Clever Symbolism

Rating: 5/10 (19 December 2012)

Today I'm going to review a piece of cinema that my younger sister was watching. It goes by the name, "Bring it on" 2000, and stars Kirsten Dunst (whatta gem) and Gabrielle Union. I know it came out in 2000, but 12 years ago it was far too mainstream for me to review, and now it's taken on a slightly retro- post ironic tilt. So, Torrance Shipman (Dunst) is a peppy cheerleader from San Diego, who is appointed head cheerleader of the "Toros" by the graduating "Big Red" (she's a redhead, if you didn't get that.) Chaos ensues as the cheerleaders find that Big Red had been stealing cheer routines from the East Compton team, the Clovers. Their captain, Isis (Union) is not happy about this, and vows to take her team to nationals. Lots of lessons are learned about believing in yourself and so on and so forth. My first issue with this movie are the stupid names. Torrance? The entire movie, I thought they were saying Taurus. And Isis? Both of those names would be excellent stripper pseudonyms. My second issue was the symbolism. Now, "Big Red" is obviously a symbol of an oppressive, "Big Brother-esque" distopia, brought on by the 90's dotcom bubble, (symbolized by the eager, too willing to make sacrifices and break rules Torrance Shipman). But what did Torrance's manic, slightly robotic college boyfriend symbolize? My first thought was that the director, Peyton Reed, was trying to bring in a neo-sincerist vibe, but I realized that this wasn't possible in 2000, a pre-ironist world. Was Peyton Reed, with his horribly one sided characters and inane dialogue an iconoclast? Or was he created fodder for cinephiles to cry over as they sip Chianti? You be the judge.