Camping out

>> But I'm a Cheerleader skewers the ex-gay movement

by MATTHEW HAYS

One has to feel a bit sorry for the filmmakers behind But I'm a Cheerleader, as the film opens in Montreal. After all, it's already opened in most other cities, and the film has received some scathing reviews. Critics, notoriously influenced by what other critics have written, are often prone to drift onto bandwagons, consciously or not.

But I'm a Cheerleader centres on Natasha Lyonne, a high school student with more interest in her fellow cheerleaders than her hunky jock boyfriend. In one of the film's funniest scenes, Lyonne rolls her eyes as he rams his tongue down her throat. Clearly, this isn't for her, though she hasn't identified herself as a lesbian.

That comes from her parents (played by a virtually unrecognizable Bud Cort and John Waters' regular Mink Stole), who've decided to intervene and ship their daughter off to ex-gay camp.

Helmed hilariously by Cathy Moriarity and RuPaul (who wears the pants in this movie), camp True Directions aims to set these kids straight, literally. There are football workshops for the boys, vacuuming and floor-scrubbing drills for the girls and plenty of group therapy. One group confessional has the kids describing their "root"--the reason they feel they went gay; one says simply that she was born in France.

Needless to say, True Directions doesn't really work, and as the exercises drone on, it becomes apparent to Lyonne and fellow recovering homos that there's nothing to recover from. And yes, Lyonne finds herself falling in love with another trapped adolescent girl.

I emerged from But I'm a Cheerleader feeling like an apologist for this movie. It's hard to know what about it offended some so much. At the risk of pissing some people off (though I don't generally worry about that sort of thing), I think it might partially be a gay thing. The vast majority of gay people will recall that horrid, nagging childhood feeling: that there were things about you that weren't right, that you were too girly (or boyish, depending on your sex), and that family and friends felt you must change. It's a nasty sense, and I thought But I'm a Cheerleader touched on it with a good deal of intentionally broad humour. See for yourself; I think it'd be a great way to celebrate Divers/Cité. :

But I'm a Cheerleader opens Friday, August 4 at Cinéma du Parc