[yasr_overall_rating]
In 1993, a teenage girl is forced into a gay conversion therapy center by her conservative guardians.
In a world of excess, “The Miseducation of Cameron Post” is a refreshingly simple film. Cameron (Chloë Grace Moretz), a junior in high school, is sent away to God’s Promise, an evangelical gay conversion camp after her boyfriend catches her in the backseat of a car with the prom queen. What ensues could be described as an update of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” set in the nineties, complete with Jennifer Ehle as a darker, more sinister version of Nurse Ratched.
For a film based on a young adult novel, director Desiree Akhavan succeeds in crafting a teen drama almost devoid of pesky melodrama. Cameron is reserved and dignified, the type of teenager who might consider herself mature for her age. She quickly falls in with a small group of cynical wards, Jane (Sasha Lane) and Adam (Forrest Goodluck) who Akhavan helpfully labels as “cool” by having Cameron spy on them smoking weed in a cellar. Watching the trio navigate the disturbing world of faith-based conversion therapy is one of the films greatest pleasures, and despite the serious subject matter, the film is surprisingly comedic, until it isn’t.
The camp is run by Dr. Marsh (Jennifer Ehle) and her brother, Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr.), the most intriguing of the supporting roles, who himself has a past of “same-sex attraction” but has been reportedly “cured.” He now handles the religious activities at God’s Promise, and as is revealed, is in way over his head. Dr. Marsh, who Adam hilariously describes as “your own personal Disney villain, only she won’t let you jerk off,” serves as a chillingly malicious maternal figure to the wards and to her brother, manipulating them to the point of breaking in some cases. Her background is in psychology and was reportedly the one behind her brothers “conversion.” One can only imagine what their relationship is like.
And in a way that’s one of the films weakest points, it leaves a lot up to the imagination. Secondary characters are presented as having strong backstories and personalities, such as Adam’s life on an Indian reservation, and his father’s political ambitions that lead him to convert to Christianity and send his “two-spirited” son away. Jane’s tumultuous childhood on a commune is hinted at but not explored. It’s not that secondary characters are poorly written, each makes the best of what little time they are allotted, and some manage to give heartbreaking performances, but the film would’ve benefited immensely by zeroing in on some of its outlying characters, just for the sake of variety.
“The Miseducation of Cameron Post” is what it is, a teen drama. That Akhavan pulls this off while also making a film that is not only watchable but enjoyable for non-teen audiences is no small feat.
In theaters Friday, August 3rd
