When James Dean starred in “Rebel Without a Cause,” he helped define the role of the rebel in American film. If he could see how that genre has evolved, he would probably have something to rebel against. “Stick It” follows Haley Graham (Missy Peregrym, TV’s “Smallville”), a renegade gymnast turned punk-skater, on her journey out of retirement from competitive gymnastics. A judge orders Haley to return to gymnastics after she crashes through a window while BMX biking with her friends. In order to correct her unruly behavior, Haley’s father (Jon Gries, “Napoleon Dynamite”) sends her to an elite gymnastics academy run by Burt Vickerman (Jeff Bridges, “The Big Lebowski”).
- Jessica Boullion
- “Are you going to get on this pole or what?” (Courtesy of Touchstone)
Vickerman and Haley quickly butt heads over training philosophy, setting her apart from her teammates. She encounters an old rival, Joanne Charis (Vanessa Lengies, TV’s “American Dreams”) at the academy, and the two quickly start exchanging biting remarks. Joanne’s character – while mostly a stereotypical, bitchy drama queen – slings some half-decent one-liners at Haley. Still, for the most part, she’s better off keeping her mouth shut (at one point she actually asks her coach for a sleeveless leotard, because she has a “constitutional right to bare arms”). Most of the film’s humor comes from these types of exchanges, steeped in sarcasm, clich