Gut-wrenching, Witty, Exhillerating and Lovely

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2002)

This movie kicks so much butt I can't believe it didn't even get nominated for Best Musical at the Golden Globes. Hell, unlike MOULON ROUGE, it at least had original songs, so it should have gotten some attention. Speaking of those songs, they are all fantastic, from the lovely and lyrically brilliant "Origin of Love," to the raunchy "Angry Inch," the exhillerating and uplifting "Midnight Radio" and the side-splittingly funny "Wig In A Box". Of course, John Cameron Mitchell has much to do with this: his performance and vocals are amazing, and while I liked Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman's performances, Mitchell and Miriam Shor win my vote for singing on-screen couple of the year. Stephen Trask (whose career as a composer/lyricist is hopefully going to rocket to stardom after this), Andrea Martin and Alberta Watson all provide strong and memorable supporting performances, while Michael Pitt manages to be both vaguely annoying, in a Vincent Gallo/Trent Reznor way, while still being oddly endearing and vulnerable- exactly what he needs to be. I've never seen the stage play so I have no idea how it compares, but the script moves beautiful from one stage of Hansel/Hedwig's life to the next and the friendly, amiable manner in which it is shot and directed makes the film's strange characters totally relateable, their personal desires and agony very real and close to home. This movie is ultimatelty, in addition to being fun and full of good music, extremely powerful, both as a story of one man's long journey to finally accepting his own masculinity, and as an exploration of how music allows an individual to experiment with both self-concealment and self-revelation. The characters are beautifully 3 dimensional, and it ultimately provides that musical theater catharsis that MOULON ROUGE dropped in exchange for a schmaltzy, weepy ending too corny to be acceptable. It's a shame that the subject matter and lack of big stars will probably keep this movie in the cult and art house circuit, because it's some of the best and most exciting film making- and rock and roll- I've encountered in years.