I Watched Blood, Sweat and Cheer (2023, Dir. by Traci Hayes)


Divorcee Renee (Tammin Sursok) is so upset when her teenage daughter Cherie (Monroe Cline) moves in with her father that, despite being nearly 40, Renee enrolls in high school and becomes a cheerleader.

PARENTS!  DO NOT DO THIS!

This was based on a true story.  A 30 year-old mother imitated her 13 year-old daughter, enrolled in a middle school and spent a day there, posting to social media.  She was eventually arrested for trespassing and tampering with government records.  She said she was doing it to make a point about school’s not being secure enough and she certainly did that.  But, even if the real mother did make her point, I repeat:

PARENTS!  DO NOT DO THIS!

DO NOT EVER EVER DO THIS!

Your children will never forgive you if you do.  High school is not your place.  Your place is drinking wine and talking to your girlfriends about how much you love Andy Cohen.

In this film, Renee looks a lot older than 30 and she also manages to stay enrolled in the school for nearly an entire semester.  She becomes a cheerleader!  She dates a student!  A teacher get uncomfortable when she flirts with him because she’s too young.  She kills people to hide her secret because she’s having so much fun in school.  But she looks like she’s closer to 50 than 40.  It takes more than getting bangs to erase those age lines.  Is everyone at the school blind?

It’s not a very plausible movie but, when I was a cheerleader in high school, there were a lot of cheer moms who would have loved to have enrolled in the school and taken their daughter’s place on the squad.  None of them were crazy enough to try it, though.  Instead, they would just sit in on practice and make everyone uncomfortable.

Luckily, this movie is a comedy and it made me laugh enough for me recommend it.  Renee just went to such extremes to try to reclaim her high school years.  Cheer moms are crazy.  You have to laugh.