The widest smiles are always the most unnerving. That point when the cheeks are so high and teeth so aplenty that only a pathological effort could heave such optimism. It’s what makes Lynch films so squirm-inducing and causes tingles down the spine at the sound of Buddy Holly. Neither, however, have quite the potency of a Rangerette highkick – elastic-band legs momentarily covering immaculate, immaculate, immaculate teeth. As one of the ex-cheerleaders vaunts “they encompass that All American Girl image – you visualise that highkick.” Nightmares have been founded on less.

SWEETHEARTS OF THE GRIDIRON pirouettes amid the training facilities of Kilgore College and their “world-famous” Rangerette cheerleaders. Launched in 1940, on the advent of oil influx to the East Texas backwater, The Rangerettes and their intrepid founder Gussie Nell Davies pioneered the first cheering troupe for their local (American) Football team, their “charms” and “spectacle” later picked up by the NFL and every other American sport besides. Seventy-four years later, the seventy-fourth batch of recruits audition to the prestigious chorus line, the camera documenting their gruelling trial process and personal hopes and dreams.

… the rush of the competition played out before one’s eyes will serve to keep the spectacle high…

The attributes of SWEETHEARTS OF THE GRIDIRON are similar to those of its subjects – an overwhelming, fresh-faced earnestness. Endearing smile after endearing smile describes the personal importance of achieving acceptance to the system, and the long term benefit it can confer. The teachers are stern, but everyone else will jump, twirl, leap, weep, smile, cry and almost die for your own earnest support. For many just the whirl and the rush of the competition played out before one’s eyes will serve to keep the spectacle high for more than half-time.

UK audiences may have some reservations about the film’s gender politics. Cheerleaders have always been a stumbling block for the Brit sports-fan approaching the American game/s. SWEETHEARTS unwillingness to broach the issue of placing women as “spectacle” to a largely male audience, even in defence, feels like evasion – a heavy wad of make-up plastered on a bulbing wart. Yet if you are willing to suspend suspicion and enjoy the ups-and-downs of very exuberant youth, SWEETHEARTS OF THE GRIDIRON provides a big smile and a few tears.

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