Hedwig - La diva con qualcosa in più

Tard to follow (at times) but fascinating story about a transsexual rock singer named Hedwig and her quest for fame, fortune and love. Impossible to describe, but a pleasure to watch. Never stops moving and extremely well-directed by John Cameron Mitchell (who also gives a wonderful performance as Hedwig). The songs are loud and good, performed with gusto and tons of energy. A rare Hollywood film that doesn't play it safe with its sexual content and doesn't wimp out at the end. A one of a kind film and well worth seeing.

Without gushing, I think that this is the best film to come out of the US in several years. This is the type of movie which demands repeated viewing, and reveals itself a little each time. I'm surprised that the genius of this film didn't receive more accolades at the time, but I attribute that to the socially acceptable restraints of the mass culture.

Absolutely perfect production from top to bottom, makes you laugh out loud... then tears your heart out & puts it back in again. Multi layered & symbolic throughout.

Songwriting by Stephen Trask is sublime. But how the hell can a clown like Eminem get an Oscar & this guy was virtually ignored?! Sickening thought. Cameron Mitchell must have been born for this part... a brave & charismatic perf.

This movie achieves everything that "Velvet Goldmine" (yuck) could not... in a fraction of the time.

Anyway, anyone who's got a little freak in them will love this movie. And those who don't "get it" should be content watching the rest of American mass market trash cinema.

No matter how much I do praise it, I'll end up turning people against it. But, let me ask you: what were you expecting when you first heard of Hedwig and the Angry Inch? It's been billed as a punk rock musical about a transsexual from East Germany who was duped into coming to live in a trailer park in Kansas City. So what was I expecting? A gay camp film. I had no doubts that it would be anything else. And that's not to say that I wouldn't have enjoyed a gay camp movie. After all, I liked Moulin Rouge. But I got a surprise that was entirely unexpected: what I experienced was the best new film I had seen in years. And I mean that. Hedwig and the Angry Inch is equally hilarious and touching. Not that I want to spread cliches, but I seriously laughed and I seriously cried, often simultaneously. This manages to be the best American comedy since, damn, Preston Sturges was still writing and directing. It's easily the best movie musical since Cabaret. It's also one of the most heartfelt and passionate dramas, and one of the best character studies I've ever seen. Along with that, John Cameron Mitchell delivers a performance that perhaps hasn't been equalled since, I don't know, Robert DeNiro in Raging Bull, which might be the ultimate cinematic character study. I shouldn't say that, because it might hint that Hedwig is a dark character, but, well, I'd call her just a great protagonist. She's a heroine, especially to anyone experiencing sexual confusion, but even to me, a straight, Midwestern boy. Hedwig is a heroine for anyone who's ever felt that they've been treated like crap their entire life. I wanted to clap for and support Hedwig emotionally throughout the entire film. In short, Hedwig is a character I deeply loved, equal to just a few other characters I've met throughout my extensive journeys in the cinema. Parallel to a situation in the film, if I should ever see John Cameron Mitchell on the street, I'd have to hug him.

I also have another heap of praise that I have to go through before I am done. I've always thought that movie musicals adapted from stage plays were the death of the genre. Only a few exceptions ever seemed more than unimaginative, slavish films that worked only to bring Broadway to an audience who could or would never visit NYC. Cabaret was the one big exception that I had seen previously, but you also hear West Side Story mentioned as being a great film. But, in adapting a stage play for the screen, I always expect the film to seem stranded on stage. To boot, Hedwig had another mark against it: the director, Mitchell again, had never directed a film before. Well, I really don't know what training he had in the art, but it must have been enough. The cinematic art, at least the visual aspect of it, has nearly been forgotten in the 1990s and 2000s, but John Cameron Mitchell creates a visual tour de force as much as he does one of writing and acting. I love the scene where Hedwig the adult reminisces about how his mother forced him to put his head in the oven if he wanted to sing when he was a child. And Hedwig and the Angry Inch's (that's the band's name as well as the film's) appearance outside the Menses Festival next to the port-o-potties. A goth chick, who presumably didn't have tickets for the actual Menses Festival, watches the band in deep curiosity and confusion; Hedwig invites the girl to sit up on stage with her while she relates her past. I also love the sequence where the American G.I. discovers him laying naked in rubble. Hedwig's original name was Hansel, which leads to one of the funniest jokes I can ever recall seeing. Or how about the scene where Hedwig, when babysitting, discovers Tommy, the future rock star who steals all her songs, masturbating in the bath tub? That scene is handled so well that I almost died laughing. To tell you the truth, I don't think there is anything ostensibly wrong with the film, period. I just wanted to talk about the amazing direction because the one review of it I have on hand says "the direction can't help from being flat." FLAT? How can you say that it is flat? PS: The animated number and the song that goes along with it is adapted from Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium, about which I wrote my senior thesis in college. The rock star's stage name, Gnosis, is Ancient Greek for "knowledge," which Hedwig actually says in the film. One of the filmmakers must have learned Ancient Greek at some point in his life. Bravo, good sirs.

A true Rock Opera! Not for the small minded. Every song is amazing and wonderful - Origin of Love - is one of the best songs of our time. The illustrated mini-movies through out the movie truly enhance it. Beautiful and tragic. Unlike anything else, Rocky Horror pales in comparison. Amazing performances! I loved this movie! Hedwig is a truly beautiful and twisted character. This movie explains how someone gets to a very unusual point in their life. This movie shows that human beings have faults, emotion, love, anger and strife, no matter what their sex is, or how unusual they seem. The costumes are amazing and the sets rock. All around magic.

Already the winner of numerous awards including the Audience and Director awards at Sundance, this is the film of an original stage musical comedy that played off Broadway for over two years. It centres on Hedwig, whose only way of escaping from East Berlin is to undergo a sex-change and assume his mother's identity. Unfortunately the operation goes wrong and he is left with an `angry inch'. Escaping to America, he forms a rock band whilst seeking the soul partner that will fulfil his destiny. Loaded with songs that you will be humming all the way out of the cinema, Hedwig and the Angry Inch is the funniest, most outrageously entertaining movie of its kind since Rocky Horror. Unlike Rocky Horror, it does have some more serious philosophical reflections built into it (mostly via the songs), but it rocks, kicks ass and injects some seriously funny pizzaz into the transgender scene. I had the advantage not only of seeing the UK stage version a few days after the film, but also hearing the director speak about his work at the UK premiere. As a first time film effort it's quite an accomplishment, but as Cameron also played Hedwig in the stage version he had a starter for ten. On the down-side, the film is probably better on second or third viewing, when all the pieces would fit into place, and towards the end there is a tendency to tell the story only in songs and so at the expense of any serious script writing. But still it's a must-see movie.