Backspot

After hearing the news that the esteemed high school cheer squad Thunder Hawks have new spots opening, the mid-level ranked Riley and her girlfriend Amanda apply, making the elite team. The high-level perfectionism dictated by their coach Eileen impact the newcomers and Riley’s interior world begins to crumble like a cheer squad pyramid gone wrong. The days of blanket forts and queer bliss for Riley and Amanda are tested by the rigors of gruelling practice and dopamine highs. With a high energy soundtrack, Backspot backflips the formulaic cheerful cheerleader genre tropes of Bring It On, landing a blister-making, compulsive narrative by non-binary, first time feature helmer, and electronic music producer, D. W. Waterson. Devery Jacobs (as Riley, and Waterson’s partner in life) also acts as one of the producers along with Elliot Page. Anchored, literally, by Jacobs’ driven performance as the squad’s backspot, Backspot will cartwheel into your heart with a physicality and rawness so rarely observed in queer sport cinema.