Movie Review – But I’m A Cheerleader

But I’m a Cheerleader (1999)
Written by Jamie Babbit and Brian Wayne Peterson
Directed by Jamie Babbit

America is a land rife with pseudoscience. The COVID-19 pandemic showed how deep those roots are, with all sorts of unfounded remedies being churned out via reactionary social media. My mother apparently visits an herbalist regularly who runs magnets over her body to suss out any sneaky infections. And what do you know? The herbalist happens to sell the very remedy my mother needs for these infections. The same nonsensical thinking drove Christians to create conversion therapy camps where adolescent queer people or suspected queer people are sent to be “cured.” Over time, various cruel methods have been used to torture people for being attracted to those deemed “wrong.” These methods include but are not limited to brain surgery, surgical castration, electroshock, nausea-inducing drugs, and other dehumanizing reconditioning techniques that would make a Nazi proud. While the camp in this film may not be those extremes, it still displays the emotional cruelty intended to teach children that love from trusted adults comes with a cost, meaning a suppression of your Self to please them.

Megan Bloomfield (Natasha Lyonne) is a high school senior who is perpetually happy. Cheerleading is her passion, and she has a boyfriend on the football team. When she and her boyfriend make out, she has to imagine the other girls on the squad to feel anything from it. Her parents, Peter and Nancy (Bud Court and Mink Stole), realize their daughter is a lesbian, and they simply cannot have that in their house. Megan is sent off, against her will, to True Directions, a conversion therapy facility. The program’s director is Mary (Cathy Moriarty), and she runs things along with her ex-gay assistant Mike (RuPaul).

Megan befriends Graham (Clea DuVall), another teenage girl sent here by angry parents. Graham is here to avoid getting disowned by her father. There are other students, male & female, here, each with their own story and reason for not lashing out at their parents and the instructors. Megan eventually admits she is a lesbian, the program’s first step, yet instead of leading her to decide she should push back, the young woman begins embracing this long-neglected part of her identity. It quickly becomes apparent that conversion therapy is a mean joke, a series of lies these young people must learn to parrot lest they be punished. And Megan eventually decides to take control of her life and take a chance with Graham.

I will be honest and say two things about how I felt about this movie. First, it is a lovely, funny & silly portrayal of being a queer teen in America circa the 1990s/early 2000s. I completely understand how a queer person would love this movie, which could be a comfort to watch. Second, I did not like the entire experience of watching this movie; wholly disconnected from the subject matter. The pacing in this movie and the tone of humor did not click for me. That’s pretty true for me and most comedy movies because my sense of humor tends towards darker things. And I’m not talking about the faux-edge of Family Guy or Rick & Morty, but actual dark comedy. But I’m A Cheerleader is very much in the vein of the camp 1960s trend that was popular in the 1990s. It was A Very Brady Movie and the Austin Powers flicks, and I just never counted those movies among my favorites of the decade. I had fun with them but never actively sought them out after watching them once.

Where But I’m A Cheerleader really works for me is in the casting. This movie is overflowing with many great established character actors and young talent that go on to even bigger things in the future. Lyonne was a pretty hot commodity then, having gone from a child actor in stuff like Pee-Wee’s Playhouse to having a breakout starring role in the indie The Slums of Beverly Hills. She was brought into this picture by Clea DuVall, who had previously starred in director Jamie Babbit’s Sleeping Beauties. DuVall also brought Melanie Lynsky to the film, who plays Hillary, the only participant in the program who has convinced herself to squash down her sexuality. 

Babbitt also made a concerted effort to be diverse in her casting and has commented that the racism present in making even independent films was rampant. Dante Basco, who will always be Rufio from Hook, was cast as Dolph. Latinx actor Douglas Spain was cast as the flamboyant Andre, one of the scene stealers in the picture. It should be noted that Arsenio Hall was initially in talks to play Mike, RuPal’s role, but was openly uncomfortable about playing a gay person. That should tell us something about Mr. Hall. He wasn’t expected to have gay sex on screen, so not quite sure what he was uncomfortable about. 

Rosario Dawson was also considered for the role of Megan, but Babbit’s executive producer told her that Dawson being Hispanic undercut the idea of the all-American girl. I don’t think the producer was wrong or even racist for saying this because the film is trafficking in exaggeration and stereotypes as part of the comedy. Dawson would have played the role, but visually, little blonde unassuming Natasha Lyonne works better as the type of person the film is supposed to be about. Part of Megan’s arc is also meeting non-white people who expand her worldview. Dawson would have made a great Graham, but DuVall was the first to be cast.

I would like to know how this movie holds up for Zoomers. It was clearly made by Gen Xers and has been a favorite of many Millennials. I think it’s a good movie about the absurdity of conversion therapy and a great time capsule of the era. The humor and the camp production design feel very much like being back in the late 1990s when I watched it. It’s a light social satire and doesn’t go too deep with the politics of homosexuality. But that’s sort of the point; it’s a tender film that delivers a truly happy ending for its main character, an event uncommon in many movies about queer characters. For that reason, I completely understand its place as a comfort film, a Disney-like fairy tale, when the princess wins and gets her princess.