A One Mann’s Movies review of “Eat / Sleep / Cheer / Repeat” (2024) (From the 2024 Irish Film Festival, London).
With thanks to the organisers for the press pass, I attended one day of the Irish Film Festival being held in London. The first film I’m seeing is “Eat / Sleep / Cheer / Repeat” – a documentary on the subject of cheerleading. If the director had been a middle-aged bloke, I would have asked in the film’s Q&A – Mrs Merton style – “What first attracted you to making a film about a bunch of cute 18-year-old cheerleaders?”. But, as it was, the director is the very polite and sensible Tanya Doyle and a great job she has done with this documentary.
Bob the Movie Man Rating:
“Eat / Sleep / Cheer / Repeat” Plot Summary:
This Irish documentary follows a cheerleading team preparing for the World Championships in Florida amid the COVID-19 pandemic and all of the chaos that introduces.
Certification:
UK: 12A; US: NR. (From the BBFC web site: “Infrequent strong language, moderate sex references”)
Talent:
Directed by: Tanya Doyle.
Running Time: 1h 27m.
“Eat / Sleep / Cheer / Repeat” Summary:
Positives:
- A really great bunch of characters.
- True fly-on-the-wall style documentary making.
- One particularly uplifting and moving moment.
Negatives:
- Some aspects I wanted to drill into some more.
Review of “Eat / Sleep / Cheer / Repeat”:
Supporting the Hilton ethic.
We are following the Irish National Cheerleading team in their preparations to attend “the Worlds”: the World Championships in Florida. Driving the team forwards under difficult circumstances is Hilton Holien, the dedicated coach who tries to herd his teenage hormone-infused cohort towards the training sessions in the run up to the event. We, of course, see the team going from a rather ragged routine, with people being kicked and dropped to the floor, to a well-polished troupe with a kick-ass routine.
But this is not without its stresses and Doyle’s camera mercilessly focuses in on some of Hilton’s darkest moments. Covid is a real pain to him and as the date of travel nears he moans to his partner that he just wants to “wrap them all in bubblewrap” for a few weeks!
His passion for the squad is obvious: he is dreaming of getting a top-10 slot in the world rankings. In one scene he berates and demotes Rickie, a male team member, for not only failing to attend a session but also persuading another girl not to attend either. You can see how much he hates the process: these kids are like family to him.
Real teamwork.
One of the things that strikes you is the unique value of teamwork among the squad. As Hilton comments at one point “Cheerleading is not like other team sports where there is a ‘star player’. This is a team where everyone has to work together”. It’s a point well-made, as demonstrated in one of the competition routines when one of three pyramids collapses due to a single girl’s mistake.
The Florida team is selected from a superset of the group and of course some young people have to face the disappointment of being either left behind or subbed. One of those left behind is Jayleesa who refuses to take the Covid vaccine and so cannot gain entry to the US. Watching her watching the team perform in Florida is heartbreaking: “I’m so sad” she wails, in floods of tears. Bless.
True Fly-on-the-wall
Regular readers of this blog will know how much I dislike documentaries that feel ‘constructed’ – where the director has clearly said to the participants “Yeah, that was great, but can we recreate it again so I can get the camera in a better position?”. (Or indeed, almost complete recreations as in “The Wolves Always Come At Night“!) There felt like none of that happening in this film.
I was lucky enough to have a long chat with Tanya Doyle at the festival and she commented that due to Covid and various false starts, the film was literally 5 years. The filming was so extended that the participants genuinely forgot about the cameras being there. It shows. There is a naturalness to the interchanges between the teens in their dressing rooms and at home. Dean, one of only four males in the team, is gay and he feels free to recount his stories of coming out and dating to the camera (Doyle got his approval to release the footage).
What strikes you is just what a level-headed and positive bunch of teens these are. They don’t seem to have any major body hang-ups: Taylor comments while doing her make-up that she “tries to look her best” but that “everyone has their own definition of perfect” so being perfect is an unachievable goal.
We also learn that having cheerleading skills and strength is very useful for getting a box of cereal off the very highest shelf in the supermarket!
Elements I wanted to know more about.
My main area of criticism comes from what is not included rather than what is included.
Firstly, I couldn’t work out why Jayleesa was refusing to take the vaccine. She and her mother Stacey keep bemoaning the rules… but you don’t know if the problem is medical, religious or something else. (Talking to Tanya Doyle afterwards, it was because the family were into alternative medicine and would not accept modern medicines as a matter of principle.)
Secondly, given that both Dean and Hilton are openly gay in the film, you could eaily come away with the assumption that ‘people born male only join cheerleading because they are gay’. Which is nonsense of course. While there is a mention of ‘straight boys’ during an exchange in the film, you never know who they are or any more about them. (Rickie is straight but it is never made clear in the film). Getting the views of those straight male members of the squad – why they joined in the first place and how they communicate with their friends about it – would have added another level of interest.
I challenged Tanya Doyle on this and she said that these aspects weren’t in the film because they didn’t come up in the footage they captured. This is where perhaps, in my view, diverging away from the ‘pure’ fly-on-the-wall approach might have been good. Having Tanya ask a few questions to ‘talking heads’ inserted, sparingly, into the story might have added greater depth to the piece.
Summary Thoughts on “Eat / Sleep / Cheer / Repeat”
As Taylor says about cheerleading at one point “I’m slightly embarrassed about it and say that it’s like gymnastics (though it’s not). But I do it for the love of it”. And that love, energy and passion shines through making this team a fine role model for the young people of Ireland.
All in all, this documentary is never less than interesting throughout and there is one particular moment of SUCH PURE JOY in this documentary that you can’t help but be uplifted by it. A recommended watch if you can find it anywhere.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Eat / Sleep / Cheer / Repeat”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egGGJoQrbM0 .
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