Friendship becomes a coping mechanism for the three of them, along with sarcasm and weed. The film is bolstered by assured, nuanced performances - particularly Sasha Lane (American Honey) and Forrest Goodluck (The Revenant) as the tough Jane and the soft-spoken Adam, who help Cameron adjust to life at God's Promise. Danforth's 2012 novel, Akhavan has delivered another smart, sensitive film about a queer protagonist - although one best suited to a slightly younger audience than Appropriate Behaviour.Īctor Forrest Goodluck's character self-identifies as 'two-spirit' or Winkte, a Native American gender identity that Goodluck says was celebrated in ancient Lakota culture.

With Cameron Post, which is based on Emily M. Akhavan also wrote and starred in the semi-autobiographical film, which earned high praise as well as the inevitable comparisons to Girls. Her debut, 2014's Appropriate Behaviour, was a candid and low-key comedy about a bisexual Iranian-American woman living in Brooklyn.

Winner of the Sundance Grand Jury prize (the festival's highest honour), The Miseducation of Cameron Post is director Desiree Akhavan's second feature. The generic lyrics take on a new, bitterly ironic meaning when sung by Cameron - stuck at God's Promise, accused of the sin of 'same-sex attraction', and told that she must work to 'get better'. It was important to actors Chloë Grace Moretz and Sasha Lane to speak to gay conversion therapy survivors in preparation for the film. 'And I pray, oh my god do I pray / I pray every single day for a revolution.' They're peeling potatoes when What's Up? comes on the radio, inspiring Cameron's hammy impersonation of Perry: 'And I try, oh my god do I try / I try all the time, in this institution,' she croons to her fellow campers, flicking potato skins left and right. At the time, she's standing in the kitchen of God's Promise - the 'conversion therapy' camp in remote Montana where she has been interned, along with a bunch of other queer teens. The Miseducation of Cameron Post takes place that same year, and features a sweetly rousing scene in which Chloë Grace Moretz - as the titular Cameron - conducts an impassioned sing-along to that same song. In 1993, San Francisco's 4 Non Blondes earned one-hit-wonder status with their alt-rock ballad What's Up? The song's keynote is confusion: 'I said hey, what's going on?' cries lead singer Linda Perry in the anthemic chorus - exasperated by her struggle to comprehend the world around her.

The miseducation of cameron post novel