Sidelined 2: Intercepted

Sidelined 2: Intercepted, starring Noah Beck and Siena Agudong, continues the love story between college freshmen Drayton and Dallas. One is an aspiring football star struggling through his first year with a new team and an unexpected injury that leaves him sidelined from the games. The other is a dancer, with hopes of carrying on her mother’s legacy, who finds herself torn between staying with her lover and leaving to achieve her dream. It’s an all-too-familiar trope, and romcoms often thrive in the comfort of the cliché and the expected. Sidelined 2: Intercepted hinges on the genre’s affinity for satiating the needs of the hopeless romantic, but it does fall back on a reliance on miscommunication to create conflict.

The film’s aesthetics stand out with its two leads as a charming pairing and visuals that carry the weight of interest in this piece. Its clever use of lighting and the warm colours are unlike the recent flood of flat and dull filters commonly found in made-for-streaming flicks. There’s a lot of emphasis on symmetry in the framing, which highlights Drayton and Dallas’ standing as a couple. The side-by-side and face-to-face shots provide credence to the final sequence of the picture. It’s a quiet metaphor for the incompleteness they feel when separated.

The first half of the feature builds up to unnecessary spats and disagreements between the two characters. There are no dramatic reveals or elevated emotions; the two solemnly whisper frustrations at each other, and their silence leaves the rest of the movie to meander aimlessly between football training montages and dance auditions. There are potential love rivals and touches of jealousy sprinkled throughout – a common story beat in young adult literature. But not enough time is given to their interactions to keep the audience invested in these individuals and their respective dynamics with the two leads.

Some semblance of a plot does materialise in the second half of the feature. Still, the script indulges in telling rather than showing, leaving clunky lines of dialogue filled with uninspiring sports metaphors and rehashes of common phrases such as, “Right person, wrong time.” This leaves the comedic moments flat and the emotional sequences unearned. Licensed music is used to create atmosphere and accentuates the magic of the genre, but it’s ultimately not enough to completely endear viewers to the overall project.

As far as romantic comedies go, Sidelined 2: Intercepted does enough to draw an audience in with its fanciful visuals and well-suited leads. Still, the lack of depth in its storytelling leaves it falling short compared to some of the more formidable pictures within the genre.