Sugar & Spice puts your average cheerleader movie to shame. It s sassy and satirical, closer in spirit to But I m a Cheerleader than to Bring It On. With its shameless pop culture references, wicked satire and a cheerleader with the hots for Conan O Brien, it s more proof that not all movie teenagers have to be dumb. (All right, these cheerleaders are dumb but in a smart movie.) I was surprised by the PG-13 rating; the movie is so in tune with its under-17 target audience that it s amazing the MPAA didn t slap it with an R.
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The movie takes place at Lincoln High School, with a crepe-headed Honest Abe prancing on the sidelines. We meet the A-team of the cheerleader squad, who seem like a cross between Olympic gymnasts and the pompon girl who inflamed Kevin Spacey in American Beauty. No wonder: Mena Suvari, who played the pompon girl, turns up here as Kansas, a girl whose mom is in prison.