Gimme a C! (Plus)

I recently watched a movie from 1999 called "But I'm a Cheerleader." It's a romantic comedy with a satirical streak, about a high school cheerleader whose family and friends suspect of being a lesbian. Her parents send her to a gay reparative therapy camp, where she quickly realizes the truth about herself that she hadn't really understood before. And she's falling for one of the other girls at the camp.

Reparative (or conversion) therapy programs have been making the news a bit recently, as some states are beginning to pass laws that prohibit their use on minors, and one very prominent program has publicly renounced its own mission and shuttered its doors. This movie takes this quite serious subject and explores it with comedy. There's nothing wrong with that idea; in fact, skewering the serious with humor is the very heart of satire.

But the film mostly plays too broad to be effective. The conversion camp in this movie is camp in the other sense of the word. It's populated only with the most extreme gay caricatures, from the kids to the counselors. I suppose maybe it's possible that there was a subtle commentary in this, saying that "it's portrayals like this that keep many people from realizing and accepting that they're gay" -- and there's absolutely truth in that. But I don't sense the film was actually pursuing anything that intelligent or insightful. It feels like it was just going for the easy jokes.

It would be one thing if the whole film were slapstick, but the two main characters are actually quite well drawn and realistic. The title cheerleader, Megan, is played by Natasha Lyonne, and her struggle to accept herself and come out of her shell feels very honest. The object of her affections, Graham, is played by Clea Duvall, and is an almost heartbreaking portrayal of a young woman who has learned to suck it up and give her parents what they want just to keep a roof over her head. Both actresses give very honest and often dramatic performances that really are something to see.

But sadly, they're doing it in a slapstick movie surrounded by the likes of RuPaul and Richard Moll, hamming it up in every scene. There are a few other recognizable faces, including a very young Michelle Williams and Cathy Moriarty (doing a far less sinister version of her character from Soapdish). But all these other characters are shallow stereotypes that clash with the depth of that central story. And they don't generate nearly enough laughs.

The movie might well be worth watching for the performances of Lyonne and Duvall, but otherwise, it's watching a comedy that isn't especially funny. I give the movie a C+.