The Miseducation of Cameron Post, directed by Desiree Akhavan and based on the book by Emily M. Danforth, is essentially a serious version of the campy classic But I’m a Cheerleader. Chloë Grace Moretz plays Cameron, a young lesbian living with her conservative aunt in 1993 Montana. After her boyfriend discovers her in the back of his car with another girl, Cameron is sent away to a gay conversion camp, where she befriends the more rebellious teens in the group. Moretz’ performance as the initially shy but ultimately free-spirited Cameron is among her best so far.
Miseducation tackles a dark subject sensitively and without being relentlessly bleak (though be clear: the film does have its harrowing moments). Perhaps because of its similarity to But I’m a Cheerleader the film feels clichéd at first, but by the end I was rooting for the teenagers and felt genuinely moved. One of the most interesting characters is the teacher, Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr.), a tragically repressed gay man who sincerely believes he has cured himself. His sister, Dr. Lydia Marsh (played with a brilliant icy coolness by Jennifer Ehle) runs the centre and manipulates her brother cruelly. The horror and futility of gay conversion therapy are on display clearly here.
Recent successful lesbian films such as Blue is the Warmest Color have been criticised for their lurid rather than realistic depiction of lesbian sex, a fantasy as imagined by a male director. Akhavan (herself bisexual) steers clear of this: Miseducation’s sex scenes feel restrained and plausibly clumsy (the characters are repressed teenagers after all) without any sense of voyeurism. Instead, there’s an explicit nod to Donna Deitch’s Desert Hearts (1985), with Cameron and her friend watching the lesbian classic in her room in a flashback scene. The rural and historical setting is common to both films – a past that still feels recent, and a countryside that is both freeing physically and repressive socially.
In the film’s closing moments, a prominent Clinton bumper sticker both suggests the optimism of the early 90s and a brighter future for these queer teens, whilst also inevitably reminding us of Hillary’s loss in 2016: Vice President Mike Pence is himself alleged to have supported gay conversion therapy. Films that deal with oppression in the past can sometimes have an unintended condescension, as if to say “Hey, at least things aren’t this bad any more!” But gay conversion therapy remains legal in the UK (for now) as well as across the United States, in spite of increasing recognition that it is essentially psychological torture.
On the flip side, the film has a positive message in its championing of solidarity in the face of bigotry, and it’s refreshing to see a film that does not only frame queerness around sex and romance, but around opposition to how an intolerant society expects us to live. The Miseducation of Cameron Post feels very timely.
The Miseducation of Cameron Post is in UK cinemas from September 7th.
