human tendency to mock Jessica Alba's wildly misguided attempts to sound "street." Throughout the film, take note of other opportunities she takes to modify English words ending in "-er" with "-uh."

Flavah [fley-vuh]: a particular quality of aptitude, usually regarding something "street" such as beatboxing or punching through one's sweatshirt.

Centah [sen-tuh]: the local community center where Honey teaches hip-hop dance classes.