Cheers for the film that walks a fine line

Rating: 8/10 (21 May 2001)

This film is actually quite good and well worth the time to watch it. The idea was originally a documentary but with no takers, the writer turned it into a drama and I think the result is more than one could have hoped.
The girls are cute and all but there is a lot of skill and talent involved in their "cheer routines" and the movie doesn't down-play their work nor make it super serious.
For me, the best parts of the film show the relations between the really talented but poor cheer squad from East Compton LA and the much richer and more famous squad from San Diego. The idea of popular culture stealing from black culture was handled well in the context of these cheer routines. There is a lot of truth to the "stealing" charge and the movie doesn't get angry but, in an amazing movie moment, the white heroine's squad loses to the slightly more talented black squad. I found it very refreshing and very "un-American" (or at least, un-Hollywood).
The second best sequence in the film is when the San Diego squad hires a choreographer to teach them a new cheer routine. This "Bob Fosse" wanna-be is a truely funny "angry actor" and his routine is bad and he insults the cheer-girls, its just really, really funny.
Great acting, great cheer routines, very intelligent. The film is really only marred by the fact that cheerleading isn't that important. This is not a film about earth shaking topics with tragic actors and huge emotions. Think of this instead as a delicious desert, it tastes great and its made with quality ingredients.