So in the wake of my mockery of Justin and Kelly, I thought I’d try something even more risque. A misunderstood and often taboo topic, the DVDs this week are tranny-related: transvestic, transgender, transsexual (see dictionary for difference) — and they’re transportable as well!
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“The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” (1994), Australia
I was considering a lot of movies to do for this column, but I settled on “Priscilla, Queen of the Desert” largely because of the ridiculous, wonderful name. Released in 1994 in the land down under, “Priscilla” is the story of two drag queens and a transsexual woman making a road trip across the desert, combating homophobia and hate on their way. The film surprised many with its box office success worldwide and numerous award nominations. In a word, this film is charming.
Anthony Belrose (Hugo Weaving, “The Lord of the Rings”), or Mitzi Del Bra by his drag queen name, gets offered a cabaret gig at a resort town in the remote outback. After enlisting two fellow performers — a young, flamingly perky queen by the name of Adam, aka Felicia (Guy Pearce, “Memento”), and a world-weary transwoman, Bernadette (Terence Stamp, “Superman II”) — the trio embark on their journey in an old travel bus they paint pink and dub Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. However, each faces personal obstacles as well as the more general burden of being misunderstood and hated. They learn more about themselves and others than they thought they would as they ride across the sandy dunes.
The innumerous silly antics, witty banter, and “fabulous” drag acts that ensue are a riot. The three queens play off each other as gracefully as they dance and lip-sync their ABBA songs together. But more than the script, acting, costumes and choreography, the most amusing part of the film is witnessing Weaving — who has subsequently played V in “V for Vendetta,” an elf and a robot agent — completely in drag. Pearce is also hilarious when he’s all dolled up, but for some comical reason, it’s more suiting on him.
“Priscilla” is arguably a jocular, light “feel-good movie,” but it also ventures to some more serious depths with grace, especially as seen in Stamp’s portrayal of an aging transwoman letting go of her long-gone youth. It also makes a very powerful and humanizing statement about drag queens and other “freaks,” as it paints them as the thinking, feeling people they are.
Although some of the banter is either lost in unintelligible Australian accents or tranny jargon, the film is pleasantly absurd. If nothing else, the enormous wigs and sequined gowns to diva-rific tunes should sate your desire for amusement. Already somewhat of a cult classic, I suspect we haven’t seen the end of “Priscilla.”
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4 1/2 stars out of 5
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“The Birdcage” (1996)
Adapted from the French stage play, “The Birdcage” is an off-the-wall comedy about a gay couple who must play it straight while the parents of their son Val’s fiancee come to visit them. Making it worse? The fiancee’s father is an ultra-conservative, right-wing senator. And it doesn’t help that the gay couple actually lives above a drag club that they own and run in South Beach, Fla.
It’s this kind of movie that the main actors Robin Williams, and especially Nathan Lane, were meant to do. Their panic as they scramble to transform their apartment and themselves is hilarious, especially because they really do act like a long-time, devoted couple. Williams plays Val’s relatively straight-acting father, who reluctantly agrees to the madness, while Lane is a limp-wristed, drag-queen sissy who poses the biggest threat to exposing the family’s “moral bankruptcy.”
Though all the running around is amusing, the real riot erupts in the final act when the conservative parents of the fiancee, played by Gene Hackman and Dianne Wiest, arrive and the show starts. The awkward dialogue between the families is hilarious and tense, and as things go awry, everyone starts to drop their facade, culminating when Lane enters a scene cross-dressed as Val’s mother. All the players deliver the frenzied script wonderfully, with Wiest particularly great as the spotless, wholesome housewife prone to sputtering, “Oh, well isn’t that nice.”
While far from believable, “The Birdcage” is an electrifying, witty comedy that takes on controversial and political subject matter in a lackadaisical, mocking way. Quirky and loopy as it may be, the family values message is touching, potent and ironic. Though “The Birdcage” drags at times (pun unintended), and is overly stereotypical at others, it’s largely forgiven and forgotten in the gaiety, hilarity and peculiar wholesomeness of it all.
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4 stars out of 5
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Sadly both “Priscilla” and “The Birdcage” are old enough that the DVDs don’t have any comical special features — can you imagine the blooper reels? The latter, however, is on TV often, so watch for it.
For other promising tranny flicks, check out “Transamerica,” “Hedwig and the Angry Inch,” “The Rocky Horror Picture Show,” any of Eddie Izzard’s comedy shows and of course, “Mrs. Doubtfire.” For a really bad transvestic movie look no further than “White Chicks.”
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