Against The Hype

These screencaps probably evoke more delight for those who’ve watched Bring It On than for those relying on the isolated evidence above. Which is partly my fault, since the shots I chose don’t bring out the best in director Peyton Reed’s striking colour and composition choices. But it’s also an inherent flaw in choosing shots from this movie for the Hit Me with Your Best Shot series, since Bring It On‘s unflagging momentum is aided by its brisk editing, and it gathers an ensemble gifted with expressive physicality. (And what’s a cheerleading movie without either of those?) So not only do these single frames fail to do justice to the giddy movements that the lead actors (Kirsten Dunst, Jesse Bradford, Eliza Dushku) each contribute to these respective scenes, but they are cut together with so many unmissable reaction shots of shared joy that it’s more accurate to say that, rather than shots, these are my favourite sequences of Bring It On.

Sequence #1: In the director’s commentary (which I heartily recommend to all fans of Bring It On), Reed likes to remind us that Dunst was only 17 when she filmed this movie. Yet she was experienced or natural enough to act wonders in this thankless role, which demands that we root for Torrance even as she shifts among cheery exuberance, naive tentativeness, barely contained freakouts and whiny self-righteousness. Bring It On‘s classic toothbrush scene, framed straightforwardly from the mirror’s viewpoint (and intercut with Torrance’s and Cliff’s sideglance views), makes a woozy romantic gesture of having this mutually infatuated pair lean towards each other to spit their toothpaste in the sink. And in this moment I’ve selected, Dunst adds the hilarious, pitch-perfect accent of covering her mouth from Cliff’s view, which sets the scene for her growing ease with him as this sequence goes on.

Sequence #2: Jesse Bradford is no throwaway love interest either, especially if you compare his work to a contemporary’s (e.g. Jonathan Bennett as Aaron Samuels in Mean Girls). While the conceit of this scene is that his guitar jamming attracts Torrance into silent audience at his bedroom door, I prefer to view it as that Cliff is fervently air-guitaring to a pre-recorded track. What can be dorkier, and more revealingly intimate? (Another note of Reed’s genius: note how all the lines of Cliff’s retro posters converge onto his buoyant, leaping form.)

Sequence #3: Of these three wordless sequences, this moment where Missy gets into the groove of her cheerleading outfit strikes me as the one which might have most easily succumbed to post-looped chatter. I agree fully with Glenn Dunks when he notes that “all three leads from Bring It On seemed like they could have had success and stardom handed to them on a silver platter and yet it never quite worked out,” because Dushku manages to generously sell her character’s enjoyment here without reducing her earlier takes on aloof disavowal (of this whole cheerleading business) into mere stances.

NB: Although she’s quite well represented among the other participants, I feel a bit bad leaving the formidable Isis (Gabrielle Union) and her fellow Compton Clovers out of my picks. But given that a notable plot hinge of Bring It On is that Isis refuses to take any affirmative-action sympathy—another of Reed’s savvy gifts to this movie—I decided to stick with what I love. “Bring it!”