This movie leaves you in a wake of rainbow carnage!

Rating: 10/10 (5 October 2006)

When I first saw the preview for this film, I knew I needed to see it. Rock star drama, original songs by Stephen Trask, and a most unconventional love plot. What I didn't know was what a truly sincere story I was in for. Hedwig's story is one to which we all can relate, male or female, gay or hetero. While the inner-feelings of the story may be hidden under layers of glitter makeup and punk rock clothing, Hedwig is a character who represents finding yourself and then falling in love with that person. We all have our idiosyncrasies and hang-ups, some of which make us think we are unlovable, or perhaps not worthy of love. Hedwig's quest to find his/her other half takes the audience on a triumphant journey through time and place, searching desperately to find that which makes Hedwig whole.
The animation bits that accompany bits of plot and song are amazing, very raw and real. They evoke images of youth and playfulness that today's technology could not dream of aspiring to. The song "Origin of Love" perhaps sums up the sentiment of the film. When I first saw the film, I almost cried with joy when the "music video" unfolded on the screen before me as one of my very favorite Greek texts. Taken from Aristophanes' Theory on the Origin of Love from Plato's Symposium, the song describes how love was born on the planet. At the dawn of human existence, there were three sexes, each consisting of two people attached on their backsides. Think Siamese twins, but with faces on each side rather than side by side. The Children of the Sun were two men, the Children of the Earth were two women, and the Children of the Earth were one of each. The Gods became threatened by the peaceful and powerful existence that these beings enjoyed, so when they tried to scale Mount Olympus (think of them rolling around like cart wheeling bowling balls), the Gods smite them and take away the source of their power, their duality. They are split down the middle, separating the halves, thus creating this feeling of longing we have for one another. Ever since, people sometimes spend a lifetime looking for their other half. While the song is only a small portion of the film, one an only imagine that John Cameron Mitchell used it as the centerpiece to his masterpiece, breathing new, yet ancient, life into his charismatic, and hilarious, character, Hedwig.
The end result is comedic tragedy, sweet, innocent love wrapped in an androgynous body. Proving that it's what's inside that counts and f*ck the world if they don't love you, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the 21st century's first hard-hitting musical that brings it all the way home.