In the 1990s, Hollywood started to more clearly embrace movies with "gay themes", albeit usually with some of that era's noted sense of irony. For an example of this, we go to 1999's But I'm a Cheerleader.

High school senior and cheerleader Megan Bloomfield (Natasha Lyonne) performs dates handsome Jared (Brandt Wille), the captain of the football team. Though she appears to exist as the proverbial all-American girl, her parents Nancy (Mink Stole) and Peter (Bud Cort) start to suspect she may be a lesbian.

Concerned for her fate, they force Megan to attend "True Directions", a two-month-long camp that aims to use "conversion therapy" to turn gay kids straight. Megan deals with a mix of challenges there as she also gets in touch with her true self.

When I mentioned earlier that the 1990s represented an era of progress for gays in culture, I meant it, but this doesn't mean those efforts all look good today. Homophobia still ran rampant, as even seemingly "progressive" enterprises like Friends still came with plenty of comments from the characters meant to reinforce that they're straight, with the underpinning that they'd hate to be thought of as gay.

Indeed, a look back at the 1990s and into the 2000s can offer a shocking reminder how homophobic the culture remained. As much as we made progress in other ways, movies and TV still casually threw out content that treated homosexuality as an affliction to be avoided.

Cheerleader was directed by Jamie Babbit, a member of the gay community herself. That seemed like an assurance it would offer lots of irony but not so much of the general homophobia of the era.

I should amend that: homophobia abounds in Cheerleader, but only as displayed from the movie’s narrow-minded and judgmental characters. Their view always becomes depicted as wrong and detrimental.

Which makes sense, of course, as the desire of people to literally shock teens into heterosexuality offers an obviously problematic perspective. Cheerleader takes a firmly “live and let live” attitude, and I support that.

Unfortunately, as executed by Babbit, the end result seems like a mess. In particular, Babbit changes the tone at the drop of a hat.

The first act of Cheerleader plays almost entirely for campy laughs. Almost precisely at the 30-minute mark, though, Babbit shifts matters into a much more dramatic vibe.

This comes out of nowhere and feels jarring. For the rest of the way, Cheerleader alternates the laughs and the deeper emotions but without real coherence.

Cheerleader simply needed a stronger filmmaker to pull off its competing sides. Babbit went on to achieve a solid career in Hollywood, mostly via TV.

Indeed, Cheerleader exists as Babbit’s only movie that maintains any kind of moderate public profile. This makes it difficult to gauge if she developed as a feature director.

Whatever skills Babbit potentially developed didn’t seem evident in 1999. Not that I think Cheerleader turns into a bad movie, but it seems too scattered to really connect.

Honestly, Cheerleader feels more like a message of positivity toward gay kids than a coherent narrative. I certainly approve of Babbit’s goals but that doesn’t mean I find the movie to deliver it in a compelling manner.

Even at a mere 91 minutes, Cheerleader seems padded. It comes with a slow eight minutes of end credits and often comes across as a short film that Babbit decided to stretch to feature length.

This doesn’t work, though Cheerleader does feature a reasonably good – albeit inconsistent – cast. Some actors fare better than others, as the performances veer from charming to wooden.

Only 20 during the shoot, Lyonne possesses talent and seems game but she feels miscast as the wide-eyed Megan. Whatever range Lyonne boasts, innocent and naïve doesn’t fit her generally rough-hewn vibe.

Again, others vary, though Cathy Moriarty does best as the owner of True Directions. Like most, she gets a cartoony role, but Moriarty invests well.

Ultimately, I appreciate the message of Cheerleader but think the film communicates it in a clumsy manner. While the film comes with some laughs and charm, it seems too erratic to really work.

But I’m a Cheerleader appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Though not a showcase, the Dolby Vision image held up well.

Overall sharpness worked fine. Some softness crept into a few shots but the majority of the film brought appealing delineation.

I noticed no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects, and the movie lacked edge haloes. Grain seemed natural and I saw no print defects.

The palette of Cheerleader leaned heavily toward pinks, blues and greens. The disc replicate these well, with a boost from HDR.

Blacks appeared deep and tight, while low-light shots brought good clarity. HDR gave whites and contrast added oomph. This became a pretty solid presentation.

In addition, the film’s Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack worked fine for a character-oriented comedy/drama from 1999. This meant a chatty affair bolstered mainly by music.

The score and songs focused mostly on the front, where they showed good stereo spread. Effects lacked a lot to do but they showed appropriate placement, and the surrounds delivered mild reinforcement of these elements.

Audio quality satisfied, with speech that remained concise and distinctive. Effects didn’t stand out but they appeared accurate.

Music showed nice range and vivacity. Although this stayed a low-key mix, it suited the story at hand.

As we shift to extras, we launch with an audio commentary from director Jamie Babbit, costume designer Alix Friedberg and production designer Rachel Kamerman. All three sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story and characters, cast and performances, locations and set design, costumes, hair and makeup, changes between the theatrical version and the Director's Cut, influences and inspiration, music and editing.

At times, the chat devolves into a little too much happy talk. However, the track gives us plenty of good insights and these ensure that it becomes a quality discussion as a whole.

Recorded for this 2025 release, Beyond the Pink and Blue runs 11 minutes, 46 seconds. It brings more from Babbit.

In this conversation, the filmmaker looks at what got her into movies as well as her approach to Cheerleader and its goals, casting, production and costume design, MPAA issues, and the movie’s reception/legacy. Some of this repeats from the commentary but Babbit offers enough new material to make the reel worth a look.

Class Reunion spans 20 minutes, 47 seconds. Hosted by Variety editor-at-large Kate Aurthur, this Zoom meeting involves Babbit and actors Natasha Lyonne, Cathy Moriarty, Clea DuVall, Melanie Lynskey, Douglas Spain, Joel Michaely, Katrina Phillips and Dante Basco.

This piece talks about the film’s origins and development, casting, memories of the shoot and retrospective thoughts about the flick. This never becomes an especially revealing reel but I like the chance to see the participants interact and reminisce.

Comprised of circa 1999 footage, The Making of But I’m a Cheerleader goes for eight minutes, 16 seconds. It involves Babbit, Lyonne, Lynskey, DuVall, Michaely, Moriarty, and actors Mink Stole, Bud Cort, RuPaul and Michelle Williams.

“Making” looks at the project’s roots and path to the screen along with story/characters, cast and performances and the movie’s message. Shot on the set, no one tells us much that seems especially revealing but I appreciate the view of those involved from the era in which they made the flick.

But I’m a Composer fills five minutes, 26 seconds. It provides notes from composer Pat Irwin.

As expected, Irwin looks at the movie’s music. We get a decent overview of these choices.

In addition to the movie’s trailer, we get a student film by Babbit that runs two minutes, 58 seconds. Made in 1994, it delivers a dialogue-free affair in which a young lesbian taunted by a punk kid throws her used tampon at him.

Yeah, that’s the whole “plot”. This probably seemed cathartic and daring in the Grunge era but now it looks silly.

While it conveys a good message, But I’m a Cheerleader never coalesces as a narrative. It comes with some laughs and charm at times but feels stretched too thin and too erratic to genuinely succeed. The 4K UHD comes with solid visuals, fairly positive audio and a mix of bonus features. Cheerleader earns an “A” for intentions and a “C” for execution.