Balancing out inherent drama with understated humour, The Miseducation of Cameron Post looks at a teenage girl grappling with pain and loss, but at the same time, she is creating a family on her own terms and learning what it is meant to empower herself by having confidence in her own identity.

Cameron Post (Chloë Grace Moretz) looks the part of a perfect high school girl.

But after she’s caught with another girl in the back seat of a car on prom night, Cameron is quickly shipped off to a conversion therapy centre that treats teens “struggling with same-sex attraction.”

At the facility, Cameron is subjected to outlandish discipline, dubious “de-gaying” methods, and earnest Christian rock songs—but this unusual setting also provides her with an unlikely gay community. For the first time, Cameron connects with peers, and she’s able to find her place among fellow outcasts.

Writer/director Desiree Akhavan (Appropriate Behavior) and co-writer Cecilia Frugiuele sensitively adapt Emily Danforth’s acclaimed eponymous coming-of-age novel and create a refreshingly original teen movie.