  Stick ItMPAA Rating:
 for some crude remarksReviewed by: Michael Karounos Average
Moviemaking Quality:
Primary Audience:
Teens, Adults
Genre:
Comedy, Sports
Length:
1 hr. 45 min.
Year of Release:
2006
USA Release:
April 28, 2006 (wide)
          Relevant Issues
 
The movie is written and directed by Jessica Bendinger who also wrote Bring It On and similarly hip-hops a white cultural milieu in Stick It. The movie opens with Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym) dressed boy-like in an ominous hoody doing outrageous BMX stunts that have her fleeing from the police with whom, she says, she has an “ongoing flirtation.” As she runs away to a rap-like soundtrack, she strips off the hood, helmet, and gloves, revealing that what lies beneath the image of rebellion is a pretty girl with pigtails. This is the governing metaphor of the movie: beneath every white girl is a rebel who is yearning to talk Truth to Authority, whether it be police, coaches, parents, or judges. Every surface in her room—the dresser, the desk, the posters, etc.—is tagged with gang-like graffiti to show her rejection of her vanilla suburban culture. Haley is sent to do her time at a cavernous gym where only eight other gymnasts are training. Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges), is supposedly a tyrannical coach with a reputation for breaking his athletes, but Jeff Bridges can’t convincingly portray that type of coach. Rather, he has prostituted his ideals and is interested only in milking rich parents of their money. Haley’s idealism transforms him by film’s end and shows him to have the proverbial heart of gold. The mischaracterization of Bridge’s character as a tough guy rather than a greedy idolator is confusing and seems to reflect a tension between the script as written and Bridge’s interpretation, which is truer to his personality. The film’s style consists of MTV-like editing and a soundtrack which would be tiresome to anyone under 18 were it not for the one truly excellent aspect of the movie—the gymnasts. I saw Stick It with a former top gymnast who owns one of the largest gyms in the country. When I asked him what was the best part of the movie he echoed Maddy Curley’s (Mina Hoyt in the movie) interview comment that it accurately reflected how hard gymnasts’ work. That may be true to an experienced eye, but what a layperson sees in the movie is not how hard gymnasts work, but how hard they fall. Everyone has seen a single gymnast hit the mat hard in televised competitions, but to see a well-edited series of violent slams truly conveys how hard and how fast gymnasts are traveling when they hit something. It becomes apparent that only a human as compactly muscled and trained as a gymnast can survive such repeated poundings, and it gives the average viewer a new-found appreciation for the sport as requiring not just an extraordinary skill set, but a mental and physical toughness that is masked by the little girl appearances of the athletes. Ultimately, the movie should have been about the gymnasts and the rewards of such brutal training, but writer/director Jessica Bendinger was so enamored with her agenda to undermine the authority of the white mothers and white judges with stereoptypical black music and attitude, that she disappoints audience expectations at the end of the movie by not allowing the gymnasts to show their stuff. Instead, she reduces these superb athletes to preening pout queens who awkwardly strut through routines that dancers can do better. This leaves the audience with a non-climax in which non-dancers perform in a non-meet. The final sequence reveals nothing so much as that Bendinger’s ego is bigger than the movie and bigger than gymnastics itself. Had Bendinger been content to do a pure gymnastics film, without the amateurish swearing and posturing that infantilized rather than complimented these remarkable young women, it could have been a memorable movie for its genre. But as seems so often the case with movies these days, politics creeps in and instead we get a contrived ending in which the most individualistic athletes in the world, who spent many years training six hours a day, unionize and go on strike. It’s an absurd ending to an absurd premise between which we get some well-shot sequences of top-notch athletes. Maddy Curley’s performance was, as one would expect of an excellent athlete, pitch-perfect, and her bright-eyed portrayal of an intense gymnast was a welcome relief from watching Missy Peregrym being forced to strike the same note of rebelliousness throughout the movie. Peregrym does what she can with the role and delivers several lines with genuine comedic timing, but for too much of the movie she is required to be glum and sullen. The movie has numerous instances of swearing, but the most egregious aspect of it is the tiresome portrayal of all the mothers as shrill, superficial has-been beauties who care about nothing so much as their own enhanced busts and egos. One such mother would have been enough, but every mother was portrayed that way. Since the movie doesn’t show a single positive relationship with a mother and a daughter, its message in that regard is that the gang is the family and the family is the gang. Reject authority; break rules; do what you want, because the only one who understands you is other teenagers. It’s a childish message, it doesn’t do the athletes justice, and it completely undermines the biblical injunction to “Honor your father and mother.” Given how much mothers do in this world, is this really the message we want to give our teenage daughters and sons? The movie’s PG-13 rating is well-earned and families with children below that age who are sensitive to bad language and negative family stereotyping should avoid it. Those who are interested in a revealing look at how hard gymnasts train (and fall) might consider seeing it as long as they don’t expect a gymnastics competition at the end. Violence: Minor / Profanity: Moderate / Sex/Nudity: None
See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers.   Positive - This film was an excellent girl power flick. I took my 13 y/o daughter. To say the least, she now wants to ramp ride… funny and inspirational for our family. The conversations we had after were overdue and positive. Now don’t get me wrong, it’s not a movie to send kids to alone, but a great oppotunity for a family to grow. Positive - I took my Girl Scout troop to see this movie. The girls, ranging from 13-16 all enjoyed it, as did the 3 mothers (myself included) who chaperoned the trip. I suppose a person could read into the movie the various things the reviewer did, but not too easily. Yes, Haley had an attitude, but we know from her father’s comment about her having once been such a good kid that her rebellion stems from the pain she has suffered (won’t detail, so as not to spoil anything). This is not an atypical movie message. And the message of this movie is more about how things were turned around for Haley with positive input, than about rebellion. It is sad that so many movies have adults portrayed so poorly that the audience roots for the kids when they stand up for themselves; or maybe it is sadder that these days a lot of kids can’t put a whole lot of confidence in the adults in their lives. While it is something to discuss with our kids, it is much more something that we as Christian adults need to show does not have to be the case — that parents can stay married, that adults can be trusted to care and to be fair, etc. But these things are just beyond the scope of a movie that is really summed up by the words of the judge (not necessarily an exact quote), 'Lots of good people have had lousy parents.' And, in some ways, this is a very Christian message—our future does not have to be determined by our past, no matter where we come from or how bad our circumstances. With all of that said, it was an enjoyable movie to watch, with less objectional material (swearing, sex/nudity, ect.—see review above) than a lot of other PG-13 movies. Positive - My 21-year-old daughter — a competitive gymnast for several pre-teen years — and I saw this movie yesterday and both thoroughly enjoyed it. Although I was mystified and put off by the apparently wanton destruction of the opening scenes, it made sense as the plot unfolded. While it’s true that many of the gymnastic sequences were filmed in flashing, MTV-style, the transitions between shots were less dizzying than the frenetic TV commercials I hate. The layered scenes, which gave the illusion of all the girls on the parallel bars at once, cleverly conveyed the constant activity a busy training gym sees. And the shots from above—a send-up of old Esther Williams water-ballet movies—were colorful and kaleidoscopic. Positive - Stick It was a great movie. It was essentially a story of overcoming one’s past experiences. I counted exactly 5 curse words ('s___') by the title character - Haley. Despite Haley’s utilization of expletives five times, it is somewhat part of her rough character’s personality as a result of her reaction to her life situation. Although Haley is responsible for her actions, the movie is simply showing the character’s rough personality. Could the directors have not included the curse words, though? Certainly. Positive - Being a lifelong gymnast (artistic and later rhythmic), I was excited to see “Stick It.” It was about time someone made a new movie centered on gymnastics—nearly all sports movies nowadays revolve around football, soccer and baseball. All good sports, of course… but gymnastics tends to be underappreciated. Positive - I loved the film and the stars Missy and Maddy. Comments from young people
Positive - This movie was awesome! There’s a lot of innuendos and language, though (most which would go over younger kids' heads) so I would recommend it for ages twelve and up, and some eleven-year-olds may be able to handle it. Positive - I thought this movie was pretty good, I am a strong Christian, and there were a couple of things that this movie could have done with out a couple of cuss words, they only have 2 words they say about 4 times, only mild words. This movie has a great morals behind it. And if your a Gymnast you will totally dig. I would say the viewers would be more like teenagers, but if you have a mature son or daughter, I would tell you to go and see it; anything you see in this movie is stuff you see in your everyday life, such as School, or the libarary, or the mall, so I believe this movie was pretty good, and I would reccomend you to go and see it. Positive - I loved this movie! I saw it with my sisters (who are 13). This film tells us to stand up and live our lives instead of hiding away from life. It had a surprising twist at the end. This is a fastastic film for 10 and up! Positive - …I believe this movie shows a lot about real life and real personalities. It shows the motive behind a lot of the rebelious actions of people (teens in particular). The movie shows that many times people rebel simply because they need someone to reach out the them. It also shows that sometimes standing up for your friend when they've been treated unfairly means sticking out and letting people know that you don't take… “opression” from them. Positive - I am obbsessed with this movie. I have seen it 5 times in theaters, and I think it is excellent—mostly for gymnasts. But if you don't like gymnastics, you may enjoy it. I would reccomend this movie for 10 and up. I think it is a great film. However, there are some bad words, but trust me, this is a movie you will never forget. I can't wait for it to come out on video… Also both of my parents like this move.… Positive - I love this movie so much! It's the best movie, I have ever seen. Me and my sisters (Ages 10 and 14) all loved it. It teaches you to follow your dreams. |
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