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Review by Susan Granger
1½ stars out of 4
It's not all pirouettes and posing for the razzle-dazzle
pom-pom squad! Cheerleading is competitive and this exuberant teen
comedy never lets you forget it. Kirsten Dunst plays the perky,
newly-elected captain of the Toro cheerleading squad of Rancho Carne
High School in San Diego. It's a prestigious position since the
squad's won the national championship for five years and is heading
for its sixth trophy. That is until Dunst befriends a transfer student
(Eliza Dushku) and her brother (Jesse Bradford) and discovers that the
Toro's perfectly-choreographed routines were, in fact, stolen by the
ruthless former captain (Lindsay Sloane) from the Clovers, a hip-hop
squad from East Compton. A visit to that inner-city school confirms
the theft and the ire of the understandably angry captain (Gabrielle
Union) of the African-American team that's also taking part in the
upcoming national championships in Daytona. It gets kind of awkward
and rah-rah rough here as Dunst laments, "My whole cheerleading career
is based on a lie." But Dunst is a good enough comedienne to carry it
off, gamely switching moods with a mischievous myriad of
expressions. Written by Jessica Bendinger and directed by Peyton Reed,
it's a silly, slangy and ultimately conventional spoof, touring the
girls' locker room with an unusual skirmish involving
teeth-brushing. No doubt, cheerleading is a sport that requires
discipline, timing, strength, and concentration but that and the edgy,
moral racial angle is neither emphasized nor deeply explored here, nor
was it part of the trailer. Instead, the racial tension arises
unexpectedly. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, "Bring It On" is
a bouncy, energetic 4, filled with gymnastics, dance and PG-13 sex
appeal. As Dunst says: "This is not a democracy - it's a
cheerocracy."
Copyright © 2000 Susan Granger
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