The 52: But I'm a Cheerleader
From June 2023 to June 2024 I'll be watching a lgbtqia+ film each week and coming back here with my thoughts, feelings and plenty of hopes we aren't met with the "kill your gays" trope. I call this The 52.
Ohh yeah, oh yeah, I like this one.
Some films come with their own legend, and But I’m a Cheerleader is certainly one of them. Quintisential queer watching, I knew it had to be on my watch list and when I saw youtube had the film for free (seriously, you just have to watch a couple of ads and it’s through the official youtube account) I stopped everything.
What followed was wild, joyous, quaint and pure iconic queerness.
Following Megan who, turned in by her best friend (hi, Michelle Williams), boyfriend (you don’t even like kissing?!) and parents, is sent to New Directions, a conversion therapy camp where, with the help of RuPaul (yep) in hot pants and pretty iconic short, she forced to confront the truth: I’m a LESBIAN?!
Natasha Lyonne is truly, truly phenomenal, with a range that is simultaneously deeply passionate and eternally joyful, while maintaining a humour that is distinct and made me love her.
The film is dated, especially in some of its depictions of queerness, and the times it tried to be too on the nose I found it would occasionally verge into being distasteful, and there is a strange suggested romance between RuPaul’s character (the boys ~sort of~ guidance counsellor at New Directions, who used to be gay) and the son of the director; neither of their ages are ever stated but, you know, power dynamics felt like they were overlooked for a tongue in cheek moment of comedy.
The characters, however, are a joy, and the storyline… it never forgot it was a film set in a conversion therapy camp, but (and without being disrespectful of the trauma such places hold) it grasped onto happiness and joy throughout in a way that felt natural.
A few of my highlights were when we meet the leaders of the local LGBTQIA+ bar, two camo clad gays who take no heed in being picketed by the teens of New Horizons, who speak about offering these teens a view from the other side of the spectrum. Any scene with Larry and Lloyd felt like… stepping into a safe home. The symbolism between the happenings at Cock Suckers bar, where queers dance and kiss and find themselves, and New Directions, where teenagers are forced to dress as Adam and Eve and simulate sex with each other in front of peers and the facility director, is spot on - and every chapter is interjected with just those: VHS title screens to tell you what’s coming up next.
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