Site icon Philosophy in Film

Review: Cheerleader (2016) ★★★

&NewLine;<p>Whenever you sit down to watch an indie film&comma; there is about a 50&sol;50 chance that the budget will put a damper on your viewing experience&period; Sometimes it’s bad special effects&comma; other times it just feels rushed and you assume that there was not enough time to produce a polished final cut&period; Though this is not always a bad thing and many films actually benefit from certain constraints&comma; it is still easy to feel short-changed by low production values&period; Thankfully&comma; this is not the case with Irving Franco’s coming-of-age film&comma; <em>Cheerleader<&sol;em>&period; The visuals are stunning&comma; and it inserts a relatively simple story into a beautiful&comma; colorful&comma; and surreal world&period; However&comma; a few lackluster performances and strange artistic choices take away from an otherwise excellent production&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The film follows high school cheerleader&comma; Mickey &lpar;played by Catherine Blades&rpar;&comma; as she deals with various hardships and complications that come with being a teenager&period; Much of the story is told through Mickey’s inner-monologue&comma; during which she ponders her life and the quality of her relationships&period; Many scenes are set in cramped spaces&comma; like her strange&comma; sterile bedroom or the backseat of her boyfriend&&num;8217&semi;s car&period; In these moments&comma; we are given little context outside of Mickey&&num;8217&semi;s narration&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>She is popular&comma; but this popularity puts unrealistic expectations on her&semi; Mickey is obligated to act a certain way&comma; dress a certain way&comma; and hang out with certain people&period; She has feelings for boys at her school&comma; and acts on those feelings&comma; but sometimes doubts her own motives and desires&period; As she tries to reconcile the approval of her peers with her feelings toward people &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;beneath” her on the social ladder&comma; she takes a path that threatens her own happiness and the happiness of those around her&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>While the characters and performances often feel one-dimensional&comma; it is difficult to tell if this was the intention of the filmmaker or a result of inexperienced actors&period; Mickey’s emotions are played out through the narration&comma; but she often sounds bored with her own redundant thoughts&period; Using narration as a primary tool for storytelling is always a risky choice&comma; and in <em>Cheerleader<&sol;em>&comma; the voiceover gives us excessive exposition to explain every thought&comma; emotion&comma; and behavior ad nauseam&period; Sometimes less is more&comma; but this concept is completely abandoned when Mickey’s thoughts run wild&period; Her interactions with others are also pretty stilted and unnatural&period; While this might be an attempt to replicate the sheer awkwardness of teenage romance&comma; it seems unintentional&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<figure class&equals;"wp-block-image"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i2&period;wp&period;com&sol;philosophyinfilm&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2019&sol;02&sol;MV5BNjgzNjBlM2YtZTNmNC00NjdkLWE2MGItMjVmZWNmY2Q1NDJlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNDY0NDYzNw&commat;&commat;&period;&lowbar;V1&lowbar;SX1777&lowbar;CR001777999&lowbar;AL&lowbar;&period;jpg&quest;fit&equals;800&percnt;2C450&amp&semi;ssl&equals;1" alt&equals;"" class&equals;"wp-image-1523"&sol;><figcaption>Cheerleader &lpar;2016&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Even though most of the performances are nothing to get excited about&comma; Chris Bert stands out for praise&period; Bert gives one of the most believable performances in the film as the shy&comma; self-effacing nerd that everyone not-so-lovingly calls &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Buttons&period;” Despite his earnest portrayal&comma; Bert’s character is a prime example of the script’s shortcomings&period; Buttons sits in a garage with a series of screens that just constantly loop different computer-animated videos&comma; and this is the audience’s cue that he is some kind of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;computer wiz&period;” This characterization feels woefully outdated&comma; like something from a John Hughes ripoff&period; To add insult to injury&comma; the story largely revolves around Mickey’s attempt to make her boyfriend jealous by going on a date with Buttons&comma; which is about as cliche as a teenage drama could get&period; She later realizes that Buttons is really nice and&comma; deep down&comma; part of her would like to be with him&comma; but due to peer pressure&comma; she is compelled to ignore her true feelings&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>Cheerleader<&sol;em> is problematic to evaluate because it is never clear whether these seemingly glaring &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;blunders” are actually intentional&period; The visual style is intriguing&comma; and makes you want to believe that the over-the-top elements are meant to be parody or commentary on mainstream coming-of-age films&period; Better yet&comma; they could be oddities of a story world that is eerily similar to&comma; but nonetheless separate from the world we live in&period; <&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>But again&comma; none of it <em>feels<&sol;em> intentional&period; Instead&comma; these elements seem more like the results of inexperienced acting and artistic missteps&period; In spite of this&comma; the production quality is generally top-notch&comma; especially for a low-budget indie film&period; It’s obvious that it was not just thrown together by a few friends with a video camera&period; This is an extremely well-crafted project and it comes so close to being a great art film&comma; but a few head-scratching choices hold it back from being more than a technically-proficient indie flick&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Nonetheless&comma; Franco shows a lot of promise as a director&comma; and <em>Cheerleader<&sol;em> is definitely worth a watch for cinematography buffs and indie movie fans alike&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><em>Cheerleader<&sol;em> is currently available to rent or purchase via Amazon <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;amazon&period;com&sol;gp&sol;product&sol;B07JZHMZQD&sol;ref&equals;as&lowbar;li&lowbar;qf&lowbar;asin&lowbar;il&lowbar;tl&quest;ie&equals;UTF8&amp&semi;tag&equals;mjones34880c-20&amp&semi;creative&equals;9325&amp&semi;linkCode&equals;as2&amp&semi;creativeASIN&equals;B07JZHMZQD&amp&semi;linkId&equals;0d3b2a5c77f60228027f374c13a464d5"><u>here<&sol;u><&sol;a>&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Rating&colon; &starf;&starf;&starf; out of 5<&sol;p>&NewLine;

Exit mobile version