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‘Backspot’ Review: Thrilling Cheerleading Drama Is a Great Showcase for ‘Reservation Dogs’ Star Devery Jacobs
'Backspot,' D.W. Waterson’s feature debut, stars Devery Jacobs in a story about perfection and compassion in a high school cheer squad.
Perhaps obsessively so.By the time you see Riley outside of that tightly-wound space where she’s required to be the best possible version of herself (all while smiling and pretending to not break a sweat) and you catch her absentmindedly picking at her eyebrows, you realize the stress of high school cheerleading — on top of other stressors in her life — may be too much for her to bear. Indeed, the cheerleading scenes that bookend the film — the first using POV shots that put you squarely in Riley’s headspace; the last featuring a thrilling roving one-take that showcases the squad’s entire finished performance — do a great job of honoring the brutal if graceful athleticism required in the sport. In many a close-up, Jacobs captures how driven and adrift this young woman can be at any given time, whether silently bickering with her girlfriend, boldly confronting her coach, downing drinks to drown her sorrows, and even playing patient parent to her frail, wayward mother.
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