Pep Squad

PEP SQUAD
Writer/Director:Steve Balderson
Starring:Brooke Balderson, Amy Kelly, Jennifer Dreiling
Availability: DVD Widely Available
Rating:

    Part of the appeal of being a lover of independent cinema, especially independent genre cinema, is the thrill of discovery.  I am relentless in my pursuit of movies and directors that might have slipped past my radar.  Last week, during one of these hot pursuits, I came across a movie called Pep Squad.  I heard comparisons to Heathers and John Waters, and that definitely piqued my interest.  I then dug into the rest of his filmography, and found a director who seemed to have a very unique voice, and seemed to make the sort of cult films that I absolutely love.  Needless to say, I impulsively ordered all his flicks immediately.

    Pep Squad is dark comedy done right.  It's really one of the only high school films I've seen that deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Heathers.  The film stars Brooke Balderson (the director's sister) as Cherry, a gleefully vicious little bitch who wants nothing more than to be prom queen.  She's pretty much the most hated girl in school, so her dreams are destined to go unfulfilled, but that doesn't mean she won't do whatever it takes to make her dream a reality.

    There's also another plot involving three young friends, and the unfortunate murder of the school's creepy, rapist principal.  The murder is discovered by Terra, one of the girls nominated for prom queen, who agrees to keep the murder a secret as long as they rig the election in her favor.  The students then decide to hire Cherry to kill Terra, which she agrees to do under the condition that she gets Terra's nomination and crown.  Needless to say, things don't go as planned.  Blood is spilled.  Just another typical day in suburbia.

    Now, I have to say, for a debut feature, this movie is incredibly well done.  The camerawork is excellent.  The acting across the board was solid.  The humor was just mean enough without being completely ugly.  It's the film Jawbreakers wanted to be, only with half the budget and ten times the heart.  If I had any real problems with the film, it's that I wish the film focused more on Cherry.  Brooke Balderson's performance as Cherry is total unhinged brilliance.  Whenever she is on the screen, you can't keep your eyes off her.  It's a tremendous performance for sure.

    The film's climax is also breathtaking.  I don't want to spoil it for you, but the shot of Cherry on stage with flames behind her is one of the most chilling, powerfully effective shots I've seen in an indie film.  The movie also does a great job at avoiding stereotypes.  There's nothing conventional about these people.  There's a lot of complexity buried underneath every person here, which is refreshing, since far too many indie directors just don't write teenagers well.

    Now, the film has received a lot of comparisons to John Waters, but I wouldn't go into with those sorts of expectations.  The film isn't nearly as insane as Waters's stuff, and it's not nasty enough to compare it to something akin to Todd Solondz's Welcome To The Dollhouse.  It's simply a clever, dark piece of satire that begs to be rediscovered.  If you pick up the Troma release, there's also a great documentary called Wamego:Making Movies Anywhere that gives a real insight into Steve's creative process.  I strongly suggest you pick this film up, if for no other reason than in the wake of high school shootings, you just don't see a lot of teenage films going this dark.

    Until next time, my fellow freaks and weirdos...