“Poms” is a comedy about a group of women who form a cheerleading squad at their retirement community, proving that you’re never too old to ‘bring it!’
Martha (Diane Keaton), a single woman fighting Cancer, sells everything she owns and leaves her mundane life in the city and moves to a senior citizen retirement community in Georgia. After being told by Vicki (Celia Weston), the community coordinator, that every resident must either join one of the activity clubs or start their own, Martha comes up with the idea to form her own cheerleading squad in memory of her mother. When she meets Sheryl (Jacki Weaver), her loud, rebellious neighbor who throws poker parties and secretly houses her grandson Ben (Charlie Tahan), they become fast friends. Martha convinces Sheryl to join her cheerleading squad and help her recruit other members.
After auditioning many women, they now have an amazing group, so the team begins practicing to get ready for The Senior Showcase talent show. When Vicki, who is against their cheerleading team, informs them that they can no longer use the facility to hold practice, Martha gets desperate and asks Sheryl to help her find a space. Sheryl concocts a plan to use the high school gym where she is a substitute teacher, but instead of just using the space for practice, she secretly signs the team up to perform at their annual pep rally.
Before they are set to go on, the squad has a run in with one of the cheerleaders named Chloe (Alisha Boe) who makes fun of them. Not yet ready to put on a show, the squad struggles to find their rhythm and their performance flops. Unfortunately, Chloe and the whole school catches it all on camera. The team captain posts it online and it goes viral embarrassing the whole squad.
After seeing the video on television, Martha and Sheryl go to Chloe’s home to confront her parents but finds out they are out of town and Chloe is caught having a house party. Martha and Sheryl threaten to tell her parents if she doesn’t help choreograph their comeback show. She agrees and promises that she was not the one who posted the video. With Chloe now training the ladies’ dance moves, they start to gain confidence in themselves and the courage to put on a great show. Vicki, behaving mean and jealous, tells Martha that her squad can not perform at the Senior Showcase. That works out fine because they discover another competition that is much bigger, calling performers from all around the world to sign up.
With just a short time to prepare, the ladies practice their routine and along with Chloe’s support and Ben as their DJ, they are ready to compete. When they arrive, the event coordinator is shocked at their age and tells them because they are old, they are not allowed to perform with the other kids. With a little age discrimination lawsuit talk, they are back in the contest and this time they hit all of their moves. The crowd not only loves them but this also goes viral and eventually people all over the world start posting videos of themselves copying their dance routine.
I love this film, it is so cute and positive and such a girl empowerment movie. It has such great messages about solid supportive friendship amongst women, being courageous and defying limitations society puts on them about their age. The ending is sad but also so inspiring because the squad continues to compete in the memory of Martha who does eventually dies of cancer. Great film!
In theaters Friday, May 10th
