Despite dealing with the tragedy of losing her parents in a car crash, Cameron Post (Chloë Grace Moretz, The Clouds of Sils Maria) seemingly fits in well with her conservative Montana community: she performs well at school, holds a place on the track team, participates in her local youth group and has a picture-perfect boyfriend on her arm. However, when she and her best friend Coley (Quinn Shephard) are caught embracing after a high school dance, Cameron’s life quickly comes crashing down around her.
Cameron’s conservative aunt and guardian immediately sends her away to God’s Promise, an evangelical conversion therapy camp, where she is meant to pray away her “same-sex attraction” and forced to wrestle with her identity and sexual orientation among a group of similarly stranded youths. But, after making a real connection with fellow campers Jane Fonda (Sasha Lane) and Adam Red Eagle (Forrest Goodluck, Indian Horse) and seeing some of the devastating effects of the camp’s program on others, Cameron starts to question the legitimacy of the camp’s dogmatic teachings and concludes she wants to decide for herself who she really is.
Winner of the US Grand Jury Prize for best dramatic feature at Sundance, The Miseducation of Cameron Post deftly explores how identities, families and communities are intertwined through its stellar cast of up-and-coming actors and Desiree Akhavan’s skilled and thoughtful direction.
“Chloë Grace Moretz puts in a career-best turn as a teen sent to ‘pray away the gay’ at a Christian camp in Desiree Akhavan’s compassionate LGBT story.” (Jordan Hoffman, The Guardian)
“The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a small movie, far too modest and knowing to surrender to melodrama and apply cosmetic fixes to deep wounds…but it beautifully articulates the need for young people to realize the validity of who they are, and even more beautifully crystalizes the moment when that starts to happen.” (David Ehrlich, IndieWire)