The musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch passed over Memphis theaters quickly this year, but is available for rent now.
As I walked up and down the video store looking for something interesting to rent I came upon it. The cover of the DVD said if you liked Rocky Horror you would enjoy this movie. I also knew John Cameron Mitchell was up for best actor at The Golden Globes so I took the leap and rented it.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch is way beyond the before mentioned cult classic. This movie is more dynamic and intriguing. Both include original. catchy tunes and drag queens, but beyond that they are two entirely different things.
The off-Broadway musical of the same name was transformed into a movie by its writers. Writer and director John Cameron Mitchell and composer lyricist Stephen Trask brought the movie musical to the twenty-first century.
Hedwig Schmidt (John Cameron Mitchell) a German, transsexual rock singer who now lives in America tries to come to terms with her sexuality and homeland of East Berlin through her music. The political songs she sings and wrote in her trailer in Kansas hint to the fact that the separation of Germany is some how related to the botched sex change she received before coming to the U.S.-hence the angry inch.
In Hedwig’s life everything is related, including the fact that if God wouldn’t have made Eve from Adam, Hedwig would not be in the situation he now faces- finding his other half.
Hedwig’s band, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, follow the successful singer Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt) wherever he is performing.
Hedwig hates Tommy because she claims he stole everything he knows from her. She makes this known during the slide show she narrates which confuses the small town people who are eating at the restaurants and malls where the band performs.
Hedwig, although divorced from the man who brought her over from Germany, is married now to a fellow band member, Vitzhak. His life’s dream is to be Angel in Rent.
When Vitzhak gets the part, Hedwig stops him from leaving by ripping up his pass port in a very dramatic and emotional scene.
Vitzhak cries to Hedwig and begs her not to ruin his chance of being a drag queen, but Hedwig, in a controlling and sick way, ends up hurting her husband.
Mitchell portrays this role beautifully. Even though he lost the Golden Globe, he still needs to be recognized for doing such edgy material for screen.
The music not only helps tell the story, but also entertains the viewer with its comfortable rhythms and veracious lyrics.
It is not clear enough, since it is rock and roll, to just use the words. This is why drawings are used to share the story which is her life. Hedwig sings about looking for her other half who may have taken all of the good assets from her and whether she will like the guy once she meets him.
Her childhood, as flashbacks occur throughout the movie, seems to be a questionable time for Hedwig.
As she sang along to American radio, her mother made her keep her head in the oven. Although it does openly reveal it, she was molested by her father who was an American officer just like her first husband.
This off-beat story is quite entertaining, even if you are a homophobic viewer.
The music is more like a bunch of rock ballads than show tunes.
Surprisingly, Hedwig makes a very pretty girl even if she does have too much make-up on. Hedwig and the Angry Inch questions the validation of a livelihood most people do not understand, but after viewing it you have a much clearer understanding of this ridiculed group.
