Hit Me With Your Best Shot: Bring It On

It's time for Best Shot, in which we choose a favorite single image from a film. 

This week...

BRING IT ON !

"I'm major. I roar. I swear I'm not a whore."

Damn but I didn't know how hard this week's decision would be. Sometimes you love a movie for the entire duration and it's hard to single out a scene. Bring It On is 98 minutes of uncut joy.

Today is the 10th anniversary of its release. My anniversary with it is tomorrow. I still remember my first encounter vividly. I had spent the whole day at the beach with my best friend. I was probably a little crisp and was definitely sun fatigued. We had planned to catch 'that cheerleading comedy' on our way home but I was wavering, tired. We trained back into Manhattan and hit the Union Square multiplex with our beach bags in tow. The movie was so high spirited and well executed that it was as bracing and life-affirming as jumping back into the ocean again.

To this day I'm so proud of putting it on my top ten list of 2000. [It's also on my 50 best of the decade list] Great comedies endure but they rarely get critical props during their actual run.

But best shot? That's a tough tough call. Peyton Reed is an underrated director and totally thinks about the framing, the costumes and the actors (see also: Down With Love). I really hope he gets a solid project again soon (forgive him the unfortunately blah Yes Man). I almost went with the beloved toothbrush scene. It's the single cutest and most confident romantic comedy scene of the past ten years. Call it hyperbole if you will but I stand by it. Bring It On is, as a whole, more of a sports comedy but today's sorry romcoms could learn a lot from studying any sequence here that pairs Jesse Bradford's crooked smile with Kirsten Dunst's hyper cuteness.


Reed and Jessica Bendinger, who wrote the screenplay, are also very smart about each and every character introduction. The intros are highlights throughout the movie. The pre-credit dream cheer "T-T-T-TORRANCE" is just insane comedy perfection, perfectly conveying Torrance (Kirsten Dunst) in both her joy, her pre-movie story, and her serious cheer fever. And what about the shot of Missy's (Eliza Dushku) ass entering the auditorium with dangling keys? She's about to unlock the plot. I also dig the low angle first shot of Isis (Gabrielle Union). She gets her very own halo spotlight a name check from offscreen "Isis, do your thing!" all so that you may instantly understand and worship this giantess of cheerleading.

My choice for Best Shot requires two frames with a focus shift. Missy, the new girl, is about to watch the signature Toros cheer. We see her in default hard-to-impress mode, kicking back. BAM! Torrance hair flips her way into the frame, blocking Missy's 'whatever' posturing, shouting "Ready Girls?". It's so so very funny and serves up an instant picture of both the smashingly conceived opposite-but-complimentary leading girls and of potential reactions to the movie.


You know a lot of people went into this movie just like Missy. They're all "A cheerleading movie? Puhleeze" and then, well, JOY. This movie is aggressively fun. Even if you're too cool for school, you will sign up with this team.

Ten years later, Bring it On is still the poo so take a big whiff.

"Oh, they'll bring it."
Click away for cheer fever on these participating sites!

• Stale Popcorn ______AWESOME
• Against the Hype ____OH
  
• Cheap Seats _______WOW
  
• Season Days ______ _LIKE
  
• Brown Okinawa... __... TOTALLY
  
• Nick's Flick Picks ____FREAK
  
• Sorta That Guy ______ME
  
• Missemmamm ______OUT
• The One With MJD .......I
  
• The One With MJD ---- MEAN
• My New Plaid Pants ....RIGHT
  
• Largely Unrepeatable... ON
• Dial P for Popcorn ____!!!
  

 Other Films in This Series

• Angels in America (2003)
• X-Men (2000)
• Showgirls (1995)
• Black Narcissus (1946)
• A Face in the Crowd (1957)
• Pandora's Box (1929)
• Se7en (1995) 
• Requiem for a Dream (2000)

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Oscar Night in Review: The Fashions (Pt 2)

The Oscar night posts are almost over. I swear. Oh, you'll start missing the Oscars in a month. Shut up with your "will you stop, please?" griping.

also: worst & weirdest moments | wonderful moments | fashion review part 1 | all 09/10 Oscar posts

One of the crazy stressful things about Oscar night for the ladies must be the simple fact that the pictures taken of them that night go on for infinity. They get recycled each year for "best and worst" of video montages and magazine articles. But in the "viewing parties" and the after parties and such, there's no such museum effect. Without that pressure, the stars are more likely to let loose a little. But what's strange sometimes is that this is still how they're presenting themselves within industry circles when the industry has the biggest spotlight on. All of the following ensembles are from those types of parties. This is just a tiny sampling but you probably haven't seen these photos a million times like you have their Kodak theater counterparts.

yes please

from left to right: We all fell in love with Amy Adams when she was playing pregnant Ashley in Junebug. Now she doesn't need the foam padding and we fall in love with her all over again. Make some good movies once you're done with maternity leave Amy! Lea Michelle is going what you call "above and beyond". She already has a hit TV show (GLEE. I can't wait for April!) and now she apparently wants everyone to know she can do movie star glamour, too. Sometimes I wish I were a casting director just so I could give Maria Bello parts that are worthy of her. Catherine O'Hara!!! I had no idea that she actually went out to industry events. She looks great and I hope with all my heart that people in Hollywood get as much joy out of her For Your Consideration facelift expression as I do. But maybe it cuts too close?

er... Yes, well... maybe. Okay, no.

from left to right: I get in trouble every time I suggest that any particular actress is a bit too thin. But it's even more perplexing when it comes to Leslie Mann. I mean, she's a good actress and she automatically gets work because she stars in her husbands movies, so why doesn't she eat? I think I like the concept of this dress but on her it looks too much like she's starring in Alien V. The slimy Giger babydemon has just burst from her chest cavity. Salma Hayek is wearing something that reminds me of Ralph Fiennes tattoo in Red Dragon and I don't want to think about serial killers when I'm looking at beautiful honeys. Christina Hendricks is awesome. Can't wait for Mad Men 4. Maybe this is too tight and the poof shouldn't be there but... damn. Gabrielle Union can pull off yellow and not everyone can. But that doesn't mean she should.

EEEeeeeeek!

from left to right: I always forget where I know Kate Mara from (and then I have to remind myself "Brokeback Mountain, self. Why do you always forget this?") but this dress is not making a good case for her. If I have to look at Hilary Swank so do you! Jeezus... This is not a hooker convention, Hil, this is an Oscar party. Sometimes when I realize that she will always be employed --thanks to that one admittedly genius performance 11 years ago -- I weep. So many years we've had to put up with her already. So many more to come (she's only 35)! Can't think of one thing that is right with Suzanne Sommers and can't count the things that have gone wrong here. Rita Wilson plays only one role in movies -- sassy best friend to movie star of a certain age -- and does it reasonably well. But just because you're rich enough to buy all the black fabric in Malibu doesn't mean you should wear all of it to the same party.