But I'm a Cheerleader
Conversion therapy as a candy-coloured satire. Still undefeated.
Panned on release, canonised since. The camp is the argument.
- 1999
- 85 min
- 43% on Rotten Tomatoes
- 6.8 on IMDb
- #nostalgic
- #comedy
- #coming-of-age
Our take
Natasha Lyonne is sent to a conversion camp where the girls wear pink, the boys wear blue, and RuPaul plays the ex-gay counsellor in a “straight is great” t-shirt. Jamie Babbit shot the whole thing like a Barbie playset, which is the joke: the gender roles being enforced are so artificial they had to be built in primary colours.
Critics in 1999 called it broad and missed it entirely. It has since become the reference point for queer camp on film, and Megan and Graham’s romance is still one of the sweetest things in the genre. Almost nothing from that year has aged better.
Where to watch But I'm a Cheerleader
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Scores
Ours
- Jibbi Score — 5 out of 5 rainbows. Panned on release, canonised since. The camp is the argument.
Everyone else’s
- Rotten Tomatoes — 43%, via OMDb.
- IMDb — 6.8 out of 10 from 49,158 votes, via OMDb.
- Metacritic — 39 out of 100, via OMDb.
- TMDB — 7.1 out of 10 from 862 votes, refreshed daily.
The plot, officially
Megan is an all-American girl. A cheerleader. She has a boyfriend. But Megan doesn't like kissing her boyfriend very much. And she's pretty touchy with her cheerleader friends. Her conservative parents worry that she must be a lesbian and send her off to "sexual redirection" school, where she must, with other lesbians and gays learn how to be straight.
Synopsis and poster via TMDB.