Sugar & Spice (2001)

Director:

Francine McDougall

Writer (WGA):

Mandy Nelson (written by)

Release Date:

26 January 2001 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime

Tagline:

Why would the most popular girl in school wear a mask?

Plot:

A popular high school cheerleader becomes pregnant with the star quarterback's child, only to find herself turning to crime to support the lifestyle she wants to live.

Plot Keywords:

Cheerleader | Quarterback | High School | Cheerleading Squad | Bank Robbery

Cast

Marla Sokoloff	...	Lisa Janusch
Marley Shelton	...	Diane Weston
Melissa George	...	Cleo Miller
Mena Suvari	...	Kansas Hill
Rachel Blanchard	...	Hannah Wald
Alexandra Holden	...	Fern Rogers
Sara Marsh	...	Lucy Whitman
James Marsden	...	Jack Bartlett
Sean Young	...	Mrs. Hill
W. Earl Brown	...	Hank 'Terminator' Rogers
Adam Busch	...	Geeky Guy
Jake Hoffman	...	Ted
Nate Maher	...	Chris
David Belenky	...	Bruce
Kevin Kling	...	Factory Worker

Also Known As:

Sugar and Spice and Semiautomatics (USA) (working title)

MPAA:

Rated PG-13 for language, sex-related humor and some thematic elements.; Rated PG-13 for language, sex-related humor and thematic elements. (video version)

Runtime:

81 min | 84 min (extended version)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

Finland:K-11 | Iceland:L | USA:R (original rating) | South Korea:12 | South Korea:15 (extended version) | Philippines:PG-13 | UK:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Canada:PG | Chile:14 | France:-12 | Germany:12 | Peru:14 | Spain:13 | Sweden:11 | USA:PG-13 | Singapore:PG

Filming Locations:

Anoka High School - 3939 Seventh Avenue N., Anoka, Minnesota, USA

Trivia:

The premiere of the movie was held in Minnesota, where the movie was filmed. The entire audience was given Betty Doll masks, like the ones the girls used to rob the bank in the movie.

Goofs:

Continuity: When the Homecomming candidates are making their speeches the camera is showing close ups of Lisa while the 4H girl makes her speech. In the long shot, there is an empty chair, but in the close-up there is someone in the chair.

Quotes:

Hank 'Terminator' Rogers: How many bullets do you need?
Diane: Bullets? No bullets! Oh my gosh, these are just to scare people. Kinda like a round-off, back handspring, whip back, double full. You never really use it - you just want the opposing squad to know you've got it.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in A New Wave (2007)

Soundtrack:

Bohemian Like You

All the nice that's fit to print

A high school cheerleading squad robs a bank in order to support the burgeoning family of one of their own. They get the idea watching the Keanu Reeves movie Point Break and then watch movies like Reservoir Dogs and Dog Day Afternoon to figure out how exactly to pull the caper off.

Now, I know what you're thinking. Sounds like a cutesy family movie, right? The kind that warms the cockles, wherever they are. Well, almost. It's a dead-on, surprisingly hilarious comedy, with perfect off-center performances and a crisp, honest script.

The last cheerleading movie I saw (and quick, can you name more than a couple anyway? Didn't think so) was the Kirsten Dunst comedy Bring It On. This one blows that out of the water, out of the atmosphere, and out of the solar system. There's no moralizing. There's no good-girls-are-right, bad-girls-are-wrong lesson. Heck, we're talking about teenage girls pulling off a robbery! And one thing that could have sunk this movie early on was a character change. You've seen movies in which a character, faced with a new set of circumstances, does a 180-degree turnaround on how they've behaved up to that point. In this movie, you'd expect the girls to suddenly become flawless professional robbers. Not so. And while their plan has its faults, it's still a plan, buoyed by the vacant aphorisms of their leader, the pregnant and chipper Diane (Marley Shelton). Sing-songy and ebullient, the kids squabble among themselves but, in the true spirit of cheerleading and gosh-darn Girl Scout-like togetherness, they pull together as a team. Hip! Hip! Hooray!

Decent cheerleading movies are hard to come by. Come to think of it, so are any cheerleading movies. Oh, not that I'm looking, but I can name only two off the top of my head: Bring It On and the legendary, overlooked (okay, just kidding) 1977 opus Satan's Cheerleaders. But the latter's pep squad was in college, so it's different. But I digress.

Truth be told, there's not a dull moment in the movie. Diane's knocked up before the prom by her dimwit football-hero boyfriend. This guy's so stupid he gets himself fired from such seemingly unfireable jobs as fast-food employee and other glamorous retail employment opportunities. See, in the real world, he'd be upset that the luster had worn off his diamond of an image, having to work with geeks at the video store. But he's a dope, blissfully ignorant. He knows but one thing - that he loves Diane - and being such a dullard is supremely helpful to the film (and isn't easy to do; kudos goes to James Marsden in the role).

In short, a real hoot. We've seen many bank robbery movies with their own twists and idiosyncrasies; this one's one of the better ones to come down the pike. Go team go!