BLOOD, SWEAT AND CHEER (2023)
Tagline: I think the title basically covers it.
(Thriller, Drama, Umm, That’s Not A Teenager) [PG-13]
I looked up her social media pages and she doesn’t have anything posted from more than like two weeks ago. That’s sketch.
In this one Cherie has decided to drop out of cheerleading due to having an overbearing mother. Her mother Renee basically has a freakin breakdown and decides to attend the school her daughter was going to in her place. As Renee continues having trouble making the cheerleading team she wanted her daughter on, she takes more and more risks to keep her charade up…even if it means some people are going to have to die.
One thing I have to give this script credit for is that they actually mention that Renee has wrinkle lines and her skin doesn’t glow like a “teenager” would. Essentially they are saying she looks older than she should and that makes sense because it’s really noticeable. I like Tammin Sursok as an actress and she was solid in BRAKING WHALES which I reviewed recently, but even in that movie, she looked in her mid-20s at least. Sursok is 39 as of this review and she looks great, but she doesn’t look like a teenager. I never mind movies where there is someone playing a character that is a younger age, but it’s a tricky proposition when the rest of the cast actually looks more like the parts they are playing. I will say that when Tammin is given a chance to stretch her acting skills a bit, she pulls it off the majority of the time. However, making her a mom playing a bubbly teen was pretty rough. I did read one review where the person said she didn’t look old enough to be a mom that had a kid that age. I disagree with that.
This movie is a bit of a lesson in doing the things you want to do yourself and not trying to live your life through other people. This kind of touches on some of the weird things bad teachers do to kids in schools these days almost using their students for guinea pig therapy and grooming. The first half of the movie flows really slowly, almost to a point of being boring, but in the last half hour, things pick up and start getting more interesting as Renee starts basically really spiraling into madness. The movie is oddly whimsical at times which is largely pulled off using a clever soundtrack that reminded me a bit of stuff we got in the 90s.
Acting-wise, no one is going to win an Oscar for this and that certainly wasn’t the intent. What we do get is a few decent performances from some of the film's other leads. Aliyah J. Vasquez is pretty solid as Dorinda. Her character is inquisitive and competitive, but not on such a crazy level that she doesn’t demonstrate some humanity. Kaylan Montgomery (PSYCHO SWEET 16) is also solid as Tonya. I do wish she would have gotten more screen time, but her character is very credible as someone just trying to help a new cheerleader on the squad. John Paul Kakos (NEON BLEED) is also very commendable as Ramsey.
This thing doesn’t have very much plausibility but then again sometimes real life doesn’t seem plausible either. In 2014 a 34-year-old woman in Texas was able to fool high school students and staff for 7 months before she finally got caught posing as a teenager. In fact, this kind of thing happens more than you would think and there are programs out there where 20-somethings pose as teenagers to infiltrate schools for various law enforcement agencies, etc., for varying reasons. The finale of the film is pretty underwhelming, but if you have 90-something minutes to spare, you could do a lot worse. This was one that was recommended by some movie fans online, but I personally can’t recommend it.
This one gets a 3 out of 7 in spite of having a decent cast. There just isn’t anything iconic or memorable here.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SUTTLEFILM AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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