Cheerleader Queens (2003) User Reviews

a ladyboy comedy that makes the Eurovision Song Contest look subtle

[colettesplace · 4/10 · 14 March 2006]

Cheerleader Queens is a Thai drag sex comedy with the subtlety of the Eurovision Song Contest and the profundity of Porkys.

Four ladyboys, Mod, Som, Kam-pan and Wa-wa, move to Bangkok to attend a Catholic high school – in full drag some of the time! Sport is compulsory, but the boys are kicked off the cheerleading squad by some homophobe bitches. After they save the rugby team from being dispanded by miraculously scoring some tries, they form their own cheerleading squad, and train for the State finals.

The film gets bogged down at this point, and could do with more training montages. Cheerleader Queens also suffers from an overuse of crying, cliché, fainting (whenever Mod sees his cute crush, the aptly-named Pang, for example), accidents (including temporary blindness) and limp-wristed 'running like a girl'.

In addition, any potentially serious moments are badly handled – when Som has a drug problem, for example, his friends find an entire bottle of ecstasy tablets in his pocket. And in the cheerleading finals, their arch-rivals outperform our heroes so significantly that the closeness of the competition seems ludicrous.

Don't fret, though, there is some fun to be had. It's great to see so many out, camp queens, who also get to be friends with the rugby team and vanquish potential muggers by satisfying them sexually. These cute boys are great pals and most of the film is high-energy and colourful, with liberal doses of feather boa and eyeshadow.

Dire High School Comedy

[l_rawjalaurence · 3/10 · 4 July 2016]

CHEERLEADER QUEENS is one of those films that makes you despair of any real progress towards gender equality or mutual understanding of any alternative sexualities.

Set in a high school in Bangkok, Poj Arnon's film follows the fortunes of four gay adolescents as they try to survive in an aggressively masculine world. They join the rugby team and find a lot of their team-mates extremely attractive, but resent the macho world that rugby represents. It is only when their identities are called into question that they decide to shed their camp exteriors and play for the school, thereby ensuring the rugby team's continued future. Yet any points that the film might make about the values of teamwork, the notion of everyone playing for one another are undercut by some spurious sex jokes - for example, one of the boys eating a sausage as if it were a substitute male member.

It turns out that the boys want to join the cheer-leading team, something characteristically reserved for girls. After considerable effort, they succeed in their aim and prove to be the best - even though they have to cross-dress to achieve their aim. This strategy gives rise to a slew of camp jokes, perhaps worse than those characteristic of the British CARRY ON movies.

The film has been put together in slapdash manner, with the incessant rock-beat on the soundtrack, plus rapid intercutting working against any viewer identification with the protagonists. Its sole intention seems to be to allow the four youthful protagonists to mince about in limp-wristed glee, portraying gay men as both deviant and reluctant to engage in conventionally male pursuits such as rugby. One feels sorry for those professionals who played to the game to a high level who were also gay.

The action plods along interminably for two hours plus; by the end we feel that we have definitely had enough of these "Cheerleader Queens."