Hit Me With Your Best Shot

This post is part of Nat's Hit Me With Your Best Shot series over at The Film Experience. If you don't read it, you should. I've never done anything like this before, so hopefully I don't mess it up. ;)

This is the first time I had seen Bring It On since I was maybe 11? I remember all the girls in my class quoting from it and I kind of just rolled my eyes and disregarded it as some fluffy movie. Watching it again was pretty much a revelation (of sorts. Its impact was probably dulled for watching it between I Heart Huckabees and The Big Lebowski for the first time. Last night was pretty much six hours of distilled awesomeness). The way they take these sports tropes and create a movie about cheerleading is kind of amazing. I think it's a lot more intelligent than it's given credit for, judging by the reviews. It's a smart director that can play on tropes and expose their ridiculousness at the same time as creating a genuinely compelling movie of the same genre.

Instead of rambling about the film, I'll get onto my favourite shot (with runner up.) For the first five minutes or so, I was watching the shots closely, and then I kind of just fell into watching the movie and forgot to pay attention. So the shot I picked, I picked because it was the first one that jolted me and made me pay attention to the shots again.

To begin with, I am a sucker for nature porn. I could stare at a movie like Bright Star all day. The movie is vivid and coloured the whole way through, but this shot just struck me because of its obvious link to nature. Most of the rest of the film is set indoors (or at least not in hugely noticeable natural backgrounds), so this shot really made me sit up and pay attention. I love the contrast between Dunst's outfit and the greens and yellows behind her. I also love that the movie pulled back from character for a second: it's still Torrance sitting on a swing, but we can look around and drink in everything else. And yet the moment still seems intimate. Yes, I am probably trying to pull far too much out of this shot. But I really enjoyed it.

My runner up is something that required a bit less thought:

I accidentally paused on it, and could anyone resist that face? Also, this is the only film I recall seeing Jesse Bradford in, and I just kept staring at his lips. Because I'm shallow like that.