Lifetime Review: 'Undercover Cheerleader'

Autumn Bailey (Kayla Wallace) is disheartened to find herself starting over at a new school, having had to move with her mother Cynthia (Kehli O'Byrne) as part of her new job. But soon after arriving at her new school, Autumn finds herself making fast friends with social outcast Kara (Maddie Phillips), as well as attracting the attention of cheerleader Jenny (Samantha Schimmer). While reluctant to try out for the team, Autumn is convinced by Kara to go out for cheerleading as an undercover journalist for the school paper, hoping to expose the culture of cruelty within the cheer team.

Soon after getting a spot on the team, Autumn bears witness to the harsh bullying and pressure inflicted on the cheerleaders, orchestrated by Coach Dot (Sarah-Jane Redmond). Autumn's anonymous articles on the abusive treatments take the school by storm—and attract an anonymous figure who is hellbent on silencing the mole. When the tension leads to murder, Autumn works with her newfound allies to find the killer before they succeed in silencing her for good...

Given how inherently dramatic and Lifetime-ian the film is, I'm surprised it's taken this long for Lifetime to make a straightforward Mean Girls: Lifetime Edition film. Because as the film began, all the basic beats from the classic teen film were there: teenage girl moves to a new town and high school, meets school's snarky outcasts as well as the residential Queen Bee, and befriends the outcasts before agreeing to go undercover to join in with the Queen Bee's clique. A major difference comes in the fact that rather than going undercover to destroy Jenny and her fellow popular friends from the inside, Autumn goes undercover to expose the toxic practices going on within the cheer squad.

Despite having similarities to a far more popularized movie, Undercover Cheerleader manages to take the beats it borrows from Mean Girls to craft an entertaining story for itself. The drama regarding the harsh treatments endured by the cheerleaders is kickstarted quickly, with a combination of solid pacing and strong acting keeping the action engaging. In an interesting subversion to the film's Mean Girls-inspired path, none of the cheerleaders display the same over-the-top cattiness as their big screen counterparts. Even the Regina George-esque Jenny is a rather subdued Queen Bee, with most of her bullying remarks being treated with a grain of salt or called out for what they are. As such, Autumn grows to truly care for the people she was initially pitted against by her new friends, allowing an understated conflict to arise that will tide viewers over until the major conflict arrives.

This conflict is carried by a strong performance by Kayla Wallace, who brings emotional depth to Autumn as the film progresses and she finds herself tangled in a frightening situation she could never have imagined getting herself into. Maddie Phillips and Ryan Grantham are solid as journalist outcasts Kara and Max and play well off of Wallace, and Andre Anthony makes for a charming and likable love interest for Autumn as sweet-natured jock Jordan Dunn. The cheerleaders that eventually become friends to Autumn are also played well by their actors, with Tedra Rogers and Mya Lowe standing out as they bring palpable sincerity to Heidi and Samantha.

Sarah-Jane Redmond is deliciously spiteful and downright frightening as domineering Coach Dot, and Samantha Schimmer does well as Jenny, though the film unfortunately squanders the chance it had for creating a strong character arc for Jenny and allowing for her to fully break away from her Alpha Bitch mold. Solid side performances come in the form of Khamisa Wilsher as victimized cheerleader Megan and Brian E.B. Leslie as Robert Janus, the latter of whom injects some lighthearted comedy to the film in his portrayal of the overly goofy and oblivious school principal.

Joining Schimmer in bringing a solid performance to a character the script lets down, however, is Kehli O'Byrne as Autumn's mother Cynthia. While Cynthia spends much of the film as a supportive mother to Autumn, even as her cheerleader/journalist escapades cause Autumn to become distanced from her, there's one moment that sticks out as a sore thumb and almost threatens to mangle Cynthia's character. SPOILER ALERT After the party Autumn held to raise money for Megan's medical bills results in Heidi being killed by the unseen assailant coming after Autumn, her mother (away on business) calls her and blasts her for having a party without asking her. While this rage is justified, given Cynthia not knowing the charitable intent of the party, she goes on to insinuate Heidi's death was Autumn's fault, proclaims that she'll also be at fault if her cancelling her business meeting results in her getting fired, and drops the old "your dead father would be so disappointed in you" sentiment. This scene not only comes off as excessively cruel and out-of-character for Cynthia, but also entirely unnecessary; Heidi's death and being targeted by her killer is more than enough for us to sympathize with Autumn. SPOILERS OVER

(SPOILER ALERT AGAIN An additional cast shout-out to Maddie Phillips for truly throwing herself into her role after Kara is revealed as the killer. Additionally, the twist was not only an effective one, but I personally found it amusing that this Mean Girls inspired film's version of Janis Ian is the villain, given how the original incarnation of Janis is such an unsympathetic hypocrite—qualities Kara also possesses which Undercover Cheerleader rightfully calls out prior to her villainous reveal SPOILERS OVER AGAIN)

While the handlings of Jenny and Cynthia's characters leave quite a bit to be desired, Undercover Cheerleader is overall a worthy film to cap off Lifetime's "Cheer, Rally, Kill" film series. The cast brings charm and emotion to their (mostly) well-written characters, the plot manages to build itself slowly while remaining entertaining, and the conclusion is an excellent finale to Lifetime's saga of cheerleader-centered dramas. I'm happy to see this film serve as the saga's grand finale rather than the less-than-stellar Cheerleader Escort.

Score: 9 out of 10 motorcycle rear view mirrors.