Diane Keaton follows a dream many decades in the making in a new trailer for “Poms.” The Zara Hayes-directed comedy sees Keaton playing Martha, a woman who moves into a retirement community that boasts over 100 clubs. Encouraged by her oversharing new BFF Sheryl (Jackie Weaver), Martha decides to form one club that isn’t currently on offer: cheerleading. There’s not a football or basketball team to support — the cheerleaders will simply be cheering for themselves.
The team enlists a young choreographer (Alisha Boe, “13 Reasons Why”) and enters a competition. The oldest category is 18-plus, so the seniors will be battling athletes unaffected by arthritis and other ailments associated with old age. Told that they’ll be a laughing stock, the women ignore the haters and persist.
Though she claims to be “fit as a fiddle,” it’s revealed that Martha is in fact dying. But in the meantime, Sheryl insists she “should be dancing her ass off.” And she’s committed to doing just that.
While rallying the troops Martha says, “We’re all so worried about what everyone else is thinking when, of course, the only thing that really matters is what we think of ourselves.”
Hayes is an accomplished documentary filmmaker who is best known for co-directing 2013’s “The Battle of the Sexes,” an exploration of the events leading up to the famous 1973 tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. A similarly-titled narrative version of the story — “Battle of the Sexes” — was released in 2017.
“Poms” opens in theaters May 10. Pam Grier and Rhea Perlman co-star.
