The 2002 Britney vehicle is back in cinemas for its 21st birthday. It’s worth the return trip.
Like a time capsule, dug up by three childhood friends at midnight on the day of their high school graduation, the world is receiving an unexpected gift this month:, the 2002 film starring Britney Spears, is being re-released to cinemas. Considering it has rarely been available on streaming in the intervening decades, it’s the perfect opportunity to sport your faded, Y2K-appropriate low-rise denim jeans and/or frosted tips and relive one of the great artefacts of millennial culture.
Of course, the film was panned. It entered the market with celebrity baggage in an era that was particularly harsh to young starlets and instantly cynical about slick pop product. Reviews at the time hammered Britney’s performance – “Watching Ms.
It’s a tale about three childhood friends – Lucy , Kit and Mimi – who reunite on a cross-country trip, each out to confront their own specific, and surprisingly heavy, traumas: maternal abandonment, eating disorders, sexual assault. They get a ride with Ben , a fantasy dream boy with an intimidating rep, sick wheels and angel wing tattoos on his back. The coming-of-age comes for them all.
The film has many memorable moments, like the bit where proto-incel Justin Long gets rebuffed by Britney, or the bit where Kim Cattrall is the ice-coldest mum on earth, or the karaoke contest where Britney leads the trio in a hiphop cover of Joan Jett’sMy favourite is the part where the girls bogart Ben’s car radio, eternally playing horrible nu-metal, and switch it to NSync’sfor a playful group singalong.
Like most things enjoyed primarily by girls, pop music in 2002 was often treated as frivolous and unserious. But the scene plays the trio’s boyband enthusiasm as, simply, objectively correct. When Ben eventually yelps “I can’t” and changes the radio back to generic guitar noodling and Zoe Saldana’s awesome Kit exclaims, “Yeah, like this is any better” – it’s just a perfect cinematic moment. If I saw this in a full cinema, I’d be standing to applause with the rest of the audience.
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