But I'm a Cheerleader

(Universal)

Jamie Babbit's glossy comedy ekes out just enough laughs to do justice to a terrific premise. Natasha Lyonne is Megan, a suburban everygirl gone bad: she's become a vegetarian, she has a Melissa Etheridge poster on the wall, and she can't bear her jock boyfriend's wet kisses. Her parents and friends stage an intervention at True Directions, a re-education camp for teenagers straying from the straight and narrow, where under the watchful eyes of RuPaul and Cathy Moriarty (looking exactly like Joan Rivers), they leave rehabilitated as "happy heterosexuals" -- or else. Writer Brian Wayne Peterson runs out of plot too soon, but the fanciful production design and over-the-top performances go a long way. And the film slyly suggests that repression, not recruitment, will swell the gay-and-lesbian ranks.