Cheerleader is a drama about a promiscuous girl who seeks calculated revenge on her ex-boyfriend by turning her attention to an unlikely subject.
Sophocles once said that one word frees us of all the weight and pain of life. Money, you say? No, of course not. Love, silly. Love. The problem is, once you have it – or maybe a symptom you misdiagnosis as such – and then lose it, well, through the roof comes crashing all those weights and pains. Doubly so if you’re a high school girl. At least in the movies.
That’s the story for young Mickey (Catherine Blades), a popular, attractive blonde student in the throes of a recent breakup with her somewhat indifferent boyfriend Josh (Michael Campayno), who’s just cut her loose. Thing is, it’s not like they were totally exclusive, the cheerleader likes boys and is sort of flirty, making out with guys in the backseat. But this breakup … ehhh, it’s not going over well, and she’s not happy about being cast aside. So, she hatches a plan to make him jealous. She’ll find another guy to hook up with and that’ll win him back. Brilliant. But who? The team mascot? Nah. The Pac-Man kid? Are you kidding? How about Buttons (Chris Bert), the nerdy computer guy? Perfect. But what happens next?
Set in the early 80s, Cheerleader makes good use of the era but isn’t about it, the times able to let Franco explore this close-quarters relationship drama without all the modern trappings of technology to spoil it. More so, you also might be led down the wrong rabbit hole by the above description, thinking this is some dark, twisted revenge plot but it isn’t. Instead, it’s a carefully-crafted coming-of-age story that tenderly crosses once insurmountable borders in this well-trodden genre, delivering an intimate portrayal of what it is to be Mickey.
What’s clever about all this is how you might think you have it all figured out in the first fifteen minutes, the hot boy/girl tricking the unpopular boy/girl from across the tracks, learning that love is not superficial, eventually finding that one single thing in turning the ‘nerd’ into hotness themselves. Admittedly, Buttons dons the Clark Kent glasses well, ready to bloom and show Mickey he’s worth a girl like her. But that is not where Franco takes us, instead pushing back on expectations hard, rerouting us to a place few films have gone before. You’re whole approach to Cheerleader transforms the more time you spend with it.
This is an honest little endeavor, never painting in broad strokes, even when it feels like that is exactly where it’s going when it starts. Instead, we peek inside the life of a slightly troubled teen girl as she tries to unpack what that means, searching for an identity that isn’t automatically wrapped around just being a pretty cheerleader. She very occasionally offers narration as commentary, and while I’m never much of a fan for such things, the way Franco slips it in is smart and endearing, giving us a deeper invitation into the haunts within. These confessions aren’t always internal though, a few moments on her date with Buttons reveals some powerfully deep pain.
Cheerleader is not your typical teen angst-driven tale, Mickey the most devastatingly complex teenage character to come along in a long time, and with Blades’ pitch perfect from frame one, truly compelling. Sure, the targets are all the same, much of the major plot points familiar, but nothing else, Franco keeping this a tightly wound, narratively-driven exercise ripe with style and substance. This is not mainstream filmmaking, and be glad it’s not. Franco takes big chances with tempo, music, intimacy, and consequences. A late scene at a basketball game is a small wonder in combustion, leading to a crushing moment in all black with Mickey repeating words that no teen girl should ever say for the emotions she’s feeling.
Cheerleader is a unique experience, avoiding the same boring platitudes of teen romance movies, Franco and his cast building something well into the peripheral. It’s authentic and traumatizing. And it works. Highly recommended.