Welcome to my first passion blog post! The theme I chose is reviewing LGBTQ+ movies. Whether you’re a part of the community or not, I hope you’ll still enjoy reading about these films, and if you’re so inclined, go and watch them! I want to show that there is something valuable within all of these films.
I wanted to start off with one of my personal favorites, But I’m A Cheerleader. The movie, released in 1999 and directed by Jamie Babbit, centers around Megan (Natasha Lyonne), a teenage cheerleader who is sent to a “rehab” camp after her parents begin to suspect that she’s a lesbian. While at the camp, she bonds with sarcastic Graham (Clea DuVall) and begins to realize that what she wants for her life is not what she originally thought.
The movie has a very campy aesthetic in its script and set design, and fits into a long tradition of campy queer movies. The writing is dramatic, exaggerated, and incredibly funny, and the cast definitely does it justice. The design of the conversion camp, True Directions, is also very tongue-in-cheek, and the writers manage to navigate the delicate balance of satirizing the premise of conversion therapy (“therapy” intended to make someone straight through aversive conditioning) while acknowledging how damaging it is to LGBTQ+ youth’s mental and physical health and that it doesn’t work. The movie centers more on queer joy than suffering, and has a happy ending for the main cast of characters. Plus, happy endgame lesbians!! The couples in this movie, but especially the main girls, are very cute, and have great chemistry. Their love story is really heartwarming.
Overall, the tone of the movie is fairly light. However, the movie is R rated, largely because there is profanity and some slurs against gay people used. There are also some references to sex that put it in the adult category. Please take note of this if you plan on watching this movie and are sensitive to this kind of language.
This movie means a lot to me, since it was the first movie I saw that centered on LGBTQ+ characters. When I first watched it, I had just come out to myself as queer but wasn’t ready to be out to my family. I shared all my streaming services with them and didn’t want them to see that I watched something with queer characters in it (even though they probably wouldn’t have noticed…). Either way, But I’m A Cheerleader was free on YouTube, and so I could watch it as many times as I wanted. It made my gay little heart so happy.
Anyways, I highly recommend this movie. It’s hilarious, heartfelt, and so amazingly gay. If you’ve seen it before, let me know your thoughts, and if not, I urge you to watch it! It’s available on YouTube (watch it here!) and Amazon Prime, as well as some other platforms. I’ll catch you all next week!
Oooh – this is so much fun! I have seen But I’m a Cheerleader before… I watched it in my (never-ending) search for rom coms centering on queer characters. I’ll admit, though, I never loved it. I personally felt like it was a little too campy, as you pointed out. Although… it is a rom com, so what did I expect? It is a great movie, and I enjoyed watching it. I definitely think that reading your thoughts on the movie has made me think about the it in a different light, and maybe now I’ll go back and watch it again.
I’m so excited to read the rest of your passion blog posts! I’m always excited to get movie recommendations!
I can say that I have never seen But I’m a Cheerleader before, but I love that you have such a deep meaningful connection to it and were willing to share that. Represetation means everything when it comes to parts of our identity, and I am happy that you found something that made you feel recognized and to take joy in who you are as a person.
I recently had a similar experience with the movie called the Feast of the Seven Fishes which takes place in a small coal mining town around the holiday, and it felt good to have my identity represented in a way that was not focused on the Italian mob, and like your movie, it did not shy away from pointing out some of the darker parts of life with that identity, but also had a good ending.
Thank you for sharing this with us; I’ll give it a watch … probably when I have a life again during finals week. Campy movies are a secret love of mine.
Ahhhhh I love this movie! Natasha Lyonne is so fine. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but you’re right that the movie sends a serious message about conversion camps, weaving it in with the humor. I’m glad that you had this movie to provide some representation when you first found out you were queer. I wish there had been more access to queer representation though. There especially needs to be more media with genderqueer and a-spec representation, since both of those communities are still underrepresented. I do love my lesbians though (obviously). This movie does such a good job of making real characters, rather than just following stereotypes. Also, gay Prince Zuko will never fail to make me happy. I’m so glad you posted about this movie, and I can’t wait to read what you write next.