On Cheerleading, Acting, and Early Romances

My new roommate, Nicole has been raving about a movie from 1999 called "But I'm a Cheerleader," which initially sounded truly awful. We were supposed to wait until Nicole got her copy back from a friend to watch it, but we both became impatient and rented it from TLA. We've watched it twice already, and it isn't due back until Tuesday, so i think we have a good 2 or 3 more views left in us. At any rate, it was really charming, and I only tried to hide my tears at the end because Nicole wasn't obviously crying. Turns out she was doing the same, even though she has seen the movie 106 times.
The premise is that a 17ish blonde cheerleader who believes herself to be straight, gets shipped off to a gay-be-gone camp called "True Directions" by her friends and family who have become concerned with her vegetarian lifestyle and Melissa Ethridge posters. The main male camp counselor is a "former gay"and wears a series of hilarious t-shirts, one of which reads, "Straight is Great," as he continually, lustfully eyes the camp directors son, Rock.
It is one of those movies where the acting gets more convincing as the film progresses, and it makes me wonder if that is some kind of film formula, or if it is the natural result of the actors and actresses getting more into character over the months and months of filming (assuming that the movie was shot in sequence). It would make sense, if you are trying to win over an audience, to lower their expectations at the beginning of the movie, and strengthen the characters as the plot progresses.
And, yes, that is RuPaul out of drag.
The painfully fantastic soundtrack didn't really help matters when it came to crying, either. "Glass Vase Cello Case" by Tattle Tale killed me a little. It takes me back to college days where boys would play that kind of music with the desperate hope that it would inspire a girl to put out. That IS a tip, by the way, to any late-teen, early-twenty-somethings reading this: add this to your "bring a girl home" playlist on your itunes. I can't promise results, but you can bet a girl will call you "sensitive" when gossiping to her girlfriends the morning after.

The video is absolute garbage, but I wanted you to hear the song, so deal.
Other freaking phenomenal songs on the soundtrack include:
April March- Chick Habit** (my fav)
Funnel of Love- Wanda Jackson
We're in the City- Saint Etienne
If you should try and Kiss Her- Dressy Bessy
Clea DuVall is truly fantastic. Her character starts out a little 2-dimensional and her beauty slowly emerges as the movie goes on. I've always liked it when a movie can make you fall for someone that you don't find particularly attractive in the beginning (think of Peter Gibbons in Office Space- he just gets exponentially sexier for the entire 89 minutes of the movie). I think it mirrors real-life love-interests in that you can become more and more physically attracted to a person as you learn more things about them that you like or are impressed by.