but i'm a cheerleader
Film, 1999, 4 stars
Directed: Jamie Babbit
Written: Jamie Babbit and Brian Wayne Petersen
How does one make a good film about bad taste? John Waters managed it for years with such classics as Polyester, Hairspray and my all time favourite Waters film, Cry Baby.
But I'm A Cheerleader has all the calling cards of a Waters film: the pastiche, the humour, the melodrama, but tends also towards the slapstick and gross-out humour that is so popular in the teen film market. It is perfectly placed as a great film homage, but stands a little shakily on its own merits.
But I'm A Cheerleader was a festival favourite first time around (first time I saw the film was a rough cut that had completely different music). After a re-edit it managed to snag a distributor and achieved worldwide noteriety, riding somewhat on the back of Natasha Lyonne's appearances in the hit American Pie series and Clea Duvall's important turn as a compulsive liar in Girl, Interrupted. Apart from anything else, Lyonne and Duvall have great chemistry, even in their promo material.
Megan (Lyonne) is an all-American perfect girl. She's the titular cheerleader, dates the captain of the football team and has the life that any teenage girl dreams of. Megan also has pictures of girls in her locker, a poster of Melissa Etheridge on her wall and is a vegetarian—all of which add up to only one conclusion… Megan is gay! This leads to an intervention and enrolment in "True Directions", a homo-rehab camp designed to reinforce gender roles and produce straight members of society.
"True Directions" is camp in every sense of the word. Camp Director Mary J Brown (Cathy Moriarity) sets the flamboyant tone and never lets up. RuPaul—out of drag but still SO gay—plays assistant camp director Mike, who is obsessed with the gay sex he isn't having. The buildings and costumes are in bright pink and blue and the whole thing has the deliberate feel of a cartoon. The characters have that two-dimensional feel of cartoons as well, a unsubtle metaphor for hiding your true self.
Megan arrives to meet her fellow campers, which includes Graham (the gorgeous Clea Duvall), a street-smart dyke who just wants to endure the camp, go to college and continue her silver-spoon existence being a lesbian right under her unsuspecting parents' noses. Needless to say, all "True Directions" does for Megan is open up her true path in life, and when she falls in love with Graham it changes everything.
While the leads are excellent, the supporting cast do their best to steal the film. Melanie Lynskey, soon after snatching Ever After from Drew Barrymore and Heavenly Creatures from Kate Winslet, pulls off her scenes with dry wit and a delightful smugness. Katharine Towne is a scream as Sinead, the goth-wannabe with a crush on Graham and an over-fondness for her electroshock therapy.
Eddie Cibrian, so macho as a firefighter on Third Watch, is almost too convincing as Mary Brown's gay son Rock. His character was written as a walking cliché and he pulled everything he could (ahem) out of the role. Watch also for a priceless cameo from eighties teen princess Ione Skye (Say Anything).
The film doesn't play everything for laughs. The sex between Graham and Megan is surprisingly tender and the interactions between the inmates and their parents get harrowing at times, particularly Graham's dealings with her angry, rich father who threatens to cut off her entire future if she doesn't "get this gay thing out or her system". Having this play against the disturbingly colourful backgrounds grinds everything to a halt. You get a sense of a one-laugh joke having been carried too far, but then the film manages to right itself and continue on its merry way.
It's all very heartwarming, but at times a little empty, like the film has so many messages and doesn't know which ones it really wants to deliver. The ones that get through are perfectly fine, but I don't know that trying to ram home that all straight people hate homosexuals and want them to get over it really worked, even two decades ago. The last-ditch attempt to dispel this illusion with Megan's parents attending the PFLAG meeting just feels tacked on and doesn't do anything to help.
However hilarious at times, there is a militant "us against them" undertone that feels troubling by the end. The entire "life re-enactment" of straight sex was nothing short of icky. A little more common ground found between gay and straight might have been useful. Instead of the feeling that Megan and Graham are being forced to run away from the world to be in love, wouldn't it have been nice to have their reward for being brave be that unbeknownst to them they are actually running towards the world where it is possible to find a place of tolerance and acceptance?
That is however just a minor, possibly over-intellectualised quibble with a film whose enjoyment factor is so high. For a fun night in with popcorn that isn’t just watching trash, But I'm a Cheerleader is difficult to beat.