Bring It On
Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Bradford, Eliza Dushku
4/5
The title says it all. Eight years and three sequels later, this high school cheerleading film has become a classic of the ‘high school cheerleading’ genre. As the new captain, Torrance [Dunst] takes leadership of her crack squad of cheerleaders - but what she doesn’t realise is that her predecessor stole their routines from a rival team! O-M-G, what a nightmare! What happens next is both painfully funny and entirely predictable. Bring It On was a major film in the cultural context of the new millennium. Incorporating the pervasive ‘girl power’ message of the late 90’s and self-parody of teen comedies, Bring It On cleverly inverted the underdog paradigm of 20th-century sports movies. Its political subtext and visceral storytelling captured the hearts and minds of moviegoers, giving rise to a proliferation of competitive dance in film not seen since the heady days of Flashdance and Strictly Ballroom. Step Up 2 The Streets, Stomp The Yard, and of course You Got Served all owe their success to this single seminal work. Bring It On features a cool hip-hop soundtrack and witty catchphrases that will improve your street cred and grasp of hip-hop/teenager lingo, for example, “she puts the "itch" in "bitch” and “she puts the "whore" in "horrible”.
Watch this movie for free with the USU Film Club! Thursday 27th March, 7pm at the Yellow Lecture Theatre in the Hub.