Bring It On
USA 2000
Reviewed by Stephanie Zacharak
Synopsis
Our synopses give away the plot in full, including surprise twists.
San Diego, the present. Under the leadership of Torrance, five-times national high-school cheerleading champs the Rancho Carne Toros start the school year certain they're on their way to their sixth victory. When a member of the team is injured, she's replaced by tough school newcomer Missy. Although championed by Torrance, who has a crush on her brother Cliff, Missy is the target of the other cheerleaders' scorn. They like her even less when she reveals that their potentially award-winning cheers have been stolen, by the Toros' previous captain, from the squad of an East Compton high school that's considered "invisible" because it's in a black neighbourhood.
The Toros try to get a new routine into shape by hiring a choreographer, which only results in their humiliation at the regional competition when another squad shows up with the same act. They then devise and perfect their own routine, which leads them to win second place in the nationals. The East Compton team, competing for the first time, takes first prize.
Review
Conscious perhaps that the world doesn't need a biting satire of cheerleading, Bring It On's director Peyton Reed (who has worked largely in US television) gives us a pointedly funny and good-natured picture, one that takes the silliness of its subject as a given and moves on with intelligence and verve. Bring It On opens with a neat dream sequence featuring the Toros, a prize-winning school cheerleading team, which spells out everything that cheerleaders are thought to be - stuck-up, catty, super-popular, aggressively attractive, shallow - and then wallows gloriously in it. Before long, you're so revved up you can't wait to see their next routine.
The East Compton squad the Clovers, from a predominantly black neighbourhood, are particularly thrilling to watch. Led by the take-no-prisoners class act Isis (Gabrielle Union) and including members of the real-life R&B group Blaque, their sassy routines raise the cool quotient of a traditionally maligned sport. It's no wonder an all-white cheerleading squad would want to steal from them. But embedded in this particular theft is a bitter truth: the former cheerleading captain who stole from the Clovers clearly assumed it was OK to appropriate their material. Without being sticky-sweet or sanctimonious, Bring It On makes you consider that injustice seriously. What begins as a theft ends up being a spur to both sides to do more daring work - a wry comment, perhaps, on the positive effects of cross-cultural pollination?
Bring It On spins off one sly little joke after another, and the smart ensemble makes every one of them work. Eliza Dushku (who plays Faith in Buffy the Vampire Slayer) is likeable as the tough girl Missy who is really a serious gymnast but gradually becomes seduced by miniature uniforms and opposing-team taunts such as "That's all right, that's OK, you're gonna pump our gas someday!" Kirsten Dunst looks like every American high-school boy's dream date, and she plays captain Torrance's shallow suburban cluelessness with such a light touch that it's more endearing than wearying. When new kid Cliff Pantone ambles into the classroom wearing a Clash t-shirt, she asks with a shiver of girlish enthusiasm, "So, is that your band or something?" Later, when Torrance spends the night at Missy's house, she and Cliff find themselves sharing the bathroom mirror as they brush their teeth; their embarrassment at having to spit in front of one another makes for a beautifully staged comic flirtation. Given the movie's off-kilter savoir faire, it makes sense that their courtship should begin with starry eyes and foamy mouths.
Credits
- Director
- Peyton Reed
- Producers
- Marc Abraham
- Thomas A. Bliss
- Screenplay
- Jessica Bendinger
- Director of Photography
- Shawn Maurer
- Editor
- Larry Bock
- Production Designer
- Sharon Lomofsky
- Music
- Christophe Beck
- ©Beacon Communications, LLC
- Production Companies
- Universal Pictures and Beacon Pictures present
- Executive Producers
- Armyan Bernstein
- Max Wong
- Caitlin Scanlon
- Paddy Cullen
- Co-producers
- Patricia Wolff
- Jessica Bendinger
- Executive in Charge of Production
- Nancy Rae Stone
- Production Co-ordinators
- Sarah Yang
- Beacon:
- Richard Devinki
- Unit Production Manager
- Paddy Cullen
- Location Manager
- Lisa S. Rothmuller
- Post-production Supervisor
- Brad Arensman
- Assistant Directors
- Todd Amateau
- Jennifer Anderson
- Handel Whitmore
- Script Supervisor
- Nicole Finch
- Casting
- Joseph Middleton
- Associate:
- Michelle Morris
- Voice:
- Loop Troop
- Camera Operators
- Jack Garrett
- Houman Farough
- Visual Effects Supervisor
- John Teska
- Additional Editor
- Erik C. Andersen
- Art Director
- Timothy Whidbee
- Set Decorator
- Jill McGraw
- Lead Scenic Artist
- Gary W. Wimmer
- Foreman Scenic Artist
- Bryan S. Wheeler
- Scenic Artist
- Catherine A. Frazier
- Costume Designer
- Mary Jane Fort
- Costume Supervisor
- Nicole Capasso
- Make-up
- Department Head:
- Selina Jayne
- Additional:
- Sandra Schneider
- Taurus Sanders
- Hair
- Department Head:
- Emjay Olson
- Stylists:
- Ramses Azzab III
- Everett Jackson
- Cindy Miguens
- Title Design
- Meher Gourjian
- Opticals
- Title House Digital
- Music Performed by
- Seattlemusic
- Orchestrations
- William A. Boston
- Music Supervisor
- Billy Gottlieb
- Score Producer
- Christophe Beck
- Supervising Music Editor
- Fernand Bos
- Orchestra Scoring Mixer
- Casey Stone
- Additional Cheer Music Mixing
- Mark Bryan
- Music Consultant
- G. Marq Roswell
- Soundtrack
- "What's the Dillio?" - Mest; "Makes No Difference" - Sum 41; "Kids Wanna Know" - The Leaving Trains; "I Just Wanna Be Happy" - Brooke X; "See Ya (Radio mix)" - Atomic Kitten; Tchaikovsky's "The Swan Lake Suite Op.20 (C)" - Jim Long; "Cherry Pie" - Warrant; "2 Can Play That Game" - Sygnature; "As If" - Blaque; "Cavalier Song" - The Virginia Pep Band; "Freakin' You" - Jungle Brothers; "Give My Regards to Broadway" George M. Cohan; "The 900#" - The 45 King; "Dada Strutin'" - Sgt Rock; "Detour" -BIS; "What's a Girl To Do?" - sister2sister; " - Keith Wyatt; "Get Ready for This" - 2 Unlimited; "U.G.L.Y." - Daphne & Celeste; "Slang Dat Bottom" - Devastator X; "Take Control" - Sweets; "Somebody Say Oh Yeah", "Get Up & Dance" "Fanfare for God" - Mark Bryan; "Whorse" - Filibuster; "There She Goes" - The Getaway People; "All the Way Live" - Pressha; "Booty Bounce" - Kinsu; "Can U Feel It" - Tronic Wave; "More Beef Than Cattle" - ZA/10 featuring Kryptoknight; "Just What I Need" - Rufus King; "Tell Me Something" - Manchild; "Pauletta's Theme" - Ernest Lee; "Bring It All to Me (Remix)" - Blaque featuring 50 Cent; "Cheer for Me" - 95 South; "T-Bag" - Sons of Poseidon; "I'm Money" - Zebrahead; "Groovy" - Basshopper; "Shake a Lil' Somethin'" - 2 Live Crew; "Work It Baby" - DJ Laz, Kinsu; "Bounce with the Massive" - Tzant; "Giddie Up Let's Ride" - Kinsu; "Anywhere U.S.A." - P.Y.T; "Mickey" -B'witched; "Jump Up (If You Feel Alright)" - Da Beat Bros.; "As If" - Blaque featuring Joey Fatone Jr
- Choreographers
- Anne Fletcher
- Cheerleading:
- Ray Jasper
- Sound Mixer
- Robert Trevor Black
- Re-recording Mixers
- Andy Koyama
- Jonathan Wales
- Additional:
- Marc David Fishman
- Lance Brown
- Recordist
- Phillip Rogers
- Supervising Sound Editor
- Cormac Funge
- Dialogue Supervisor
- Thomas Jones III
- Dialogue Editors
- Michael Hertlein
- Louis Creveling
- Robert Getty
- Steve Scoville
- David Grant
- Sound Effects Editors
- Michael Kamper
- Aaron Weisblatt
- Anne Black
- ADR
- Supervisor:
- Jed M. Dodge
- Mixer:
- Alan Freedman
- Foley
- Artists:
- David Lee Fein
- S. Diane Marshall
- Mixers:
- Lucy Sustar
- Benjamin Cook
- Editor:
- Craig Jurkiewicz
- Cast
- Kirsten Dunst
- Torrance Shipman
- Eliza Dushku
- Missy Pantone
- Jesse Bradford
- Cliff Pantone
- Gabrielle Union
- Isis
- Sherry Hursey
- Christine Shipman
- Holmes Osborne
- Bruce Shipman
- Clare Kramer
- Courtney
- Nicole Bilderback
- Whitney
- Tsianina Joelson
- Darcy
- Shamari Fears
- Lava
- Natina Reed
- Jenelope
- Brandi Williams
- Lafred
- Richard Hillman
- Aaron
- Lindsay Sloane
- Big Red
- Nathan West
- Jan
- Rini Bell
- Kasey
- Huntley Ritter
- Les
- Bianca Kajlich
- Carver
- Cody McMains
- Justin Shipman
- Ian Roberts
- Sparky Polastri
- David Edwards
- Toros tight end
- Ashley Howard
- Toros quarterback
- Nikole Lee Amateau
- Clementine Ford
- New Pope cheerleaders
- Grant Thompson
- Costa Mesa quarterback
- Leonard Clifton
- Costa Mesa linebacker
- Marie Wise
- argumentative girl
- Dru Mouser
- been-crying-for-hours girl
- Tracy Pacheco
- rappin' white girl
- Alicia Michelle Sassano
- be aggressive girl
- Natasha Soll
- start-over girl
- Ryan Drummond
- theatre boy
- Paullin Wolfe
- Tiny Tot cheerleader
- David E. Willis
- Beth Lamure
- emcees
- Anne Fletcher
- event co-ordinator
- Doug Waldo
- UCA official
- Annie Hinton
- high-strung mom
- Louise Gallagher
- class monitor
- Edmond Clay
- football announcer
- Daniella Kuhn
- TV reporter
- Aloma Wright
- Pauletta
- Paul Bloom
- TV commentator
- Melanie Atmadja
- Jamie
- Silencio Por Favor
- mime
- Jodi Harris
- cheer coach
- Nectar Rose
- nervous cheerleader
- Hilary Salvatore
- toothless cheerleader
- Elizabeth Johnson
- confident cheerleader
- Riley Smith
- guy cheerleader
- Carla Mackauf
- Aaron's lover
- Anna Lisa Mendiola
- Clover cheerleader
- Certificate
- tbc
- Distributor
- Entertainment Film Distributors Ltd
- tbc feet
- tbc minutes
- Dolby Digital/DTS/SDDS
- Colour by
- FotoKem