The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Atlantic Film | Release Date: August 3, 2018 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
69
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 36 Critic Reviews
Positive:
25
Mixed:
10
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
The Seattle TimesJ.R. KinnardAug 8, 2018
Chloë Grace Moretz’s revelatory performance is undoubtedly the highlight of The Miseducation of Cameron Post. Though Cameron is more comfortable nurturing a silence than speaking her mind, Moretz’ wry smile and weary eyes convey volumes of emotional turmoil. Read full review
100
The GuardianJordan Hoffman
This is a gripping and sad drama that puts a tremendous amount of faith in its performers and audience, and for all the emotion and tenderness in the rest of this year’s Sundance crop, this is the first film that left me a complete broken-down mess by the end. Read full review
90
The New York TimesA.O. ScottAug 2, 2018
Satire and outrage are easier approaches than the tact and empathy Ms. Akhavan deploys. The Miseducation of Cameron Post, confident in its beliefs and curious about what makes its characters tick, is more interested in listening than in preaching. Read full review
90
Village VoiceLara ZarumAug 1, 2018
In the end, Cameron Post is a damning indictment of institutional Christianity and adults who make it their mission to tamp down kids’ spirits in the name of God. Read full review
90
The Hollywood ReporterLeslie Felperin
Akhavan elicits finely layered performances from her cast. Moretz digs deeper than she has in years for a sensitive lead turn that harmonizes especially well with her co-stars. Read full review
88
New York PostJohnny OleksinskiAug 2, 2018
I was surprised to find “Cameron Post” a sweet indie film in the tradition of John Hughes. Calmly directed by Desiree Akhavan, the movie doesn’t get tangled in the weeds of politics, but instead focuses intensely on its lovely characters. Read full review
88
RogerEbert.comTomris LafflyAug 2, 2018
Given that conversion therapy is still inexplicably legal in 41 states, Akhavan’s film of acceptance and optimism feels as urgent as ever. Read full review
83
IndieWireDavid Ehrlich
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. Read full review
80
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeSep 9, 2018
It’s one of the lovely ironies of Akhavan’s bittersweet film that Cameron finds true friendship in a place dedicated to stamping it out, and there’s laugh-out-loud joy to be found in the acid-tongued interaction between these soulmates. Read full review
80
The TelegraphTim RobeySep 9, 2018
What a step up for Moretz this is. Her wobbly credentials as a leading lady – oddly, and maybe ill-advisedly, there’s a Carrie reference in the script – suddenly feel like a thing of the past. There’s eye-rolling resignation in her performance, then bottomless despair, then tentative hope. Read full review
80
CineVueAlasdair BaymanSep 8, 2018
Traversing the curiosities that we all yield at an adolescent age where discovering and understanding our bodies is a paramount experience, one cannot help applauding the director in depicting the taboo subject in such a pure fashion. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 5, 2018
The film concludes in a minor key, and unresolved: always smart, amusing and engaging. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesGlenn WhippAug 9, 2018
In its own modest way, it’s one of the year’s bravest films. Read full review
80
Screen DailyTim Grierson
Miseducation has a funny, breezy surface — even though tragedy predictably intervenes at one point — but Cameron’s wry sense of humour doesn’t diminish how warping these conversion centres are, slowly instilling in people the sense that they’re faulty. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 22, 2018
The real support group at this place is the one formed by a small band of students, who lean on each other and reinforce each other in the face of the small-minded bigotry of the so-called adults in their lives. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Johanna SchnellerAug 9, 2018
Writers Cecilia Frugiuele (who also produced) and Desiree Akhavan (who also directed), working from Emily Danforth’s source novel, capture the fugue state that is teenagehood, then refract it through the extra-weirdness of the camp. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeTy BurrAug 9, 2018
In its tactful, observant way, the film is unrelenting in assessing the damage that blind faith can wreak on its children and heartening in showing how those damaged find strength in each other. Read full review
75
ConsequenceDanielle SolzmanAug 1, 2018
What happens throughout The Miseducation of Cameron Post shows exactly why conversion therapy needs to be banned. It’s emotionally abusive, and is harmful to the vulnerable LGBTQ youth population. Read full review
75
The AtlanticDavid SimsAug 1, 2018
This is a film about Cameron’s core personhood, and how it stands up to concentrated efforts to transform it, and it’s told with quiet steeliness and grace. Read full review
75
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 1, 2018
The triumph of “Miseducation” is how lightly it treads down a well-worn path, how quaint and out of date it makes the attitudes of early ’90s authority seem to modern eyes. Read full review
75
The A.V. ClubJesse HassengerJul 30, 2018
It’s telling that the filmmaker captures one of Gallagher’s best moments in a long and relatively uneventful take situated at a breakfast table; this movie may wander, but Akhavan’s attention to perfect little moments is unwavering. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisAug 15, 2018
Despite the often unsettling subject matter, this adaptation of Emily M. Danforth's teen novel isn’t an intense experience: no big confrontational scenes, few (if any) histrionic moments. Read full review
67
The Film StageJordan Raup
While it doesn’t land with as much impact as it should, the contradictory, heart-numbing effects of such a dehabiliting program are conveyed with a keen sense of nuance by Akhavan. Read full review
67
The PlaylistGregory Ellwood
Where Akhavan succeeds is whenever she has the kids doing things teenagers would be doing. Read full review
63
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanAug 8, 2018
The film is at its best when evoking the painful labor of adolescent self-discovery, a process — as rendered here — that is not unlike a butterfly struggling to emerge from a chrysalis. Read full review
60
EmpireDan JolinSep 10, 2018
A coming-of-age story which thoughtfully and heartfully tackles the repellent practice of conversion therapy. Moretz is excellent, but this summer camp/institution drama cocktail could have done with a little more fizz. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekAug 6, 2018
The Miseducation of Cameron Post may not hit as hard as it should. But it at least suggests that the only real losers in life are those who presume to read God’s mind. Read full review
60
TheWrapElizabeth WeitzmanAug 2, 2018
So we have a compelling storyline, and characters we genuinely care about. But since Akhavan doesn’t drill deeply enough, the movie ends at what should be its midpoint. And her lovely final shot winds up feeling as avoidant as it is poignant. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Emily YoshidaAug 2, 2018
Cameron Post is the kind of film that openly courts falling into the cinematic limitations of an “issues film.” Akhavan’s sense of place and ensemble do a lot to counter that, but that specificity ends with the main character. Read full review
60
Rolling StonePeter TraversJul 31, 2018
What a shame that this well-meaning look at the absurdity of gay conversion camps — it won the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance this year — lacks the teeth to make its points stick. Read full review
60
VarietyPeter Debruge
The best part of “Miseducation” is the diverse group of adolescents sharing Cameron’s experience. Read full review
55
Film Journal InternationalDavid NohAug 1, 2018
The unrelenting gloom and oppressive atmosphere verge on the exploitative. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleDavid LewisAug 9, 2018
Fortunately, some of the people around Cameron turn out to be more interesting. The best in show is John Gallagher Jr., who brings out both the creepy and comforting sides of “ex-gay” instructor Rick — a seemingly nice guy who’s oblivious to the harm that he’s inflicting on his charges. Read full review
50
SlateJeffrey BloomerAug 7, 2018
The low-key best performance in the movie comes from Owen Campbell, who sneaks up on us as a peripheral God’s Promise resident, but his quiet and then fierce turn is stifled by the movie’s perfunctory mechanics. No one can quite rise above them. Read full review
50
The New YorkerRichard BrodyAug 1, 2018
The director, Desiree Akhavan, who wrote the script with Cecilia Frugiuele (adapting a novel by Emily M. Danforth), expresses and elicits apt outrage, but the action is schematic and the characters are thinly sketched. Read full review
25
Slant MagazineDiego SemereneAug 3, 2018
The film's refusal to produce a campy critique feels more like the product of lack of imagination than a purposeful repudiation. Read full review
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