‘Reform School Girls’ is a campy, hilarious queer masterpiece
Late-night basic cable introduced me to many of my favorite B-movies. Once upon a time, the USA Up All Night lineup was the weekend event I most looked forward to.
At 9 years old and as the youngest of five, my parents had largely given up trying to stop us from watching R-rated flicks, especially the watered-down TV versions that were constantly appearing after 10pm.
Hosted by Rhonda Shear and Gilbert Gottfried, USA Up All Night showed cheap movies on rotation, a celebrated tradition in American TV (think Elvira, but cheaper.) These movies—stupid, silly, violent, sexy—were salvation for a precocious kid eager to experience anything strange.
One of those cinematic gems—Reform School Girls—had a rebellion fantasy, scantily clad punk rock chicks, and iconic one-liners that not only grabbed my queer little attention, it cemented it as one of my favorite movies of all time.
