2024 BFI Flare Review - Backspot (2023)

It’s not a sideshow any more. Cheerleading’s a sport in its own right, demanding dedication, teamwork and fitness. But success comes at a price – usually more than one – and D W Waterson’s teen sports movie puts them under the microscope in Backspot, a debut feature where blood, sweat, tears and hideous blisters all play their part.

Riley (Devery Jacobs) is an enthusiastic cheerleader. Not the best in her team, but good enough to try out for the elite squad and she unexpectedly gets through. Her girlfriend lands a place as well, but what was a dream starts to turn sour. The pressure is too much for Riley, who has always been prone to anxiety: it manifests itself in compulsive behaviour while she tries to balance her relationship with the demands of a coach she deeply ires and the never-ending quest for athletic perfection, something she knows in her heart of hearts she can never quite achieve, however much she wants to.

She’s the quintessential backstop, the person who holds everything together in a team stunt. It’s not the most glamorous role, but it comes with the most pressure and, while Riley handles it nine times out of ten, she’s only human and that tenth time is her worst nightmare. Not only does she let everybody down, but there’s always the risk of injury. And in her personal life, she’s desperately trying to hold it all together – her girlfriend, her coach, her mother and her own relentless training regime. Something has to give. And Waterson paints a compelling picture of the mental health challenges that can go with sport, helped by a tremendous performance from Jacobs (Reservation Dogs, Hero), one of a clutch from her that shows she’s an acting force to be reckoned with.

For the majority of its lean hour and half running time, the film concentrates on her various battles, with intimately effective dreamlike sequences depicting her panic attacks and hair pulling disorder. So the film’s conclusion comes as a huge disappointment: simplistic to the point of being pat, it almost treats her issues as if they never existed in the first place, doing the film as a whole, and Jacobs in particular, something of an injustice.

There’s an echo of Close To You, are anything to go by, he has a keen eye for strong storylines and characters. His filmmaking voice is getting louder and increasingly distinctive.