Jessica Bendinger's 'straighten out and fly right' teen sport flick 'Stick It' turns out a far more intelligent, empowering and surprisingly indicting look at teen gymnastics than one would think from the cover. What starts off as a fairly formulaic 'teen does wrong and must redeem by succeeding with the help of a father figure coach who learns a life lesson in return' plot, reverses and twists like a capable uneven bars champ, the sting, not on society or parents but on the institution it glorifies: competitive gymnastics. With some very strong knowledge of her subject, and the same clever banter that made her 'Bring it On' script so successful, Bendinger lets her cinematographer and editor collaborate to make art out of what is already a magnificent looking sport. Instead of the compete, challenge, victory formula shooting for the predictable in-house competition, they instead choose to create an incredible montage of form and colour that tears a page out from Busby Berkeley's dance patterns of the '30s. In addition, seamless body-doubling and some fantastic real life gymnasts rounding out the cast, make this an easy picture to buy into and root with, even when the 'damn the institution, I'm a success because I know I am' message gets a little heavy. As a non-target audience member(30's male as opposed to teen female) expecting nothing more than a 'Bring it On' rehash, I was surprised to find a smarter than average film with solid performances; likable, developed characters; awesome gymnastics; and a script that borrowed as much from 'The Perfect Score' as it did from the writer/director's previous work.
