Movie Review: But I'm A Cheerleader

Confident and opinionated, 17-year-old Megan is far too strong-willed for her unsupportive parents, who begin to worry she is a lesbian. Their solution is to send Megan to 'True Directions,' a "rehabilitation camp" run by homophobic counsellor Mary Brown. Soon Megan meets the equally defiant Graham, and the two form a fast friendship. Ironically, the more time Megan spends at the camp, the more she begins to question just how fixed her sexuality really is.

Flicking my way through Amazon Prime, I stumbled across "But I'm A Cheerleader".

It is not a subtle movie. Each character fulfils an expected stereotype, and the plot is a slightly hazy way to put them in increasingly lurid situations. As a comedy, it never really gets into the horrors perpetuated by these conversion camps - nor the trauma and abandonment they cause. But it does effectively skewer the ridiculous idea that sexuality can be forced on people.

It is a gorgeous film. It looks like a Anna Biller movie - suffused with pastels and little design flourishes. Obviously made with a limited budget, it blasts everything at the screen - forcing us to watch a horror movie as though it were set in Barbie's Pink Funhouse.

With a critical 2020 eye, there are a few bits which fall a little flat, but it is a sharply funny movie which will only make you cry a little bit.