Paramount Pictures and MTV Films call their newest feature film a musical drama. Now there's a mixing of genres.

Save the Last Dance, directed by Thomas Carter, is just one of many films that hits theaters today.

It tells the story of Sara, played by Julia Stiles, who is a white teenager from a small town. She is forced to move to the south side of Chicago to live with her father after her mother's sudden death.

In Chicago, she attends a predominantly black high school — cultures clash as the former ballet dancer is introduced to hip-hop.

Along the way Sara is befriended by Chenille, played by Kerry Washington. Through their mutual love of dance, Sara eventually falls for Chenille's younger brother, Derek, played by Sean Patrick Thomas.

"When Sara first starts at her new school, she feels very insecure not just because of race but because culturally she's from the suburbs and these kids are so much cooler than she is," Stiles said of her character on the film's Web site.

"But she slowly builds up her confidence and Derek starts to respect Sara because he sees that while she appears to be this nerdy suburban girl, she does have this tough, determined side, so they become friends and then they fall in love," Stiles added.

In addition to romance, the film portrays the conflicts that can arise when races, styles and ways of life merge.

"This is a movie about contrasts, about dualities," said producer David Madden on the movie's Web site.

"It deals with an interracial romance. It is a dance movie, with the girl coming from the world of ballet and the boy coming from the world of hip-hop," Madden added.

"It contrasts the small town and the big city."

If you can't get enough of Stiles this weekend, check her out in State and Main, which also opens today. As in Save the Last Dance, Stiles plays a high school girl, but this time she is involved in a romance with an older man.

State and Main's cast also includes Alec Baldwin, Sarah Jessica Parker and Philip Seymour Hoffman, who play a movie crew that sets up shop in a small Vermont town and in the process wreaks havoc on its inhabitants.