Wolff rating: GOOD
Plot summary: Young, spacey cheerleader finds herself shipped off to a gay/lesbian re-education camp, where they try to brainwash her ``bad'' tendencies away.
Biased, pithy comments: I laughed aloud a lot while watching this film. It was genuinely funny---Babbit liked her characters, liked skewering the ex-gay movement, and couldn't stop throwing in visual gags (the giant rooster in front of the bar was truly awesome). Clea DuVall, who played a girl pretending to be a lesbian in ``The Faculty,'' is now in full dyke mode, and Lyonne and she have some serious high-school romance sparks between them. Meanwhile, RuPaul (wearing a ``Straight is Great'' T-shirt) is copiously *not* in drag, but clearly can't change who he is. There was just too much fun in this film, although I can see where one might find that it loses steam in the second half (you liked the satire but didn't care for the love story). It's a not pretentious enough to be an art film, but Babbit has an artist's touch in staging the story. I liked it.
Other Notes: There were some seriously scary parts that were so freaky they just had to be true---identifying the ``root'' of your homosexuality left me cringing. Yeesh. Typical of the MPAA, despite there being nearly no swear words and a sexual obsession typical of ``American Pie,'' they slap an R on it, probably because there're, like, lesbians in it, and they're automatically not fit for teenage consumption. Sigh.
How many times I have seen it: x1
Starring: Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, Cathy Moriarty, Dante Brasco, RuPaul, Mink Stole, and a fantastic near-cameo by Richard ``Bull'' Moll.
Directed by: Jamie Babbit