BUT I'M A CHEERLEADER

'''But I'm a Cheerleader''' is a 1999 satirical romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as high school cheerleader, Megan Bloomfield, who is sent to a reparative therapy camp to become a heterosexual after her friends and family have an intervention and tell her she is a lesbian. The supporting cast features Clea DuVall, Cathy Moriarty, RuPaul, Mink Stole and Bud Cort.
Inspired by an article about a reparative therapy camp, as well as Babbit's childhood familiarity with rehabilitation programs, ''But I'm a Cheerleader'' was Babbit's first feature film. When it was initially rated as NC-17 by the MPAA, Babbit made cuts to allow it to be re-rated as R. When interviewed in the documentary film ''This Film Is Not Yet Rated'' Babbit criticized the MPAA for discriminating against films with homosexual content.
The film was not well received by critics who compared it unfavorably to the films of John Waters and criticized the colorful production design. The lead actors were praised for their performances but some of the characters were described as stereotypical.

Plot

Seventeen-year-old Megan (Lyonne) is a high school senior who loves cheerleading and is going steady with boyfriend Jared. Her family and friends suspect that Megan is in fact a lesbian, and with the help of ex-gay Mike (RuPaul), surprise her with an intervention. During the confrontation, Megan's loved ones point out evidence of her homosexuality: her vegetarianism, pictures of girls that she keeps, her extreme reluctance to make out with Jared, and a poster of gay icon Melissa Etheridge. Hoping that she will become straight, Megan's parents decide to send her to True Directions, a reparative therapy camp which uses a five-step program (similar to Alcoholics Anonymous' Twelve-step program) to cure its campers of homosexuality.
When she gets to True Directions, Megan still believes that her parents are mistaken about her sexuality. She meets the founder, Mary Brown (Moriarty), who tries to make Megan admit that she is a homosexual ('Step 1'). Eventually, Megan breaks down in tears, sobbing "I'm a homosexual." The other campers are happy and supportive of Megan, with the exception of one of the girls, Graham (DuVall), who does not believe that the program will work.
'Step 2', "Rediscovering Your Gender Identity", consists of the campers performing various duties which are designed to help them relearn their masculinity and femininity. The boys practice car maintenance and chopping wood, while the girls practice vacuuming and child care. In order to learn about same-sex friendship, Megan is partnered with Graham. Although they initially do not get along, they continue to interact and eventually become friends.
At Family Therapy ('Step 3'), the young homosexuals and their parents discuss their "root" (the reason they became gay). Megan decides that her root is the period in her life when her father was unemployed and her mother had to financially support the family.

Graham and Megan bond as a result of their training in a reparative therapy camp.

Gradually, Megan and Graham begin to flirt and Megan finds herself fantasizing about kissing Graham. One night Megan catches two boys, Dolph (Dante Basco) and Clayton (Kip Pardue), in each other's arms. Panicking, Megan reports them and Dolph is forced to leave. After this, the campers move on to 'Step 4' — "Demystifying the Opposite Sex", which consists of a slideshow of happy heterosexual couples.
Several campers, including Graham and a reluctant Megan, escape for a night out at a local gay bar with two ex-ex-gays, Larry (Richard Moll) and Lloyd (Wesley Mann). Graham and Megan end up kissing. When Mary finds out about the night out, she makes the campers picket Larry and Lloyd's house shouting homophobic abuse and carrying placards with phrases like "Silly faggot — dicks are for chicks", and "God Kills Fags Dead".
Megan and Graham sneak away that night to make love. Afterwards, Megan says that she has never felt so happy except when cheering, and Graham says she would love to see her cheer. Mary finds out that Megan and Graham have had sex and Megan is kicked out of True Directions. She goes to Larry and Lloyd, who let her stay with them. She discovers Dolph is living there too, and he thanks her for saving him. Meanwhile, at True Directions, the campers are up to 'Step 5' — simulated sexual lifestyle. In this scene, the campers wear nude-colored body-stockings with strategically placed fig leaves and, directed by Mary, enact a heterosexual love-making scene.
Megan and Dolph decide to rescue Graham and Clayton at the True Directions Graduation. Clayton is easily persuaded, but Graham, afraid of being disowned by her parents, will not come with Megan. Refusing to give up, Megan puts on her cheerleading outfit and in front of everyone, performs a cheer, telling Graham that she loves her. Graham comes with Megan and they drive off with Dolph and Clayton.
In the last scene, Megan's parents (her mother, still ashamed, wears a disguise) attend a PFLAG meeting to come to terms with their daughter's homosexuality.

Background and production

''But I'm a Cheerleader'' was Babbit's first feature film.^[1] She had previously directed two short films, ''Frog Crossing'' (1996) and ''Sleeping Beauties'' (1999), both of which were shown at the Sundance Film Festival. She went on to direct the 2005 thriller ''The Quiet'' and the 2007 comedy ''Itty Bitty Titty Committee''. Babbit and Sperling (as producer) secured financing from Michael Burns, then the vice president of Prudential Insurance (now Vice Chairman of Lions Gate Entertainment) after showing him the script at Sundance.¹⁴ According to Babbit, their one-sentence pitch was "Two high-school girls fall in love at a reparative therapy camp."² Burns gave them an initial budget of US$500,000 which was increased to US$1 million when the film went into production.⁴

Conception

Babbit, whose mother runs a halfway house called "New Directions" for young people with drug and alcohol problems,^[2] had wanted to make a comedy about rehabilitation and the 12-step program. After reading an article about a man who had returned from a reparative therapy camp hating himself,^[3] she decided to combine the two ideas.^[4] With girlfriend Andrea Sperling, she came up with the idea for a feature film about a cheerleader who attends a reparative therapy camp.^[5] They wanted the main character to be a cheerleader because it is "...the pinnacle of the American dream, and the American dream of femininity."^[6]Babbit wanted the film to represent the lesbian experience from the "femme perspective" to contrast with several films of the time that represented the "butch perspective" (for example, ''Go Fish'' and ''The Watermelon Woman'').⁴ She also wanted to satirize both the religious right and the gay community.⁵
Not feeling qualified to write the script herself, Babbit brought in screenwriter and recent graduate of USC School of Cinematic Arts Brian Wayne Peterson.⁵⁶ Peterson had experience with reparative therapy while working at a prison clinic for sex offenders.² He has said that he wanted to make a film that would not only entertain people, but also make people "get mad" and talk about the issues it raised.²

Design themes

The True Directions campers picket the ex-ex-gays

Babbit says that her influences for the look and feel of the film included John Waters, David LaChapelle, ''Edward Scissorhands'' and Barbie.⁵
She wanted the production and costume design to reflect the themes of the story. There is a progression from the "organic" world of Megan's hometown, where the dominant colors are orange and brown, to the fake world of True Directions, dominated by intense blues and pinks (which are intended to show the artificiality of gender construction).⁵ According to Babbit, the germaphobic character of Mary Brown represents AIDS paranoia and her clean, ordered world is filled with plastic flowers, fake sky and PVC outfits.⁵ Ted Gideonse in ''Out'' magazine,² says that the costumes and colors of the film show how false the goals of True Directions are. The external shots of the colorful house complete with a bright pink picket fence were filmed in Palmdale, California.²

Casting

Babbit recruited Clea DuVall, who had starred in her short film ''Sleeping Beauties'' to play the role of Graham Eaton. Babbit says that she "was able to get a lot of the cast through Clea" including Natasha Lyonne and Melanie Lynskey, both friends of DuVall.¹ Lyonne first saw the script in the back of DuVall's car and subsequently contacted her agent about it.² She had seen and enjoyed Babbit's short ''Sleeping Beauties'' and was eager to work with the director.^[7] She was not the first choice for the role of Megan. An unnamed actress wanted to play the part but eventually turned it down because she was "too Christian" and did not want her family to see her face on the poster.¹ Babbit briefly considered Rosario Dawson as Megan but her executive producer persuaded her that Dawson, who is Hispanic, would not be right for the "All-American" character.⁵
Babbit made a conscious effort to cast people of color for minor roles, in an effort to combat what she describes as "racism at every level of making movies."⁵ From the beginning she intended the characters of Mike (played by RuPaul), Dolph (Dante Basco) and Andre (Douglas Spain) to be African American, Asian and Hispanic, respectively. She initially considered Arsenio Hall for the character of Mike but says that Hall was uncomfortable about playing a gay-themed role.⁶ As Mike, RuPaul makes a rare film appearance out of drag.

Cast

★ 'Natasha Lyonne' as 'Megan Bloomfield'. When confronted with evidence of her homosexuality at True Directions, Megan counters "I get good grades, I go to church, I'm a cheerleader!"

★ 'Clea DuVall' as 'Graham Eaton', a college student and the daughter of wealthy parents who threaten to disown her if she does not change her sexual orientation. Graham is comfortable with her own sexuality but afraid of living openly as a lesbian.⁶

★ 'Cathy Moriarty' as 'Mary J. Brown', the founder of True Directions. Although it is not mentioned in the film, according to director Babbit, Mary's husband was homosexual and ran off to San Francisco.⁶ As a result it is her life's mission to help young gay people to turn straight. Moriarty describes her character as "Sandra Dee on crack."³

★ 'RuPaul' as 'Mike', ex-gay and Mary's right-hand man. Mike wears a t-shirt that proclaims "Straight is great!" and tries to teach the boys at True Directions to become more masculine. However, he seems to be very attracted to Rock.

★ 'Mink Stole' as 'Nancy Bloomfield', Megan's mother.

★ 'Bud Cort' as 'Peter Bloomfield', Megan's father.

★ 'Melanie Lynskey' as 'Hilary Vandermuller' who adheres closely to the rules of True Directions and graduates.

★ 'Joel Michaely' as 'Joel Goldberg' a young Jewish man who desperately wants to be straight and eventually graduates from True Directions.

★ 'Kip Pardue' as 'Clayton Dunn', a quiet young man who works in retail. Clayton begins a relationship with Dolph and after they are discovered by Megan, Clayton is made to stay in a doghouse by Mary.

★ 'Katharine Towne' as 'Sinead Laren', a goth girl who "likes pain". Sinead is attracted to Graham and is later jealous of Graham's relationship with Megan. Despite this, Sinead graduates from True Directions.

★ 'Douglas Spain' as 'Andre', "actor, dancer, homosexual." Fails to convince Mary of his heterosexuality and is asked to leave True Directions before graduation. Before he goes he tells the others that they should accept themselves for who they are.

★ 'Eddie Cibrian' as 'Rock Brown', Mary's camp and passive son. Rock works as a handy man at True Directions and although supposedly straight appears to lust after Mike.

★ 'Dante Basco' as 'Dolph', a varsity wrestler who begins a relationship with Clayton. Dolph is then kicked out of True Directions and goes to live with Larry and Lloyd Morgan-Gordon.

★ 'Katrina Phillips' as 'Jan', a softball player who has been sent to True Directions due to her butch appearance. Jan eventually come to realise that she is straight and leaves True Directions.

★ 'Richard Moll' as 'Larry Morgan-Gordon', ex-ex-gay and one of Mary's former students who runs the "underground homo railroad" with his partner Lloyd. They try to give True Directions campers an alternative view point on homosexuality with trips to the local gay bar. Babbit based the characters of Larry and Lloyd on ex-ex-gays Michael Bussee and Gary Cooper formerly of Exodus International.⁷

★ 'Julie Delpy' as 'lipstick lesbian' who Megan meets and dances with at a gay bar.

★ 'Wesley Mann' as 'Lloyd Morgan-Gordon', ex-ex-gay and partner of Larry.

★ 'Brandt Wille' as 'Jared', Megan's football-playing boyfriend.

★ 'Michelle Williams' as 'Kimberly', head cheerleader and Megan's schoolfriend. Kimberly suspects Megan of being a lesbian and participates in her intervention.

★ 'Ione Skye' as 'Kelly', reformed lesbian in True Directions promotional video.

Rating and distribution

When originally submitted to the Motion Picture Association of America rating board, ''But I'm a Cheerleader'' received an NC-17 rating. Babbit was interviewed by Kirby Dick for his 2006 documentary film ''This Film Is Not Yet Rated''.^[8] A critique of the MPAA's rating system, it suggests that films with homosexual content are treated more stringently than those with only heterosexual content, and that scenes of female sexuality draw harsher criticism from the board than those of male sexuality.^[9] ''American Pie'' (also released in 1999), which features a teenage boy masturbating, was given an R rating. Babbit says that she felt discriminated against for making a gay film,^[10] and preferring a commercially-viable R rating she shortened the scene where Megan masturbates and re-edited the sex scene between Graham and Megan to be less explicit.^[11] The film was rated as M (for mature audiences) in Australia, 14A in Canada, 12 in Germany and 15 in the United Kingdom.
The film premiered on September 12 1999 at the Toronto Film Festival and was shown in January 2000 at the Sundance Film Festival. It went on to play at several international film festivals including the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras festival and the London Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. It first appeared in US theaters on July 7 2000,^[12] distributed by Lions Gate Films. Fine Line Features had intended to distribute the film but dropped it two months before it was due to open following a dispute with the film's production company, Ignite Entertainment.⁵^[13] It closed after 8 weeks, with its widest release having been 115 theaters.¹²
The film was released on Region 1 DVD by Lions Gate on July 22 2002 and by Universal Studios on October 3 2002.^[14] Other than the theatrical trailer, it contains no extras.^[15] It was released on Region 2 DVD on June 2 2003 by Prism Leisure. In addition to the trailer, it features an interview with Jamie Babbit and behind the scenes footage.^[16]

Reception

Box office

The film grossed US$2,205,627 in the United States and US$389,589 elsewhere, giving a total of US$2,595,216 worldwide. In its opening weekend, showing at four theaters, it earned $60,410 which was 2.7% of its total gross.¹² According to Box Office Mojo, it ranked at 174 for all films released in the US in 2000 and 74 for R-rated films released that year. As of May 2007, its all time ranking for LGBT-related films is 68.¹²

Critics

Critical response to ''But I'm a Cheerleader'' was mostly negative. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a score of 35% based on 43 reviews,^[17] and Metacritic gave it a score of 39% based on 30 reviews.^[18] The overall theme of reviews is that it is a heartfelt film^[19] with good intentions,⁵^[20] that is flawed.^[21] Some reviewers found it funny and enjoyable with "genuine laughs".²⁵^[22]^[23] Roger Ebert called it the type of film that "might eventually become a regular on the midnight cult circuit."¹⁹ Others found it "obvious",^[24] "leaden"²⁴ and "heavy handed".²⁰
Elvis Mitchell described the character of Megan as a "sweet heroine"²⁴ and Lyonne and DuVall were praised for their performances.²⁷ Mick LaSalle called Lyonne "wonderful" and said that she was well matched by DuVall.^[25] Marjorie Baumgarten said that they "hit the right notes".²³ Alexandra Mendenhall, writing for AfterEllen.com felt that the relationship between Graham and Megan, described as "sweet"²⁰ and having "great chemistry",²² does not get enough screen time.²² Their love scenes were described as "tender".²⁴^[26]
Other characters, particularly the males, were described as "offputting"²⁷ and "nothing but stereotypes".²⁴
Several reviewers compared the film to those of director John Waters but felt that it fell short of the mark.^[27] Stephanie Zacharek called it a "Waters knockoff"²⁰ while Ebert said that Waters might have been ruder and more polished.¹⁹ Babbit says that although Waters is one of her influences, she did not want her film to have the "bite" of his.⁵ She states that whereas John Waters does not like romantic comedies, she wanted to tell a conventionally romantic story.⁵ The production design, which was important to the overall look and feel of the film,⁴ drew mixed responses. LaSalle described it as "clever and eyecatching" and James Berardinelli called it a "standout feature".²⁵²¹ Others found it to be "gaudy",²⁰ "dated",²⁰"ridiculous",²⁶ "cartoonish and ghastly".⁵
Stephanie Zacharek, writing for Salon.com said that with regard to issues of sexual orientation and homophobia, Babbit is "preaching to the converted".²⁰ Cynthia Fuchs, for NitrateOnline.com, agreed, stating that "no one who is phobic might recognize himself in the film" and that "the audience who might benefit most from watching it either won't see the film or won't see the point". But I'm a Cheerleader In contrast, LaSalle said that "the picture manages to make a heartfelt statement about the difficulties of growing up gay".²⁵

Awards

The film won the Audience Award and the Graine de Cinéphage Award at the 2000 Créteil International Women's Film Festival,^[28] an annual French festival which showcases the work of female directors. Also that year it was nominated by the Political Film Society of America for the PFS award in the categories of Human Rights and Exposé,^[29] but lost out to ''The Green Mile'' and ''Boys Don't Cry'' respectively.

Music

The composer for ''But I'm a Cheerleader'' was Pat Irwin. The soundtrack has never been released on CD. Artists featured include indie acts Saint Etienne, Dressy Bessy and April March.^[30] RuPaul contributed one track, "Party Train," which Eddie Cibrian's character Rock is shown dancing to.

Track listing

# "Chick Habit (Laisse Tomber Les Filles)" (Elinor Blake, Serge Gainsbourg) performed by April March
# "Just Like Henry" (Tammy Ealom, John Hill, Rob Greene, Darren Albert) performed by Dressy Bessy
# "If You Should Try and Kiss Her" (Ealom, Hill, Greene, Albert) performed by Dressy Bessy
# "Trailer Song" (Courtney Holt, Joy Ray) performed by Sissy Bar
# "All or Nothing" (Cris Owen, Miisa) performed by Miisa
# "We're in the City" (Sarah Cracknell, Bob Stanley, Pete Wiggs) performed by Saint Etienne
# "The Swisher" (Dave Moss, Ian Rich) performed by Summer's Eve
# "Funnel of Love" (Kent Westbury, Charlie McCoy) performed by Wanda Jackson
# "Ray of Sunshine" (Go Sailor) performed by Go Sailor
# "Glass Vase Cello Case" (Madigan Shive, Jen Wood) performed by Tattle Tale
# "Party Train" (RuPaul) performed by RuPaul
# "Evening in Paris" (Lois Maffeo) performed by Lois Maffeo
# "Together Forever in Love" (Go Sailor) performed by Go Sailor

Adaptations

In 2005 the New York Musical Theatre Festival featured a musical stage adaptation of ''But I'm a Cheerleader'' written by librettist and lyricist Bill Augustin and composer Andrew Abrams. It was directed by Daniel Goldstein and starred Chandra Lee Schwartz as Megan. It played during September 2005 at New York's Theatre at St. Clement's.^[31]

References

External links

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