Barnes & Noble

Having simulated sex in a flesh-colored body suit -- complete with fig leaves -- is just one step on the road to recovery for the beleaguered heroine of this colorful, teen sex comedy. Natasha Lyonne plays Megan, a high-school cheerleader whose family is convinced she's a lesbian and ships her off to a rehab camp designed to "cure" people of their homosexuality. Soon after Megan arrives, she falls head over heels for fellow rehabber Graham (Clea Duvall). Lyonne gives Megan a perfect wide-eyed innocence as she comes to grips with her true sexual inclinations, while Duvall plays Graham as an ideal foil -- savvy, sophisticated, and exasperated by Megan's naiveté even though she's smitten with her. The film follows Megan's progress as she completes an outrageous five-step program designed to make her a normal heterosexual (with former drag queen RuPaul as one of her counselors), and every imaginable cliché about sexual behavior and sex roles is fuel for the satire. While this is definitely a film with a message, its light-hearted exploration of everyone's favorite subject -- sex -- gives But I'm a Cheerleader winning charm. Gregory Baird

All Movie Guide

In this satire, parents who are worried that their children might not be walking the straight and narrow path discover a rehabilitation camp designed to curb alternative lifestyles. Megan (Natasha Lyonne), a high school student and member of the cheerleading squad, seems like an ordinary enough teenage girl, but her habit of honestly expressing herself and lack of romantic enthusiasm for her boyfriend convince her very repressed parents, Peter (Bud Cort) and Nancy (Mink Stole), that Megan is becoming a lesbian. So Megan is shipped off to True Directions, a camp for gay and gay-leaning teens, where Mary Brown (Cathy Moriarty) attempts to deprogram kids with homosexual tendencies. The first step in the process is to get each teen to admit to their homosexuality, which Megan is loath to do, since she doesn't believe she's a lesbian -- or at least she didn't think so before she met her new friend Graham (Clea DuVall), who seems quite sure that she likes girls. Meanwhile, Mary's son Rock (Eddie Cibrian) may be exempt from the camp's activities, but he turns more than a few heads among True Directions' male inmates. Noted female impersonator RuPaul appears as a camp guide, and Julie Delpy has a cameo as a "lipstick lesbian." Mark Deming

New York Times

Ms. Lyonne doesn't camp it up; she settles in and, using her spry optimism and little girl's croak of a voice, delivers a real performance. Elvis Mitchell

Product Details

• UPC: 031398834823
• Source: LIONS GATE
• Aspect Ratio: Theatre Wide-Screen (1.85.1)
• Presentation: Wide Screen
• Sound: Dolby Digital Stereo
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Español
• Time: 1:24:00
• Sales Rank: 15,053

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