It’s 1993, and Cameron (Moretz) is a teenage girl going to the school dance with her boyfriend and her best friend, prom queen Coley (Shepard). Cameron, however, is in love with Coley and the girls sneak away and start to make out in the back seat of a car, only to get caught. And it’s Cameron who pays the price when her shocked family decide to send her away to a special school called God’s Promise that tries to use religion to scare the gay out of the teenagers who have been banished there.
Run by an ‘ex-gay’, Reverend Rick (John Gallagher Jr) and his strict sister Lydia (Jennifer Ehle), the ramshackle conversion therapy school is populated by kids who are misunderstood by those around them, and while she is stuck there Cameron makes some friends, including the feisty Jane (Sasha Lane), who hides weed in her prosthetic leg and the witty Adam (Forrest Goodluck).
It is these three kids that provide both the humour and emotional heart of this drama about growing up, finding your own voice and embracing who you are even when others try to stop you. Both Goodluck and Lane give terrific supporting performances, but it is Chloe Grace Moretz, in her wisest, most vulnerable performance to date who draws you into this movie, deftly delivering funny moments alongside the sad.
And while the mix of humour and drama doesn’t always work, this adaptation of Emily M Danforth’s novel is worth a look for her performance alone.
Is The Miseducation Of Cameron Post suitable for kids? Here are our parents’ notes...
This is a 15 certificate film and is aimed at adults and older teens. Please note that under-15s cannot see this film in UK cinemas.
This is a 15 certificate film in the UK and is aimed at adults and older children.
There are some tame sex scenes, including one in which Cameron and her friend are caught together in a car.
There is drug use and conversations about drugs and sex in the movie.
SPOILER – Cameron discovers blood on the floor of a bathroom and we learn that one of her friends has mutilated his genitals. Nothing is shown but it is upsetting.
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