Sugar and Spice (2001)

Sugar and Spice may not be (as someone said) as polished as Election but I love its campy spin on a Hughesian blend of cheerleader chic and bank robber pique. It is almost as if The Breakfast Club and Legally Blonde had a menage-a-trois love child with Raising Arizona. Sugar and Spice is clearly a labor of love because of its many flippant and whimsical bits, from Kansas' (Mena Suvari) assumption about her prison-inmate mother and the dykey bank-heist convict to each wide shot of Jack and Diane's crackerbox house that shows a little dog yappily racing down the sidewalk. If you pay attention to every word and every implication of the script -- not to mention the nonverbal language -- Sugar and Spice is a true treat and a real hoot. The cheerleaders would be almost too hot for high school but through her eyes, Diane (Marley Shelton) evinces a Kidmanesque psychotic intensity -- think The Stepford Wives -- and the other Debby dolls are just as interesting for their earnest vapidity. The script and soundtrack are simply classic. I had to rent this title from a competing service since it has been on Save status here for a long time but I would gladly watch it again anytime and even own it. 5 stars.