Review of But I'm a Cheerleader (2000) by Nadia C — 07 Dec 2011

A lesbian cheerleader goes to a faith-based camp to "reform" homosexuality.

When Ted Haggard claimed that he could essentially "pray the gay away," I thought that not only was it one of the most ridiculous things I had ever heard but that it would also work as fantastic fodder for satire. But I'm a Cheerleader should be that satire. It isn't. It ultimately fails because it reduces its homosexual characters to stereotypes that we've seen many times before, and the "villains," the evangelists who attempt to guide the main characters away from their tendencies, are reduced to hypocrites rather than earnest people committed to a social/cultural mission. Thus, every character becomes a type rather than a person, and the situations are so contrived and over-the-top that it becomes difficult to understand if the film takes its own subject matter seriously.

Overall, I like the idea for this film, but the execution was sorely lacking.