“Backspot” walks a fragile line between conventional teen fare and an adult-centric drama, which is exactly the intersection Riley inhabits. When she and her girlfriend Amanda share the display exterior of the fitness center, it seems like the story “Bend it Like Beckham” would have been if it had been allowed to be canonically queer. The at all times fantastic Shannyn Sossamon is a good addition as Riley’s straight-laced mom, however in typical teen film style,, we do not get as a lot time along with her as some viewers may like. However that is as a result of it isn’t about those that orbit Riley, it is about Riley, and the best way Waterson shows her inside life is likely one of the strongest components of the movie.
There is a frenetic, intense vitality to the digicam actions of the bodily calls for of cheerleading, however that is par for the course in a post-“Stick It” world. Waterson takes an identical stance towards all of Riley’s feelings, with swirling, romantic bliss when Riley and Amanda have intimate scenes. Or there’s the anxious, invasive portrayal of her trichotillomania, obsessively isolating the motion of choosing at her eyebrow hair in excessive close-ups. This trendy strategy intertwines Riley’s exterior presentation along with her true emotions, a captivating little bit of commentary on the best way we’re at all times, at all times curating the face we enable the world to see. We’re continually performing within the competitors of life, and we seldom let anybody know simply how arduous it may be to get by.
Waterson elects to not disguise the swimming pools of sweat or imperfections hidden beneath the well-worn tropes of willpower and ambition, however the script provides in a bevy of story threads seldom explored. Riley and Amanda are a biracial queer couple the place neither girl is white. Riley has a queer function mannequin in Eileen, who’s herself an intense mess of a human being. Riley’s dad might or will not be emotionally abusive, however Riley would not have time to actually discover any of this, as a result of she’s bought coaching to do.