Who's in It: Missy Peregrym, Jeff Bridges, Vanessa Lengies, Nikki SooHoo, Maddy Curley
The Basics: It's a refreshingly rebellious and cranky (as rebellious and cranky as PG-13 will allow, anyway) look at the brutal, conformist, unforgiving world of women's gymnastics. These grrrls will beat you down if you call it a chick flick.
What's the Deal: Since gymnastics in real life is all about decimating the people involved and leaving them washed up by the time they finish their teens, it was important not to cute it up too much with this movie, or anyone with a brain would know it was a load of rubbish. And while it is clean and shiny, there's a pissed-off quality to this story of a Bad-Girl gymnast that makes it essential viewing for teenage girls raised to fit into whatever life-corset they find themselves in.
Who's Cool About It: Newcomer Peregrym is a jolt of butch chick energy somewhere on the continuum between Hilary Swank and Michelle Rodriguez. Closer to Hilary, though. (You don't want to mess with Rodriguez. She'll drunken-drive all over you and then beat you up.) Oh, yeah, one other thing. They don't even dare try to give her a boyfriend here. They fob off the supporting boy actors to the other girls.
Pedigree: It's from Jessica Bendinger, the writer of Bring It On, who I bet has read awesome writer Cintra Wilson's piece for Salon called "Women's Olympic Gymnastics: As Wrong as Veal." Translation: Women and gay men have a girlfriend date movie to see together.
One Nagging Detail: And this is the sort of thing that only matters to me, but I have to say it anyway: Could set decorators and music supervisors maybe answer each other's e-mails? Because it's like this: You see Peregrym's character wearing all these hardcore punk and metal T-shirts by bands like Black Flag and Motörhead. And her room is decorated with posters of cool bands like The Gossip and Deerhoof. And then the soundtrack is all MySpace bands like Fall Out Boy. What gives?