Justin here bringing it on and serving you with a preview of this week's Watching Hour movie, Bring It On.
Bring It On is way better than it has any right to be. At face value, this is a teen drama about cheerleaders. Does that make you interested? I didn't think so. What if I told you that it's about rich white cheerleaders who rip off their routines from inner-city squads? Still a no, huh. Well, what if I told you that this is one of the best and most intelligent movies about class warfare? That it's a deft examination of the suburban American bourgeois at their pre-9/11 zenith? A frank look at the politics of identity and sexuality in high school? Am I getting a little warmer?
The truth is that Bring It On is a hard sell. You're absolutely right to be totally uninterested in it. I know that you're a serious person and that you'd rather watch Blue Valentine or something. You don't want to go back to work on Monday and tell everyone that you ate free Basil Doc's pizza, drank cheap booze, watched the awesome East High cheerleaders, and Bring It On. That's fine. More pizza for me.
Listen: I know about that other movie of yours. Not that one, the other one. Was it Top Gun? Maybe something more like Teen Witch or Commando or Twilight? I'm telling you, Bring It On is going to be your new favorite guilty pleasure movie. Aside from the over-the-top hilarious teen FEELINGS, there are some rad dance numbers.
You may be reading this thinking that even in high school you were cooler than this. That you were the snarky introspective type who would rather listen to The Pixies and read Nietzsche. Well, that guy's in this movie too. No one is safe from the satire here. No one is too cool for Bring It On.
Maybe I'm selling it a little too hard. Bring It On isn't The Godfather, Citizen Kane, or Starship Troopers. It is a fantastic movie though. I can't guarantee that you'll have the kind of transcendent Bring It On experience that I had. I feel safe saying, though, that if you come ready to have fun you're going to have a fucking blast.
Bring It On is playing this Friday the 6th at 10:00 pm. At 9:00 there will be free pizza, drink specials, and a cheer competition courtesy of East High School.
The Watching Hour is a weekly film series at the Denver Film Center Colfax, highlighting new and old cult, genre, or otherwise bizarro movies. Quite simply, The Watching Hour is the best thing to do in Denver on a Friday night. From Giallo to schlock, Blaxploitation to Aussiesploitation, zombies to martial arts to who-knows-what, and everywhere in between. This is good ol’ rock and roll cinema spectacle. Not to be missed. (See the schedule, buy tickets, get directions, etc. here.)
Click here for more of my thoughts about Bring It On.