Ummm...wow!

Rating: 10/10 (3 August 2001)

I am so happy to see a certain trend that is slowly evolving. The movie musical...IS...REBORN!!! The most popular genre since the beginning of sound in motion pictures gave a last, dying cough in 1972 with "Cabaret", and then died. Since then, we were reduced to musical films that, although they were good at best, could not really be classified as "a classic". Then, when "Evita" came out in 1996, we started seeing the hand of the movie musical burst through its grave. Now, the musical has stood up, brushed itself off, and is back!!!
"Hedwig and the Angry Inch" is the latest in a string of wonderfully new and inventive movie musicals that started with the aforementioned "Evita" and "Everyone Says I Love You", and have evolved into "O Brother, Where Art Thou?", "Dancer in the Dark", and "Moulin Rouge". Now, we have Hedwig, an East Berlin transvestite rock singer. Bold. Defiant. Yet very vulnerable. Hedwig (played with true gusto by the writer/director John Cameron Mitchell) is not only the most sympathetic character this year, but oddly enough, the character that audiences can most identify with.
Hedwig and her phallic symbol band will never reach the big time because all of the songs that she wrote were stolen by new rock idol Tommy Gnosis, who was a former lover. Instead, she is forced to play at Bilgewater's all over the country. Still, although she has been thrown away, she still rocks, rolls, and really knows how to please a crowd.
And so does this movie. It is an interesting blend of musical numbers, flashbacks, animated sequences, and, just when you think the movie could not get any more interesting, a sing-along. And although I hate to admit it, at the bottom of my breath, I was singing the words. I could not help it. Stephen Trask's songs are infectious. They get inside of you and bring you into the story.
In short, you should go see the movie just to hear the amazing songs...and see the wonderful performances from Mitchell and newcomers Miriam Shor and Michael Pitt...and the incredible style from Mitchell's directorial debut...and...well, you get the picture. Just see the movie.