'But I'm a Cheerleader', 2000

This is now the third movie I’ve reviewed that features a queer person going to a conversion therapy camp… I guess I didn’t realize how much this topic comes up, in queer movies. Fortunately, ‘But I’m a Cheerleader’ (2000) is a comedy at its core, and deals with this subject material in a uniquely lighthearted way. Some of you may know Natasha Lyonne from the TV series ‘Orange is the New Black’; in this movie, she plays Megan, a high school cheerleader with a football-playing boyfriend. However, Megan’s interest in vegetarianism and Melissa Etheridge (combined with her extreme interest in some of her cheerleading friends) makes her family suspect she’s a lesbian. So, they send her off to True Directions, run by the ex-gay Mike (played by RuPaul). There, she meets a host of other teenagers being forced to confront their homosexuality through a five-step program (including Graham, an open lesbian who was sent to the camp in order to avoid being disowned by her family).

I liked almost everything about this film, though it certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. Megan begins her time at True Directions sincerely hoping to ‘cure’ her lesbianism, and because of this, she makes some pretty serious mistakes that end up hurting her fellow therapy-camp members. But Megan redeems herself and her mistakes before the conclusion of the movie - and what happens in between kept me chuckling. Some of the characters are certainly stereotypical (and the points the movie tries to make are not subtle), but due to the satirical nature of the movie, I thought this added to the movie’s quality. This movie was Jamie Babbit’s first feature film, inspired by her own childhood experiences with the halfway house for people with drug and alcohol problems that her mother used to run.

The five words I would use to describe this film: unique, campy, funny, a cult classic

My queer take: This movie is for sure a cult classic. The film has the biggest difference between critic and audience ratings that I’ve seen so far, on Rotten Tomatoes. For a movie about an intense, serious topic, it’s quite lighthearted and amusing; because of that, it might prompt certain audiences to take the issue less seriously. But considering the other films about conversion therapy camps, I don’t think there’s any harm in having one of them be cheerful. It certainly didn’t stop me from enjoying the movie for what it’s meant to be: a satirical romantic comedy. The movie satirizes not only the religious right, but also the gay community itself, and brings up themes of gender and the social construction of gender roles.

Fun (queer) fact: Babbit, an open lesbian, has directed several other movies and TV shows focused on lesbian romances, including ‘Itty Bitty Titty Committee’ (2007), ‘Breaking the Girls’ (2012), ‘Stuck’, (2001), the short film ‘Sleeping Beauties’ (1999), and episodes of ‘Looking’ and ‘The L Word’.

Fun (cinematic) fact: Babbit put a lot of effort into the cinematography of the film, citing Edward Scissorhands and Barbie as inspirational sources. The dominant colors in Megan’s hometown are earthy, orange and brown, but when she arrives at True Directions the audience is assailed with blues and pinks (intended to show the artificiality of gender construction).