journal features

movie review - But I'm a Cheerleader

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Vancouver, 2002.01.12

This is a flick about a young woman who is sent away by family and friends to a camp where she'll be "set straight". Her friends and family have come to the conclusion that she's a lesbian, and that she needs the help of a school that purports to 'straighten' gay teens.

Needless to say, the dorm rooms separating the girls from the boys turn out to be a less than ideal scenario for this purpose. As does the crackpot head mistress, her not-quite-converted side-kick, and her completely non-convert son. In fact, the only vaguely straight seeming characters are the various parents that drop in from time to time to torture their errant teenage offspring.

In the end, the graduating class is slim indeed. This is a funny flick that - like many comedies that are actually strongly themed movies - wanders a bit when it tries to actually tackle subject matter. But the wobbles are minor; it's worth a look.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself.

—Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Brothers Karamazov