Desiree Akhvan’s latest film, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, is yet another of those films which undeniably needed to be made. The Sydney Film Festival this year has seen an overwhelming number of films focussing on same-sex relationships and LGBTQ+ narratives, this particular one focussing on the hardships that emerge from the conflict between homosexuality and religion.
Lead character Cameron Post – played by Chloe Grace Moretz – is a comfortable and intelligent seventeen-year-old of 1993 when she is sent off to Christian conversion centre “God’s Promise”, after the uncovering of her relationship with a girl in her class. Referred to as “disciples”, the attendees of the camp are friendly yet reserved, and as the film progresses, the dilapidation of spirit is inevitable. The film, adapted from Emily M. Danforth’s novel, manages to be equally humorous and dejected, as it follows the persistent teenager in the face of the indoctrinating mantras (such as “pray away the gay”) that the camp perpetuates.
Upon meeting Cameron and introducing herself as the sympathetic and understanding director of the institution, Dr Lydia Marsh is met with Cameron’s friendly invitation to call her by the nickname ‘Cam’; an invitation to which Lydia serves the blunt reasoning that ‘Cameron’ is masculine enough as it is, and that she ‘mustn’t subject herself to further gender confusion’. Medicalising homosexuality and gender ambiguity, the teens are diagnosed with SSA (same-sex attraction), a “condition” which is likened to a drug addiction and assumed to come hand-in-hand with delinquent or sinful behaviour. As Cameron develops a friendship with Jane Fonda (Sasha Lane) and Adam Red Eagle (Forrest Goodluck), she grows stronger in her sense of self and allows the freedoms of friendship to make the best of her less than comfortable situation.
The film, all in all, is a liberating narrative with an eloquent script and stellar performances. It is often overlooked how lucky teenagers are to be growing up in a time and place where same-sex teenage romances are increasingly commonplace. Love Simon, Call Me By Your Name, Alex Strangelove and The Miseducation of Cameron Post are just a handful of the wave of recent films which all tell a similar narrative through a different lens, and yet all are met with genuine and deserved praise from a vastly diverse audience.
Madison (16)
The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Sydney Film Festival