Mutant Reviewers from Hell do "Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Mutant Reviewers from Hell do

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

"Now all I got is a Barbie doll crotch"

Summary Capsule

A little bit of botched surgery, a heaping portion of bitterness and pour in the rock 'n roll... Mmm! That's good Hedwig!

reviews

DnaError's Rating: Shtupendous! Mavhelous!
DnaError's Review: If jazz was once called "the dirty girl done good", then Rock can be called the villain at the end of the movie. No matter how many times you think it's dead, it pops up to headbang once again.

"It's funny, ironic, mournful, and truthful, and contains the best pure rock soundtrack of the last 10 years."
For a while in the late 90s, it appeared that rock might have finally bit the bullet. Gone was the abandon, the frenzy, the cathartic madness. We would have been forced to listen to empty, slick, dancable numbers forever if Hedwig hadn't reared his/her's blonde wig and shouted back the shake, rattle and roll back into rock.

First thing out of the way. Hedwig and the Angry Inch is *not* like Rocky Horror. Both have guys in drag and both have music, but exist on two entirely different planes. Rocky is a comedy, a naughty spoof that relishes in it's own brazenness. Hedwig however, is more like a tragic opera, swelling and bursting with pathos, love, obsession, and music. It's funny, ironic, mournful, and truthful, and contains the best pure rock soundtrack of the last 10 years.

What Hedwig accomplishes, what makes it great, is that it gets to the roots of artistic drive. At the beginning of drama, the worship of Dynosisis called the Dithrabum, called for screaming and tearing of hair, all to the achieve kathkos (where we get Catharsis) a purging of emotion and pain through large public ritual. Hedwig recreates this atmosphere with a whirlwind tour of pop-culture and American music, until it all reaches an operatic fever pitch. It's all so overpowering, so earnest, so up-front about love and desire, about art's role in passion, that by the end you want to scream out as well. Don't be scared off by the dresses, guys, this is a story that will cut you in two, about the most basic things in life. It also has a kicken soundtrack and moments of obsence hilarity. Hedwig creates the atmosphere of a rock concert playing directly to you, a modern dithrabum of one. What more can you ask of art?

extras

The Scoop

[rating]
R

[year]
2001

[genre]
Rock Drama

[director]
John Cameron Mitchell

[starring]
John Cameron Mitchell
Michael Pitt
Miriam Shor
Stephen Trask

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Didja Notice? [some sources: IMDb]

The date that Hedwig and Tommy are arrested for the accident is shown on the arrest photo as 8-13-01, exactly 40 years after the Berlin wall was erected.
During the "Wig in the Box" song, when Hedwig picks up the photo of herself as a young boy off a book, the books title can be seen as "Edge of Awareness".
Hedwig's cape in the title sequence mimics the Berlin wall, complete with "Yankees go home" graffiti on Hedwig's right side and "With me" on Hedwig's left side.
During one scene, Yitzak comes in wearing a chef's hat with Hebrew letters on it. Instead of these letters being a real Hebrew word, it is "chef" written with Hebrew letters instead of English.
The story depicted in the song "Origin of Love" is taken almost literally from Plato's famous dialogue, Symposium.

Is It Worth Staying Through End Credits?

We have no idea (but we'll let you know soon!)

Intermission! [some sources: IMDb]

The original stage version played Off-Broadway at the Jane Street Theatre for over two years.

The footage of Hedwig on "The Rosie O'Donnell Show" was shot when "Hedwig and the Angry Inch" was just an off-broadway musical as a promotion for the show. When Rosie holds up the Hedwig CD, it is a copy of the original Broadway cast recording.

Official and Not-So-Official Websites

Hedwig Official Site

Capes: The mark of a renaissance festival geek.

Groovy Quotes

Hedwig: My sex change operation got botched; my guardian angel fell asleep on the watch; now all I got is a Barbie doll crotch; I've got an angry inch!

Hedwig: I had tried singing once and they threw tomatoes so after the show I had a nice salad.

Hedwig: That song was by a young mister Kurt Cobain - now that kid's got a future!

Tommy: Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour?
Hedwig: No, but I love his work.

Hedwig: How many times do I have to tell you? You don't put a bra in a dryer! It warps!

Hedwig: How did some slip of a girly boy from communist East Berlin become the internationally ignored song stylist barely standing before you?

Hedwig: I got kicked out of university after delivering a brilliant lecture on the aggressive influence of German philosophy on rock and roll entitled "You, Kant, Always Get What You Want".

Hedwig: To be free, one must give up a part of oneself.

Hansel's Mom: Absolute power corrupts.
Hansel (6 Years Old): Absolutely.
Hansel's Mom: Better to be powerless, my son.

If you liked this movie, try these:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show

Boys Don't Cry

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