Writers: Natts Jadaone and Samantha Lee
Director: Samantha Lee
The formula of American high school movies may be decades old but it retains a worldwide influence on films made today, not least Natts Jadaone and Samantha Lee’s Rookie from 2023 which earns UK screenings as part of this year’s Queer East: On the Road Festival with a programme of films across the country. Rookie hardly strays from the template with oddball new kid bullied by the jocks, love across the crucial social chasm of cool and definitely uncool kids, a prom night and an underdog sports team destined to win big, so there isn’t much novelty here, but the same sex love story and an undercurrent of girls being taken advantage of by authority figures is nicely fleshed out and, reassuringly for this genre, it only ends one way.
Asuncion known as “Ace” moves to a new school and instantly feels out of place when the coach insists she puts aside her beloved basketball to join the failing volleyball team which she has never played before. On the team, the talented Jana is disdainful of the newcomer and tries to ger Ace to quite the team, until the chance to go to a prestigious volleyball camp gives them both a moment to drop their guard.
This film from the Philippines really leans into its high school movie tropes, and such is the strength of this structure that it is pretty difficult to go wrong, and Jadaone and Lee make it work, offering two central charters both putting on an act just to get through school and, in classic form, to satisfy their parents. This is the case for baddie Jana who is being coerced to live up to the memory of her dead volleyball champion mother by a father who doesn’t believe in pain. Learning this helps to soften her as giving him what he wants is also her own route to freedom.
Centred around Ace, Pat Tingjuy’s understated and quiet performance speaks volumes on screen about the awkwardness of being the new girl, the stress of being alone and shunned by her more popular classmates, and the confusion of concealing an attraction to the persona making her life hell. Although bringing Ace and Jana (Aya Fernandez) together and the thawing happens a little too easily, the scenario and the chemistry is well managed, particularly once the traditional personal obstacles begin in the second half of the film – although the nuns in this Christian school are an unexpected twist.
You always know exactly where Rookie is going, exactly what character and team building outcomes the volleyball competition will create and exactly how the opposites attract relationship will work out. The volleyball sequences aren’t the most dynamic relative to other sports movies and the lower budget is noticeable in the camerawork, yet the film is none the worse for it and Jadaone and Lee manage it all with enjoyable skills. A comfort watch.
Rookie is screening at the Queer East: On the Road 2025.
