Review of But I'm a Cheerleader (2000) by No More Left... — 26 Dec 2008

Clea DuVall (Ryder's roommate in Girl, Interrupted) plays the bad girl who liberates and then gets to be liberated by Natasha Lyonne's good girl lesbian. The movie transparently uses 1950s sets, costumes, and campy gender stereotypes in a 1980s or 90s context to poke fun at those would keep people from being who they are, if who they are scares others by falling outside a narrow cultural norm.

It is noteworthy how a lot of very funny and effective satire was (almost) accomplished within the realm of a PG-13 movie. This itself seemed to be part of the satire, as if the writer was saying, I can even show you in your own repressed language of rules and limitations how funny you are for trying to 'fix' homosexuals.

Obviously, the MPAA goons are part of the group it did so well at making fun of, because they gave it a ridiculous R rating. It was genuinely tender and romantic in many places, too, so you do care about and maybe identify with the characters even as they act out campy stereotypical behavior like stage actors in a farce.

This is a liberal's 'feel good' romantic comedy.