Where does Backspot fit in the cheerleading movie canon?

If you've seen Cheer, But I'm a Cheerleader and every Bring It On movie there is, good news: another cheerleading movie is finally coming your way.

Today on Commotion, author and journalist Angela Sterritt, CBC podcast host Falen Johnson and broadcaster Marek Tyler join guest host Amil Niazi to review Backspot, a new film starring Mohawk actor Devery Jacobs, and discuss what it offers the onscreen cheer genre.

We've included some highlights below, edited for length and clarity. For the full discussion, listen and follow Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud on your favourite podcast player.

Amil: Marek, what was really exciting for you about this movie — about this world we enter into?

Marek: Well, it's a world that I didn't know much about, except for I watched that documentary a few years ago during COVID about cheerleading, Cheer. So the movie comes across, and right away I'm scanning for Indigenous content. I'm looking for a blanket on the wall and all these things, but you know what? It was so, so subtle. It was like Easter eggs in some of the scenes that I really loved. It was not being force fed, about it being an Indigenous work. What really got to me was how diverse the casting was. It was so diverse that it gave depth to the writing, the characters and the story. By the second scene or the third scene, I wasn't looking for the Indigenous content anymore; I was right in. I was cheering along. I really loved it.

Amil: I love that. Angela, what did you think of the film?

Angela: I adore Devery Jacobs, and I wanted this to be so good, and I wanted to appreciate this so much. I think the acting was bar none from Devery. Also her romantic partner and cheer partner in the film. I loved the tension — the eyebrow-picking. It felt like it was building up to something, and in the end I couldn't figure out what the plot was. I even had to go back and watch it a couple times to figure it out.

Marek: For me, the whole movie was about identity. There was image identity. No one questioned that she was Indigenous; I don't think there was even mention of it. But their identity as a queer person in this community. And then I thought, well, is cheer a safe place for people to be themselves? That's what I kept taking away. It was not so much about Indigenous identity, but identity and agency that people were taking on to choose their identity and be themselves.

Amil: I love that, but I also love it when people disagree about the movie. I mean, if you didn't like it, Angela, you didn't like it.

Angela: I think for me, as a writer and someone who's always very invested in story, I want to know what the drive is. I want to know more about her anxiety — was this coming from her mom? I just felt like there were some elements that were taken out, and at the end it was sort of more of an observation into Riley's life. Which, if that was the point, then I think it was well done.

Amil: Very diplomatically put, I feel. Falen, I am something of a connoisseur of cheer movies myself, and I hear you are as well. I feel we've come such a long way from Bring It On and But I'm a Cheerleader. Where does this movie fall into that canon?

Falen: You know what, I kind of don't feel like it does. During the pandemic, there were two weird YouTube rabbit holes I fell into. One was dog dancing — watch it, it's amazing — and two was cheer competitions. I started watching all of these American cheer competitions, and I fell in love with them because I do really love the sport of it. It terrifies me, and I love that anxiety. This movie isn't really going to deliver if you're looking for that really intense cheer routine, dance-driven athleticism. 

I know it's an indie film. It's a first film. They filmed it in like 17 days. Those girls did all of that work, so all of that is really applaudable, definitely. But for me, I think the thing that really excited me about this film is not what you see on the screen, but the fact that Devery was a producer on it. That excites me, because what that means is we're finding our way into more spaces, and we're becoming producers and writers and directors. I just want to see more of that develop, so we get more content, because I am just so happy to see more Indigenous faces and bodies and stories on screens.

You can listen to the full discussion from today's show on CBC Listen or on our podcast, Commotion with Elamin Abdelmahmoud, available wherever you get your podcasts.

Panel produced by Jane van Koeverden.