Back to School: Swinging Cheerleaders

This one's probably furthest in tone from the movie we're screening, but we watched it recently and it's too weird not to fit into the theme!

The plot unfolds something like this: A squad of cheerleaders at a small college are holding tryouts for a new member! Unwittingly, they fill the position with an under cover campus reporter who's looking to write an expose on the damages cheerleading can have on society at large. But, as you'd probably guess, she's gonna have a change of heart before the end of the film and everyone will end up friends.

Plot twist: Our undercover reporter and the star football player uncover a plot by the football coach, the statistics professor, and the dean to rig an entire season of football so they can throw the last game and make out like bandits! 

Nudity and commentary: This movie is mostly just an excuse for boobs on screen, but there's some weird commentary and role juxtapositions thrown in for good measure. The star football player for instance is intelligent and emotionally well rounded (even though he's using and cheating on his cheerleader girlfriend). The dude hippy is a misogynist in feminist clothing, and is ultimately (and thankfully off camera) a rapist. The cheerleaders themselves are a diverse group: there's the gal who's trying to lose her virginity, the one who's got the aforementioned statistics professor in her side pocket, the undercover reporter, the daughter of the dean, and the one we only saw three times outside of the locker room. They operate in the team as individuals, they hold conflicting opinions, and each character has an arch of sorts (except the one we never saw), but the most surprising one was Lisa, the gal who was banging her professor.

Lisa: She ends up being the key to uncovering the gambling plot when her (totally married and WAY older) professor boyfriend brings her along one night while he picks up gambling-winnings at some local bars. This night on the town also tips off the professor's wife who pays Lisa an intense visit instructing her to find her own man. But, that threat isn't what makes Lisa leave her gross boyfriend. First Lisa goes to her friend to discuss her new problems (inadvertently tipping her friend off to the gambling ring) so she can work out what she should do. In the end Lisa does leave the professor, but on her own terms and without making her decision to leave him about him. She tells him that she needs to figure out who she is, and that she can't do that with him in her life. That character frankly has more agency than most modern (and fully clothed) female characters in comedy or romance flicks (not to mention a black women in an overwhelmingly white cast). Her character's arch was interesting and well rounded, and frankly took this weird little flick to a more watchable level.

Starts a titty movie, ends abruptly: This movie starts off a straight up titty movie, but about half way through, the nudity is completely dropped. And then it suddenly becomes this slapstick comedy where the star football player (I don't think they even mentioned what position he played) is kidnapped by mob goons because he won't throw the game. But the cheerleaders save the day! They rally the rest of the team to save the star player, bring him back to the game, have a pep-talk in the parking lot, and cut to a cheerleader jumping in the air –freeze frame– credits. No joke. It's so abrupt and unexpected it made a movie I might recommend, to a movie I would TOTALLY recommend.

This is from the opening credits, but the closing stills are recycled from the opening so, you get the idea!

"That lady!" moments with: Rosanne Katon (Motel Hell, St. Elsewhere, Full House, and Playboy Bunny), and Colleen Camp (Election, Die Hard with a Vengeance, and Clue!).

The Director: Jack Hill was the reason we watched this movie, he wrote and directed Coffy and Foxy Brown!

Bonus fact: Swinging Cheerleaders makes an appearance in the Errol Morris documentary, The Thin Blue Line. The subject of the documentary's alibi includes having watched part of this movie at the drive-in the night of the murder.