Review

The new word for "cool" is "jerkin," according to subliminal messages disseminated by Posey's evil music empire, and Gatorade is the new Snapple. So we'll say it: the jerkin' Josie and the Pussycats is the new Clueless, a slumber party movie for girls that operates on its own subversive level. Having everything to do with teen fads, product placement and staying true to oneself, and not much to do with the Josie cartoons and comic books (even traditional villainess Alexandra has to justify her existence in one scene by saying "I was in the comic"), Kaplan and Elfont have created a bubbly satire with peppy music that manages to make fun of its target audience. Cook, Reid and Dawson are winning as the Pussycats, here an unknown garage band launched to stardom by Posey's exec Cumming to replace troublesome boy sensation DuJour (who have an N-Sync style hit "Backdoor Lover"). Weighed down only by uneven pacing, Josie has plenty of appeal for not just girls, but anyone who wonders how the heck these prepackaged bands get so popular.