 More movies that are better than you thought they were
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Jun. 14th, 2009 @ 02:38 pm 
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Bring It On.
I had the urge to watch it after recent discussions of Gabrielle Union, because it's the one movie I've seen her in. (I don't watch a lot of movies.)
For those of you haven't seen it: It is the story of two rival cheerleading teams.
Despite this, I really like it.
Kirsten Dunst plays Torrance, the newly-anointed captain of the Rancho Carne High Toros cheerleading squad. Eliza Dushku plays Misty, a new transfer to the school and team. There's an interesting dynamic with Torrance, Misty, and Misty's brother Cliff - Torrance and Cliff have this romantic subplot, but Misty and her brother's relationship is also kind of awesome throughout - they have a perfect snark-over-affection dynamic, at the same time as this edge of jealousy, because (though in Misty's case it's not quite explicitly stated) they're both totally Into Torrance. Meanwhile, Torrance already has a boyfriend, who's an asshole. Cliff's superiority as a boyfriend to Aaron is shown by the whole thing where he respects her and is totally supportive.
Their cheer team is five-time national champions, aiming for a sixth.
Then they discover that Big Red, their previous captain, stole all their routines from the East Compton Clovers, the almost-all-black cheerleaders from a poor inner-city Los Angeles school. The Clovers are brilliant, and Isis, their new captain (played by Gabrielle Union) is out to take them to the Nationals.
The Clovers win the Regionals (amid a Toros meltdown), and a bid at Nationals - but news comes out that the Clovers aren't, because they couldn't raise the money to get there.
Torrance - who, she says, wants to win by "beating the best that's out there", gets her father's company to offer to sponsor the Clovers. Isis turns them down, because she doesn't want the guilt money, or charity. Instead, they write to Pauletta, a successful talk show host who originally came from their neighbourhood, emphasising how hard they work and how much they inspire the people around them. For "Wish Day" on her show, Pauletta gives them the money, and the Clovers are off to the Nationals.
Torrance tells Isis she's just trying to help. Isis says that if she wants to help, then what she and her team should do at nationals is bring it - don't slack off because they feel sorry for the Clovers.
At Nationals, before the competition starts, Torrance approaches Isis, standing with her team, and tells her to watch going out of bounds - the judges mark down like crazy for that, and they don't want to blow it on something tiny. Isis reacts warily, but then gives the warning to her team, and then points out to Torrance that one of her own cheerleaders is half a second early on all her moves. Torrance promises to pass that on.
One of the Clovers queries what that was about. Isis says they just understand each other, that's all - and they do. They both want to win, but they both want to win by being better than the other team's best.
And so the competition happens, and they both bring their best. Both squads bring their best, and both squads pull off their routines flawlessly.
And because, if nothing else, theirs is the fairy tale victory here, the Clovers win. The Toros come second, and are thrilled, because the odds were hard agains them, and they worked hard and did really damn well.
The Compton Clovers are thrilled (and will no doubt put the prize money to good use).
Final conversation between Isis and Torrance: Isis tells Torrance, captain to captain, she thought they were really good. Torrance thanks her and says: "You guys were better."
Isis: "We were, huh?" *huge smile*
And they laugh and part on warm and friendly terms. Misty and Torrance share a moment, then Cliff rocks up and Misty leaves the two of them, running off to talk to Les (who, I'm just saying, is the gay one who's just met a nice boy). The movie ends with a dance number featuring both teams.
There are a few things here. Some of them I'm not sure quite how I feel about overall.
For example, the "Cinderella story" here is, obviously, the Clovers, the "first inner-city cheerleading squad to make it to Nationals". The Toros are the evil Empire - the ones who've won every year previously, with routines stolen from the Clovers.
And yet, the movie's focus is the Toros.
On the one hand, I love this spin - it's less of a cliche this way, for a start, and the undertone of serious gay would be sort of distracting if the focus was on the success and achievements of the underdogs as much.
On the other, the fact that the Clovers are majority black (there are a few white and Latina Clovers), and the Toros are majority white (a couple of the boys read Latino to me, and Whitney is Asian), makes me wonder if the fact that you don't see enough of them (even if seeing more would have made it have to be a longer movie, since there aren't many scenes I'd say could be cut) is because this movie couldn't have been made if it were more "black".
I don't know, though - because of the first hand, I still really like the way it plays out. And I love that, ultimately, the only "villain" in the movie is Big Red. (Persecuted-feeling redheads may like this less, of course.) The Clovers are angry, at first, because they have good reason to be, but ultimately, in the end, there's a lot of mutual respect going on.
Anyway, time for me to get dressed and clean up the house a bit and get dressed, then go seek medical attention for my possibly-infected healing injury, but not just yet, because at the time of day the ED is overrun with weekend sports injuries. (Seriously, go in there on a weekend afternoon, there's a whole lot of people who've broken themselves playing sport.)
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| From: | ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) sqbr |
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| Date: |
June 14th, 2009 08:07 am (UTC) |
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Your html seems to have eaten a chunk of your text after the cut.
But anyway: yes, yay Bring it On. And not just because I'm an Eliza Dushku fangirl :D
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| From: | sami |
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June 14th, 2009 08:38 am (UTC) |
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Fixed, thanks.
And yes. Eliza Dushku is ridiculously awesome. Words cannot express how much I wish Dollhouse was something I could ever in a million years watch.
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| From: | sqbr |
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June 15th, 2009 08:04 am (UTC) |
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I empathise. Myself I might have watched it if it was good, but I got halfway through episode 3 before deciding life was too short and I had too many other better, less creepy shows I could be watching.
I fucking love that movie. And as much fun as I liked the Clovers, I think the message of Doing the Right Thing and Black People Don't Need a White Savior are pretty important to have in the mainstream culture too.
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| From: | sami |
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June 14th, 2009 04:49 pm (UTC) |
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Yeah, including the "Black People Don't Need a White Saviour" was pretty profoundly cool.
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| From: | sami |
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| Date: |
June 14th, 2009 04:49 pm (UTC) |
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ps I answered your prompt ;)
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