But I'm a Cheerleader - 4K Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

But I'm a Cheerleader



Movie:
4K Video:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:


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Movie
While I was never a person into teen comedies or satire films around the turn of the century (I was more into Jackie Chan and American Pie), I still remember watching But I’m a Cheerleader during my college years when we had snuck in a cable box to our campus apartment and was trying to consume as much cable content as we could during our first years with actual “freedom” from living with our parents (ahhh, the good old days). So when we came across But I’m a Cheerleader it was a boring Saturday night, and my roommates and I figured, “Why not? There’s nothing else on but Jerry Springer". Naturally, for a young college student, we were bored out of our minds by what appeared to be a crummy indie satire, and years later, I still SORT OF hold that same opinion.

While it wasn’t my cup of tea, 1999’s But I’m a Cheerleader was a seminal turning point for gay comedies, as well as the springboard for comedian Natasha Lyonne to make her start in the film world. And of course the huge controversy over the initial NC-17 rating, that turned out to be one of the most ridiculous over reaches in MPAA history (it’s been historically surmised that the only reason it was initially given an NC-17 rating was due to the thematic material vs. any objective measurement, and even though I’m as stodgy of a conservative as they come, I have to agree. The film is barely an R-rated movie as it is, and the content they cut out to achieve an R-rating would be considered tame by any objective ruling, even back in 1999. Which is really nothing new, as I remember the crazy boycotts and angry parental rantings when Silent Night, Deadly Night hit theaters. But hey, any publicity is good publicity, and as a result, But I’m a Cheerleader has garnered itself a ridiculously strong cult following even today.

Straight off the bat, let's get this out of the way. But I’m a Cheerleader is pure over-the-top satire, turning everything (including the color pink) up to level 14 on a scale of 1-10 and just lampooning some of the late 90s tropes that LGBT people dealt with and amplifying them to ludicrous degrees. Young Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is a high school girl with a bit of a problem. She’s got the perfect boyfriend, the perfect loving family, but she’s oblivious to the fact that everyone around Megan BUT her knows that she’s gay. After an intervention by her family, Megan is sent off to “True Directions”, a two-month-long conversion therapy camp run by an ex gay man named Mike (RuPaul), where they’re gonna train the gay away!

As you could have guessed, things don’t go exactly to plan. The camp sets up hilarious test after test to try and train her tendencies away, but the more they try and force Megan into this particular box, the more she starts to branch out on her own and finally comes to accept herself as she is, not as other people want to see her.

As I’ve gotten older and more attuned with satire, I have slightly changed my mind on But I’m a Cheerleader. I’m a HUGE fan of lampooning things and having the right to mock and ridicule power structures in the way they dominate our lives, and no matter who you are and what your opinions on the subject matter of the film, comedy is one of those genres that NEEDS to push boundaries to survive. Jamie Babbit is absolutely having a ball lampooning the ultra-conservative tropes of the 90s, and some of the over-aggressive ultra-conservative parents of the 80s and 90s are downright funny at times. I grew up during the “heavy metal is evil!” time period under staunchly conservative parents, and the comparisons to that hysteria are spot on perfect. And RuPaul as the “I was once a gay!” director of True Directions is probably the best part of the entire movie. RuPaul hams it up and just has fun with the trope, sashaying about like he’s walking down his own red carpet and just having a ball with the role.
BUUUUUT, here’s where I diverge from being a cult fan of the movie. But I’m a Cheerleader just isn’t that funny for the most part. And I’m not saying this because of politics, religion, etc. I’m saying this because I just didn’t find the movie that funny. Natasha Lyonne is sweet, and the initial gag of going to a conversion therapy camp is pretty clever, but it suffers from something that a lot of indie comedies suffer from. The fact that they don’t have the writing, and stretch the joke out too long. By the end of the film, I felt like I was re-watching the same gag on repeat, just with a slightly different setting and scenario tweak. Babbit’s comedy is pretty one-note and feels like it would have been a better fit as an SNL skit or a short film, rather than stretching it out into a 90-minute comedy feature film.




Rating:

Rated R for strong language and sexual content involving teens




4K Video: Video:

I never saw the Lionsgate Blu-ray release for this flick, but from what I remember, it had a pretty good transfer by all reviews. Looking at this 4K disc (there’s no Blu-ray included), the film looks REALLY nice for a low-budget indie comedy. The film was heavily stylized to have a sort of washed out grungy look for the main aesthetic, but the more the film goes on, the more pink is added to the mix. So much so that by the end of the film it’s over-saturated and just BLASTED with neon shades of paink. Fine details are generally really good, with great skin tones and robust, nuanced details on clothing and background objects (such as the leafy forest setting at the camp). Black levels are pretty good, but I did notice some crush in the darker sequences and a few instances of clumpy grain that seemed abnormal.







Audio:

Lionsgate’s original Blu-ray release sported a 2.0 lossy Dolby Digital theatrical mix on board, and while that’s still on board the disc (thank you Lionsgate), we also have a 5.1 Dolby TrueHD lossless mix as well. And, it’s pretty solid for being a 2.0 stereo upmix to 5.1. The 2.0 track was notoriously weak and thin-sounding, and I have to agree with that assertion after comparing it to the 5.1 track. It’s decent enough, but thin and not a lot of punch to it. But then again, it WAS a SUPER low-cost indie comedy with a $1 budget behind it. Now the 5.1 adds a lot of space to the mix, expanding out into the surrounds and even incorporating a MILD amount of LFE to the mix for the score. However, it’s not perfect, as the mix is more of a 3.1 mix than anything, with most of the activity in the front of the room. It’s solid enough, sounds good, and definitely has more weight than the lossy 2.0 mix by a good margin, though.








Extras:

• Beyond the Pink and Blue: A Conversation with Jamie Babbit
• Audio Commentary with Director Jamie Babbit, Costume Designer Alix Friedberg, and Production Designer Rachel Kamerman
• But I'm a Cheerleader Class Reunion
• Making But I'm a Cheerleader . . . in 1999
• But I'm a Composer . . . A Chat with Pat Irwin
• Student Film: Discharge
• Theatrical Trailer

Final Score: ​

As a fan of a lot of weird stuff, I completely love that But I’m a Cheerleader has a strong cult following. But as a viewer, I just was bored out of my mind by the film. It has a few good points (RuPaul in particular), but overall the comedy is very bland and one-note-ish, and it goes on about 30 minutes too long. However, Lionsgate did a great job with the 4K release of this low-budget flick, giving us a lossless track (which wasn’t present on the Blu-ray) and a nice 4K remaster. Extras are pretty good, but I felt most were just Zoom call interviews, and the unique cover art and flip case packaging were pretty cool. Simply put, fans of the movie are going to love the physical media release in 4K, while those on the fence are much better off renting the movie before they purchase due to the niche nature of the project.



Technical Specifications:

Starring: Natasha Lyonne, Clea DuVall, Michelle Williams, Bud Cort, RuPaul
Directed by: Jamie Babbit
Written by: Brian Peterson, Jamie Babbitt
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 HEVC
Audio: English: Dolby TrueHD 5.1, English DD 2.0
Subtitles: English SDH, English, Spanish
Studio: Lionsgate
Rated: R
Runtime: 90 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: August 26th, 2025

Recommendation: For the Fans

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