Hurricane Bianca

If you're in a tolerant state of mind, this movie is fun, fluffy and white.

First I have to say we LOVE Bianca! She's simply in a class of her own and one of the most profound talents of our age. As soon as the movie was available on iTunes we bought it and nestled in for a romp of bawdy, offensive comedy. Thrilling at the thought that the movie would finally propel this amazing entertainer forward.

Hmm, well I'll explain the five stars. The movie was tame. Those who love Bianca for her dry humour and scathing wit will, I feel, be a little disappointed. The script is not as you'd expect and the funniest moments are shown in the trailers. So for a thrill ride of offensive one liners you'd have to look elsewhere.

However when you look at it as a low budget first movie, then it is awesome! So here lies the problem. Not what you expect but still very watchable. The criticism of ray as himself are pointless. That's the point of the movie. To expose the prejudice against us gays by the establishment. If Ray had been a wisecracking, bitter queen there would be no need for Bianca to rise from pits of hell.

Willam was not able to keep up with Shangela who proved herself to be a great actor /actress. Unfortunately Willam was uncomfortable to watch. Compared to his stage persona (which is inspirational) his role was more bleh than wow.

All in all, expect little and you'll receive a lot. Expect a Bianca bitch fest and you'll be left unsatisfied. This is a great movie and I'll watch it again and again. It's subtle and tells a good story ... And it tells it well. That's the surprise!

To be honest the biggest fail is the script and the soundtrack. The incidental effects and music drown out much of the dialogue and that was a devastating shame.

When all is said and done though, I'll be first in the queue for the sequel!

The premise: a meek substitute teacher with biting wit named Richard leaves behind his life in New York, consisting of drag queen besties and failing careers in both comedy and education, for a permanent science teaching position at a high school in a super conservative small town in Texas, only to be fired within a week when the principal finds out he is gay. Knowing that Texas has laws in place that allow workplace discrimination against members of the LGBTQIA+ community and that a lawsuit would be unsuccessful as a result, Richard hits a bar outside of town where an angel of mercy, in the form of a trans woman named Karma, offers Richard a place to stay and takes him to a drag show that same night. There, Richard gets drunk, puts on campy drag makeup, hijacks the show by attacking the featured drag queen with insults and is ultimately a hit among the crowd. Thus, Bianca Del Rio is created and an elaborate prank commences. Disguised as Bianca, Richard is rehired at the high school and everyone there, staff and students, are none the wiser. Bianca catches the eye of a handsome but not too bright football coach, and, after receiving a nomination for a Teacher of the Year award, becomes targeted by a very jealous teacher and her family. Hijinks ensue.

If you are a fan of Bianca Del Rio, or just want to stay in one Saturday and take in a popcorn movie, this is a good film to watch. It's really important that you don't take the film too seriously, because it's camp to the core, played mainly for laughs with profanity and just a tiny bit of gross-out humor thrown in. The film plays more like a chain of situations (a couple of which are pretty implausible) illustrated through a raunchy cartoon than a movie with a message (the message is there, though). Many of the characters, in addition to several being needlessly cruel, are quite dim-witted and fall for the ruse immediately without ever bothering to do a background check on Bianca, though watching her consistently combat their stupidity with her trademark wit is pretty entertaining. That said, the movie doesn't serve as the biggest and best showcase for her talents (for that, you must take in a live show the next time she is in your town; I can tell you myself she is excellent live and even more consistently takes down her hecklers with her brand of biting humor), but fans will enjoy not only her in the starring role but also a slew of cameos from RuPaul's Drag Race alumni (Bianca herself won the sixth season), as well as RuPaul himself in an out-of-drag appearance.

Technically speaking, the movie is amateurish, it is mostly noticeable at the start of the film, Alan Cumming almost feel out of context since he is a great actor, but as the movie keeps going, it simply keeps getting better and better, all the plot points tie up in the end, so the weakness of the script at the beginning as well as the film school shots, eventually turn into something good and then great, I do not know why or how this happened, but this is a film that improves as it goes just as much as its lead character. Overall it was a feel good, great movie, with a useful social commentary and with memorable supporting characters.

Hurricane Bianca is a timely, well written and directed comedy production that both explores and envisions the world in which society and our leading character is 'trans'forming in the modern era. Without delving too much into the plot (the narrative follows the traditional hero's journey of our protagonist teacher Richard who is looking to find his place in romance, work and sense of self), everything in this production was well executed - from the script, to the direction, the acting, editing, music, costume design and cinematography.

The jokes were precisely on point, and what every audience member has been waiting for -witty without being crass, tasteful and topical. But more than anything, it is the themes and the outcome of the film which make this production a 10/10. Depicting the plight many members of the LGBTQI community feel and experience has and is complicated to represent to superficially. Usually LGBTQI films are geared towards one of two target markets - the gay or the straight - each having their own set of media conventions in which the narrative is able to be told. But Hurricane Bianca moves beyond the narrow conventions of one sort or the other, catering beyond the constricted, in a beautifully feminine production, without being obnoxiously or expectedly feminist.

Hurricane Bianca doesn't stop there. The film both employs and transcends the clichés of your typical American comedy flick in a way that captivates your attention - despite any prethought you may have had about this generally shallow genre. However using stereotypes was at an advantage to this universal flick, which both holds and is a mirror of life in the 21st century outside of this viewing space. At an 84 minute runtime, hero's arc narrative, its collection of disposable and stereotypical characters, the film uses conventions of the familiar to comfort the audience who is about to confront topics which have been all too easy to brush under the carpet. In a world where same sex marriage divides our social structure based on tradition, definition, morals and values this film gives us all a friendly reminder that hey, slow down, these are issues are actually faced by our communities today, and look what happens when we a)forget prejudice, b) take a chance and trust people in society, c) allow ourselves to be who we really want and ought to be and d)for just a moment or 84, live in a world where this is not the ideal, but the norm.

Hurricane Bianca is a masterful, well crafted and beautifully presented depiction of the human struggle of self and sexual acceptance that all audience members are able to relate to, and reflect upon. With an all star cast of Drag royalty, this film lifts the bar in professionalism, witticism and exposition of the struggle that is very, very real.