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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Decade in Review: 2000 Top Ten

What follows is my original top ten list of 2000... or rather the revised version I published in 2002. Let's discuss each year of this decade as it winds down! Who's with me?!? It's always interesting to see which films remained at the forefront of our memory and which fade... both for a variety of reasons, quality being only one factor. New comments are in red.

Please note: This list was based on NYC release dates in the year 2000. Some movies are listed as different years at the IMDB based on when they were released in their home country or in LA or whatnot.




Runners Up (in descending order): Une Liaisons Pornographique, Nurse Betty, You Can Count On Me, Before Night Falls, Pola X, Chicken Run, American Psycho, Wonder Boys and Billy Elliott Um... WHAT THE HELL are some of these movies doing outside the top ten list? You Can Count on Me is still so lovely to think about. Particularly Laura Linney's gleeful waving to brother Mark Ruffalo and that beautifully coaxed ending, bless. Of these nine pictures, I think of American Psycho (originally #17!?) most -- see previous posts -- and then probably Pola X which I know a lot of people hate.


P.S. Those people are cuckoo!


10 Jesus Son
Allison MacLean's stark and arresting drug drama is laced with surprising (but occassionally off putting) comedy and blessed with two astonishing, enigmatic performances by Samantha Morton and Billy Crudup. Filled with memorable imagery it feels optimistic in such a realistic way that it should be required viewing in rehab.

I've rarely thought of this movie since but one image, Samantha Morton shimmying towards her man, remains particularly vivid. Morton is such an electric actor and she's never lost that alien watchability, even as her face has grown familiar.

09 Urbania
Full review here. Jon Shear's directorial debut (an adaptation of Daniel Reitz' stage play) is an exhilarating and unexpected ride through urban anxiety and grief. It's stunning. And though I'll cop to perhaps a little trouble being objective about it (it hit close to home), I'm betting that this overlooked film will grow in stature.
I probably overestimated this one at the time, which on a revisit a few years later felt too stagebound to totally work as cinema but I still wish more people would have seen / do see it. Dan Futterman is strong in the lead role.

08 Bring It On
Full review here. A dozen reasons to love Bring It On: 1. The best teen comedy in at least five years. 2. Hugely enjoyable, a great popcorn film. 3. Elisha Dushku's va va voom (for all of you Buffy the Vampire Slayer fans) -"Missy is the poo. So take a whiff!" 4. The toothbrush scene 5. Allows itself important themes (racism, sexual orientation, appropriation versus theft) without once feeling like a downer or casting the themes aside. 6. Spirit fingers. 7. "Cheerleaders are dancers who have gone retarded!" 8. "Brrrrr....it's cold in here." 9. Torrance plays the cassette. 10. A sports movies that's actually a good sport. 11. A gay man that's hotter than the straight men? Now, there's something you don't see too often in the homophobia ridden world of cinema. 12. Kirsten Dunst in top comic form, what more do you need?

07 Idioterne
Lars Von Trier's much maligned first and only "official" Dogme 95 film, The Idiots, is an in your face marvel. This Danish madman splits cinephiles in love and loathe camps. I'm firmly in the love category. His genius is clearly visible but only for those who have eyes to see...

Before Antichrist arrived to give me pause, I would have called this movie the definitive von Trier. It's so tellingly of him: the humor, the aesthetic, the not-entirely-serious self regard. I still think it's one of his best and most successfully provocative pictures

06 The House of Mirth
Gillian Anderson's coming out ball. While I wouldn't go so far as to say it was "the best performance in any category all year" as I've read in at least one review... she was up to the challenge of Lily Bart. But hey, I knew she transferred. She already proved that with Playing by Heart. And leaving Anderson aside for a moment, it's an exceedingly intelligent and gorgeous adaptation from Terence Davies which is sure to garner at least a few deserved technical nods at the Oscars. God bless Terence Davies for not having Joanne Woodward READ the whole freaking story to us as we watched (Are you listening Scorsese?)

I compared it unfavorably to The Age of Innocence? While I do very much hate overbearing voiceovers, there's a lot to recommend in both films. Why was I mad at Scorsese in 2000? Hmmm, what came out then? I haven't thought of Mirth in years and years and I am surprised to see it in my top ten list. It's amusing how I entirely misread its Oscar chances (nomination total: zero) but it's sad that Gillian Anderson's film career never really panned out.

05 Erin Brockovich
At its core it's a brassy superbly wrought star vehicle with Julia Roberts at her all time best. With Soderbergh's auteurial skills in full bloom however, it's elevated to a whole other realm of humanity. Sharp, funny, focused, and auteurial ...and for my money stronger than Soderbergh's other more highly praised 2000 endeavor. At any rate it's easily the best pure "Hollywood" film of the year.

04 Beau Travail
Claire Denis contemplative masterwork of masculine rituals and hierarchy.

Then and now I seem to be at a loss for words but oh, how that movie lingers. Greatness. Haven't seen it in years, though and it's obviously one that needs multiple viewings to fully appreciate.

03 Requiem For a Dream
Darren Aronofsky's astoundingly cinematic second film is not easy to sit through, but the rewards are great. Ellen Burstyn is miraculous as an unravelling diet pill addict. Jennifer Connelly and Jared Leto are heartbreaking as the foolish young lovers who throw their lives away but the film's ultimate power comes courtesy of Aronofsky's vision. Making as bold a statement as you can make about what the cinema can and should do, he discards any narrative device other than imagery. The further I get away from the film the more it's looking like a masterpiece.


02 Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon
Ang Lee & James Schamus's delightful one off homage to a favorite genre. The modern feminist kung fu genre pic is fused with an old fashioned romantic period piece by a superb cast, haunting gorgeous cinematography by Peter Pau, and Ang Lee's own seemingly infallible directorial instincts. Whichever culture or characters he fixes his versatile lens on, he gets straight to the heart of the matter. Ang Lee tops his own impressive roster of films (Sense & Sensibility, The Ice Storm, & The Wedding Banquet among them) and makes what could only be called magic. This movie will restore your faith in the cinema. No joke. It's that wondrous.

01 Dancer in the Dark
Full review here. Lars von Trier. Björk. Catherine Deneuve. "Love it. Hate it. See It." Overwhelming, visionary, absolute genius... I'm tempted to call it best of the decade and there's nine years left to go.

I sure went hyperbolic on my bronze, silver and gold medalists there. It's a good thing all three pictures hold up. Though I suppose it's worth noting that Requiem for a Dream which I labelled 'not easy to sit through' is the one I've sat through the most on this entire top ten list in the intervening years... even more than Bring It On. What a double feature that is, eh?



What are your favorite pictures from 2000?
Which that you used to love are you surprised that you let go? Which have changed the most for you over the years? Which do you think I should revisit.

Link it On

Risky Biz Young Victoria finally has a distributor (Apparition -- see previous post) but audiences just aren't going for costume dramas these days.
Cinematical good piece on contrasting trailers before the movie... and how much mainstream auds love baaaaad movies like Wild Hogs)
Erik Lundegaard on Stephen Sommers (GI Joe "director") and the 'courage of his cliches'.


Fin de Cinema oooh, pretty posters for Toronto and Venice films
My New Plaid Pants shares one of the best cinephile dreams I've ever heard. Every night I hope to dream about movies but I rarely do
She Knows is hosting a contest to win a Kindle. It's in promotion of a new supernatural-powered book called Seven Rays from the screenwriter of Bring it On therefore I love it already. Maybe. Okay I'm not quite that easy
Us Magazine unleashes that 11 year old video of Channing Tatum stripping the night away. But why release it if you're gonna edit / censor it? Not that I'm pervy for the Tatum and wanted to see everything. I have no feelings on this one way or the other. I am a completely neutral party, Channing Tatum means nothing to me


off cinema
TransGriot has a great piece on the racist self-defeating fears of these looney people attacking any efforts at reform in our country
Boy Culture also chimes in on the health care debate -- great post
pop hangover best reason to drive a Prius. Hee

anyway...
Enjoy this Coen Bros picture short making the rounds today on the web. It was for an omnibus film but it's never shown up on DVDs. So here it is. Starring Josh Brolin as well it should.