Starring: Kirsten Dunst, Eliza Dushku, Jesse Bradford, Gabrielle Union
Director: Peyton Reed

They’re sexy, they’re cute, and they’re popular to boot. They’re ch ch cheerleaders. They care not for the football team, they care only for competition cheerleading. Pom poms? Forget it, bud. This is gymnastics on speed, with bitchiness amped up to ten. Or at least, that’s what ‘Bring It On’ would like you to think. Seemingly conceived off the back of a ten-second pitch along the lines of ‘sassy, sassy, sassy’, ‘Bring It On’ is a bucketload of sass, tight skirts and candy-coated fun primed just right for its target demographic.

Dunst, recently so very wonderful in ‘The Virgin Suicides’, is Torrance, cheerleader captain, head choreographer and all-round popular girl personality type. Dushku, fresh from kicking vampire slayer’s ass as ‘Buffy”s arch-nemesis, Faith, is Missy, the inner-city kid fresh from LA, a ehardcore gymnast’ with a perky GenY attitude who cares not for the cheers but needs somewhere to practice her backflips. When Missy recognises the national champion cheerleaders as having secretly lifted their cheers from a Compton high school’s all-black cheerleading team, headed up by Isis (Union), who are too poor to make it to nationals, Torrance undergoes a personal ethical crisis, and the team must rebuild with new cheers in time for the next national finals.

Soundtracked by such fare as ‘Slang Dat Bottom’, ‘Booty Bounce’ and ‘Shake A Lil’ Somethin”, the usual cocktail of love interest, comedy montage sequences, lewd jokes and knowing winks keep the very simple plot motoring along for ninety minutes or so. Missy’s inner-city cynicism evaporates as soon as she straps on a pom pom, and soon enough she’s participating in fund-raising bikini car washes with the rest of the girls. And boys. Apparently these days boys get involved in the cheerleading as well, and only fifty per cent of them are gay. If nothing else, the film’s casual attitude to sexuality is refreshing. It was not, however, refreshing for the group of fifteen year old boys at the screening this reviewer attended, who recoiled in disgust as two boys flirted with each other. Young boys on a booty call do not wish to be interrupted by questioning of sexuality, one presumes.

The odd thing about this film, beyond its first-time-director teen film razz, perky soundtrack and incessant product placement, is the excessive presence of talent in the leading actors. What Dunst is doing here is her business alone, but one would have thought she was a little beyond the sassy-teen projects by now. Dushku and Union, however, are hardly huge cinematic names, and their talent seems far more natural and affecting than the cardboard “bitch” characters surrounding them. Of course, ‘Buffy’ fans have known for a long time just how much Faith rocks, but we’re still trying to convince the world that Sarah Michelle Gellar is the poo, so it’s nice to see that Dushku has taken it upon herself to move beyond.

There are plenty of cringe-worthy moments for anybody beyond their teenage years, but at least the film does not ask you to accept it for anything it is not. There are some cute attempts to deal with racism and acceptance, but mostly, you are asked to relax and enjoy the sights. Don’t demand anything more than a healthy dose of two dimensional sugar, and ‘Bring It On’ will bring it, for sure.