The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)

Cameron is being raised by her Christian aunt and, since this is 1993, it doesn't go over well at all when she's discovered making out with a girl. Cameron is sent to "God's Promise" -- a kind of gay conversion boarding school run by a brother and sister.

This is a quiet film; it's much less sensationalistic than "Boy Erased," which tackled the same type of subject. The school seems to be well-meaning even as the students understand that they can't really be helped, which was just so familiar. I'm not gay, but I grew up taking all of the rhetoric -- especially the purity crap -- to heart and always feeling like I was the only faker in the room. The damage can last a lifetime & this film does a decent job of conveying the despair of the kids forced to see their sexuality as perverted.

But, even though the film gets the vibe right & conveys the message perfectly, it feels as though it's not quite enough. I think the biggest issue is the character of Cameron: she's erected a wall between herself and everyone else for most of the movie. Good -- that's probably accurate -- but that wall is present between Cameron and the audience as well. I feel like I had an experiential "in" for the subject matter. I wonder if those viewers who haven't lived Christian school, church, and church camp felt anything.

B-