Drenched in rainbow colors and featuring multiple training montages scored to Green Day and Blink 182 (including a Busby Berkeley-inspired synchronized stretching sequence), Stick It assumes an insolent air while thoroughly adhering to countless clichés, from the bitchy adversary (Vanessa Lengies's Joanne) who ultimately joins forces with Haley, to the superfluous comedic relief characters (played by Kellan Lutz and John Patrick Amedori), to the eventual triumph achieved via the girls' decision to reject their manipulative parents and be themselves. That the film tries too hard to strike a hardcore pose is epitomized by Peregrym, whose charisma as Haleya sweet Skittle masquerading as a Sour Patch Kidis often undercut by her strained efforts to behave simultaneously cute, bratty, and tough.
At its candy-coated center, however, Bendinger's directorial debut is just another hypocritical tween-targeted drama in the Bend it Like Beckham mold, one that strives to celebrate feminist self-actualization while also delivering objectifying close-ups of teenage girls' asses and washboard abs. And despite its climax's attempts to denigrate athletic/artistic criticism by portraying gymnastics judges as fascists who are secretly jealous of those they're judging (a jab often leveled against those in the film reviewing profession), I won't be swayed from supplying my own final Stick It verdict: starts off shaky, mildly efficient through its mid- section, but fails to nail its landing.
At its candy-coated center, however, Bendinger's directorial debut is just another hypocritical tween-targeted drama in the Bend it Like Beckham mold, one that strives to celebrate feminist self-actualization while also delivering objectifying close-ups of teenage girls' asses and washboard abs. And despite its climax's attempts to denigrate athletic/artistic criticism by portraying gymnastics judges as fascists who are secretly jealous of those they're judging (a jab often leveled against those in the film reviewing profession), I won't be swayed from supplying my own final Stick It verdict: starts off shaky, mildly efficient through its mid- section, but fails to nail its landing.