Movie Review: "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" Shows Queer Teens Stuck at Conversion Camp

The Miseducation of Cameron Post explores insidious acts of cruelty with incredible compassion (and a spiky sense of humour).

How much compassion could you show those who are causing you hurt?

That’s the question I was left with by The Miseducation of Cameron Post, primarily because director Desiree Akhavan demonstrates a level of empathy I’m not sure I’d personally be able to access.

The film follows the titular teenage girl, played by Chloë Grace Moretz, at a 'gay conversion therapy' camp in 1993. (For comparison, its setting, premise and tone is the exact opposite of Wet Hot American Summer.) Cameron is shipped to the camp after she's caught making out with another girl at prom, and in her conservative household, this demands an intervention. However, when Cameron calls home, asking to leave, her teary aunt (Kerry Butler) asks, "Don’t you want to have a family someday?"

That’s just one way in which Akhavan, her co-writer Cecilia Frugiuele, and the source book’s author, Emily M. Danforth, articulate the motives and misguided intentions of the otherwise abusive adults in Cameron’s world. It’s a story not inspired by rage, but empathy and understanding.

This is why it’s beneficial to have queer filmmakers telling queer stories (a rarity even today). It's the surprising insight of those who have been regularly reminded, throughout their lives, that they are "other". For some viewers, the marginalisation will seem shocking. For the characters—through Akhavan’s telling—marginalisation is downright ordinary and everyday, and it comes from those whom they love.

'Gay conversion therapy' is the pseudoscience that suggests homosexuality is a sinful mask for underlying issues, and that it can be reversed if treated appropriately. This 'pray the gay away' approach has been widely discredited—in fact, it’s actively harmful—and yet it persists, here and abroad. (Don't let the flick's 25-year-old timeline make you think it's a relic of the past.) Australia’s Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, just last week played coy on the issue, while American Vice President Mike Pence has historical ties to it.

Akhavan’s movie obviously demonstrates the wrongheadedness of 'gay conversion', and doesn’t let its proponents off the hook. The damage they inflict is not diminished either, and the grisly climax points to real ramifications. Still, if you were hoping for righteous revenge against those running the camp, or a sweeping, satisfying revolution, look elsewhere. We mostly just while away the hours at "God’s Promise", where Cameron and her fellow LGBTQI teens are asked to reconsider themselves by the "converted" Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr.) and his sister Lydia Marsh (Jennifer Ehle), who describe the attendees as being "in recovery". The uniforms and surrounding environments are autumn-muted. Again: ordinary and everyday. But occasionally, cinematographer Ashley Connor finds a flash of colour. 

Moretz delivers a moving performance as a girl who passively goes along with the camp’s activities out of obligation and guilt. (She does get a moment of abandon when she rebelliously sings—convincingly—4 Non Blondes’ "What’s Up?") She’s surrounded by an excellent cast, including Sasha Lane and Forrest Goodluck as her sardonic friends, and Emily Skeggs and Melanie Ehrlich as fellow campers fighting their instincts. Owen Campbell and Christopher Dylan White demonstrate heartbreaking rage turned inwards in smaller, significant turns. It’s Gallagher Jr., though, who offers the most depth, in a part that could’ve been played for easy laughs and isn't.

Despite The Miseducation of Cameron Post’s forlorn quality, Akhavan finds space to include her knife-sharp sense of humour. (Her last film, Appropriate Behaviour, was a kind-of queer answer to Girls, with a more diverse cast and similar style of piercing comedy.) When Skeggs’ character Erin describes Ehrlich’s Helen as "butch", she adds: "I mean it factually, not in a mean way." Later, a montage reveals the circumstances that got each of the teens condemned to camp, and it is equal parts funny and tragic, because the circumstances, like a girl watching football too enthusiastically, or a boy crossing his legs, are ordinary and everyday. The laughs got caught in my throat.

4/5

The Miseducation of Cameron Post is showing in select Adelaide, Alice Springs, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne cinemas now. Rated M for mature themes, sex scenes and coarse language.

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Header Image: Rialto Distribution