It’s Pride Month, which means it’s bi high time I talked about some great cinema from LGBTQ creators. When I was pondering where to start with this, there was one movie that tuck-jumped straight into my mind: But I’m a Cheerleader.
But I’m a Cheerleader, from director Jamie Babbit, came out in 1999, and soon became one of my touchstone references for loving women as a small closeted teenage woman-lover myself. It’s depiction of high school lesbianism – from coming out to sex and desire to falling in love – was really important for me, and I still think it’s very existence at this time in the cinematic landscape is pretty damn badass.
But, beyond that, But I’m a Cheerleader is a downright excellent film, capturing the feel of an American gay culture that was still wounded by the AIDs crisis and searching for a footing in the new millenium. Following Megan (my Lady and Saviour Natasha Lyonne), the titular cheerleader, after she is shipped off to a conversion therapy camp, True Directions, to try and squash down her errant lesbianism.
The whole film, in fact, is a delightfully clever subversion of standard-issue straight Americana – right from the title down to the white picket fence house Megan lives in, it’s all a gleefully rebellious re-writing of heterosexual norms, twisting them up in such a way as to underline just how bizarre a lot of them are. Despite the central premise of the film being the othering of homosexuality, Babbit treats straightness and heterosexual norms as the real spectacle here.
But I’m a Cheerleader uses the candy-coloured set design to create this hard, brittle shell of heterosexuality and heteronormativity around everything in True Directions, a nightmarish vision of idealized 1950s suburban marriage, complete with the sterile sex acts and sparkling-clean floors. It takes real skill to make something this bright and colourful look as downright terrifying as True Directions does, but Jamie Babbit draws on this John Waters-esque style to underline just how contrived all of this is.
And, at it’s heart, this is a lesbian love story, between Megan and Graham (Clea DuVall) – and it’s a lovely one at that. As a purveyor of fine lesbian sex love myself, I love seeing a coming-of-age movie that actually approaches the experience of first lesbian love as something meaningful, romantic, and, more than anything, worth fighting for. For 1999, it was genuinely difficult to imagine many movies bold enough to pull this off, but the warm chemistry between Megan and Graham (and the outrageously enormous Big Gay Energy DuVall brings to her role) has made them my all-time lesbian OTP.
Even though suspicions around Megan’s lesbianism start from shallow, stereotypical places (Melissa Etheridge and vegetarianism), But I’m a Cheerleader doesn’t let the movie’s understanding of love between women stop there. There’s a lot of silliness in Babbit’s story, but this love story is approached with the deadly-seriousness that all teenagers throw themselves into their first relationships with, and I adore that.
If you haven’t seen But I’m a Cheerleader yet, this is your sign to do so. From the kitschy style to the sharp commentary to the genuinely sweet love story at the heart of it, it’s perfect – and essential – summer Pride month viewing.
If you enjoyed this article and want to see more stuff like it, please consider supporting us on Ko-Fi. You can check out more of my work on my personal blog, The Cutprice Guignol!
By Lou MacGregor
(header image via FilmScene)
No But Listen 
Reblogged this on The Cutprice Guignol.
LikeLike