Hedwig and The Angry Inch [MA]

Born a boy in Communist East Berlin, Hansel makes the ultimate trans-gender transformation to get into the USA and becomes Hedwig, an acid-tongued and internationally ignored neo-punk glam rocker. Stranded in a Kansas trailer park, bitter and broke, Hedwig puts on her best wig, makeup, and heels and goes on the road, touring America with her band, The Angry Inch. 

A bit Rocky Horror, and a bit Tommy, Hedwig and The Angry Inch is a different and interesting film filled with great glam style, and memorable, original rock songs. 

Born a boy in Communist East Berlin, Hansel makes the ultimate trans-gender transformation to get into the USA and becomes Hedwig, an acid-tongued and internationally ignored neo-punk glam rocker. Stranded in the middle of a Kansas trailer park, butter and broke, Hedwig puts on her best wig, makeup, and heels and hits the road, touring America with her band, The Angry Inch, so named after Hedwig’s botched trans-gender operation. 

This film was both enticing and repellent for a number of reasons. The slightly repellent part of the movie was its story. Basically the film chronicles the life of Hedwig and how she (or rather, he) became a woman of the stage. Running parallel to this story of history, there is a current story that depicts the battle and rivalry between Hedwig and another rock god, who is having major hits with songs that Hedwig herself wrote when they knew each other. Each story is not hugely interesting and if it wasn’t for the beautiful and magnificently lyrical rock songs that feature so heavily in this film, I probably would have turned the entire thing off. 

Unpleasantness aside, the film’s major upshot is its soundtrack. A little like Tommy, though with a fairer amount of dialogue throughout, quite a substantial amount of the film’s power and enticement comes in the form of the songs that Hedwig and The Angry Inch sing. Each song tells a different story from different stages of Hedwig’s life and each is wonderfully infectious and lyrical. The mixture of these powerful glam rock songs and the animation that the film also uses gives, Hedwig and The Angry Inch the potential to be a cult classic and I’m assuming, as there was an assortment of fans of the band, there are people out there who really, really love this film. 

Backed up by a wonderful performance from John Cameron Mitchell, and starring Miriam Short, Stephen Trask, Theodore Liscinski, Rob Campbell, Michael Aronov, and Andrea Martin, Hedwig and The Angry Inch is a different and surprisingly enticing little film that’s filled with drama, music, glamorous outfits, and intriguing characters. I didn’t think it was the greatest achievement in cinematic history, but it’s definitely worth watching, particularly if you like gender-bending and drag-queen-esque films.