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American high school football. A topic that many fictional movies and novels tend to discuss, although at a surface level, it does not receive immense popularity. The book “Friday Night Lights” was made into a movie, and then into a TV show. All variations of the story are good, but there’s almost no prominent LGBTQ representation in the Friday Night Lights universe. More modernly, there has also been a TV series called “All American.” It’s not as amazing as Friday Night Lights, but at least the main character’s best friend is a lesbian. Progress! Gridiron Grind available on Tubi takes it even further. Its main character is a female footballer in the process of discovering her sexual identity. We got there. We got to where the story lies closest to us. Sadly, the movie’s plot isn’t encouraging. This Tubi original movie is wow, pretty bad. This movie’s not-even-close-to-good quality is disappointing compared to even All-American.
At the beginning of Gridiron Grind, Riley has a position carved out for her on the school team. However, towards the end of the season, one of her teammates starts to discriminate and sexually harass Riley, which escalates when her mother finds out and heavily disapproves of Riley’s extracurricular. Consequently, Riley quits the team. With the time skip, Riley is at a loose end, and her sister, Tyler, is seemingly the golden child. Riley is optimistic that this is the turning point after she gets motivated to try out for the football team again. But once again, her support from most of the boys on the team is next to none. But something’s different now. A quirky girl named Paige who works as the team’s medical assistant. She is very supportive of Riley. But at the same time, her presence makes Riley question some things she kept a tight lid on.
The story choice is what makes Gridiron Grind great, and they chose a good one Indeed. There is immense scope for creativity in the story of a girl in an all-boys sports team. Heck, I actually do not know if the movie needed to focus on queer themes as much as it did. I will always appreciate that storyline. But there is so much in terms of being an underdog sports story, a more general coming-of-age film, and different types of discrimination Riley faces that I am just so surprised they had enough time to work on Riley’s sexuality. This is one of those films where I want to do well. It’s one of those concepts and protagonists that is interesting, And the film, I should say, is very promising. At the beginning of the film, I was thrilled with the possibilities of this story.
The way the movie is executed is subpar, to say the least, and feels rather lackluster. It feels like a movie produced for a streaming service with literally no effort put into it. Even a TV Episode would put this to shame. Unfortunately, the way it was made gives it an unprofessional feel. While the script has a decent story, the dialogue in the film is simply not realistic. The way lines are delivered does not help either. There is an overwhelming sense of rehearsed lines being uttered rather than having an actual conversation. Slang and filler phrases, such as “you are included in a very strategic way that makes it extremely unconvincing. The film Gridiron Grind tends to incorporate semi-regular comedic aspects, generally after a rather darker theme was previously shown. Personally, this type of comedic relief is uncalled for, especially considering the fact that one of the first scenes features hardcore sexual harassment and discrimination. Dealing with such themes can definitely be appropriate for teens without needing to add a sarcastic and comedic undertone to other moments in the movie.
The film’s depiction of a lesbian relationship is painfully basic. Paige could not hint harder at being queer. As if she needed to let Riley know how much she values her, she straight up makes her team a playlist full of queer musicians. God, I wish girls were that forward. After this, it transforms into a rather stop-and-start relationship as Riley tries to understand herself and Paige remains patient on the sidelines. At one point some miscommunication leads to her being mad at Riley, but when Riley realizes she needs to apologize and has the urge to kiss a girl, she finds Paige eagerly willing to accept the apology, and she seems very happy to take her supposed place as the ideal bisexual high school girlfriend.
Grindr and Grinders is as of what I recall the best Tubi original movie I have watched. Which is setting the bar rather low. At the end of the day, the finished product is even weaker than the average CW teen show. Some credit must be given simply based on the story it decided to try to tell. But it’s also frustrating to me how much better the execution could have been around this narrative.
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