by Anthony Mullins
Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Devery Jacobs, Evan Rachel Wood, Kudakwashe Rutendo, Thomas Antony Olajide
Intro:
… it is hard not to cheer on Backstop’s sincere, joyous and often moving portrayal of youthful athleticism.
As the Olympics just showed us, the superhuman athleticism and sheer guts required to perform at an elite level, let alone actually win, is worth celebrating, if only for the awe it inspires in us mere mortals. While cheerleading is unlikely to be included in the Olympics any time soon (never say never), the feature film debut of non-binary web series director D.W. Waterson makes a solid case for recognising the power of the sport.
The always excellent Devery Jacobs, of the superb TV series Reservation Dogs, plays Riley, a talented and driven “backstop” for her Toronto high school’s cheerleading squad. As a backstop, Riley’s job is to provide the base for the team’s most challenging moves and Jacobs’ performance suitably provides the emotional centre that allows this passionate, if sometimes wobbly, film to stick.
The opening provides a strong start with its extreme POV tumbling sequences making it clear that many of the actors, including Jacobs, are performing their own stunts. Added to this sense of verisimilitude is the energised spontaneity between the performers established by Waterson’s naturalistic directing style.
When Riley, her girlfriend Amanda and their friend Rachel make the elite Thunder Hawks team, it seems like all their cheerleading dreams have come true. Better still, Riley discovers that their fearsome coach Eileen McNamara (played with cool detachment by Evan Rachel Wood) and her assistant coach, Devon (Thomas Antony Olajide), are both queer. She feels like she has found her people and life couldn’t get any better. But while Riley displays a strong physical game, she is plagued by crippling anxiety and doubt, a quality captured by her obsessive eye brow plucking.
It is these aspects of mental health, sexuality and gender that make Backstop a more interesting sports film than most, as the characters question the physical and mental toll that success demands and the role that their sport plays in perpetuating toxic gender stereotypes. Waterson is aware of the contradictions and is not afraid to call them out.
Where the film wobbles is following through on the myriad of ideas it raises, as Riley struggles to balance her ambitions with her mental, physical and interpersonal health. Part of the problem is the under-developed characterisations of some of the secondary characters, particularly Riley’s mother and father, as well as an over-reliance on impressionistic montages to capture her inner world (e.g., the power of Riley’s eyebrow plucking diminishes with each repetition). The script by Joanne Sarazen is based on a story by Waterson, who perhaps hoped their directing flourishes would paper over some of the less developed aspects of the screenplay.
Despite this, it is hard not to cheer on Backstop’s sincere, joyous and often moving portrayal of youthful athleticism.
