The off-Broadway rock musical that pushes off from a botched sex-change operation is sweet dynamite on film.
Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)
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Reviews Counted:92
Fresh:86
Rotten:6
Average Rating:7.8/10
Consensus: Hedwig and the Angry Inch may very well be the next Rocky Horror midnight movie. It not only knows how to rock, but Hedwig's story has an emotional poignancy.
Runtime: 1 hr 35 mins
Genre: Musical & Performing Arts
Synopsis: John Cameron Mitchell is the creator of the off-Broadway hit HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, which he and composer-lyricist Stephen Trask have transformed into a funny, dramatic, and curiously poignant... John Cameron Mitchell is the creator of the off-Broadway hit HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH, which he and composer-lyricist Stephen Trask have transformed into a funny, dramatic, and curiously poignant self-described "post-punk neo-glam musical" film, with extra songs and a new instrumental score. Hedwig (played by Mitchell) was born as Hansel in East Berlin. In his twenties, Hansel agrees to undergo a sex change in order to marry a U.S. soldier (Maurice Dean Wint) and escape to America. Unfortunately, the procedure fails, and Hedwig is left with nothing but a sexless "angry inch" between her legs. After being abandoned in a Kansas trailer park by her husband, Hedwig decides to make the most of her situation: She develops a taste for outrageous wigs and costumes, forms a band, and becomes a singer. Hedwig soon meets and falls in love with 17-year-old Tommy (Michael Pitt), who also harbors rock star aspirations, and makes him her musical protégé. But Tommy is the one who ends up stealing the superstardom that Hedwig worked for, after stealing Hedwig's songs and claiming them as his own. In order to expose him as a fraud, she embarks on a tour of strip mall restaurants, telling her story to the audience while trailing Tommy on his own tour across America. [More]
Starring: John Cameron Mitchell, Miriam Shor, Stephen Trask, Theodore Liscinski
Starring: John Cameron Mitchell, Miriam Shor, Stephen Trask, Theodore Liscinski, Rob Campbell, Michael Aronov, Andrea Martin, Alberta Watson, Michael Pitt, Star, Maurice Dean Wint, Ben Mayer-Goodman
Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Director: John Cameron Mitchell
Screenwriter: John Cameron Mitchell
Producer: Christine Vachon, Pamela Koffler, Katie Roumel
Composer: Stephen Trask
Studio: Fine Line Features
Reviews for Hedwig and the Angry Inch
Strange, how the movie seems to be loud, flashy and superficial, and yet gives a deeper dimension to its characters.
While Hedwig occasionally lapses into a kind of pop sappiness, it's also upfront about all that, declaring its faith in the mythology of love, its capacity to 'create something that wasn't there before.'
It does things that only the movies can do, and it does them with an abundance of wit, irony and energy.
This summer's best screen heroine, feisty, funny and wigged out -- literally.
Almost guaranteed to amass a cult following as it makes its way across U.S. theaters during its national release.
Hedwig is a force of nature, burned out and jaded yet brimming with compassion and bursting with energy.
A bit of Zeus' myth, a tad of Freud, everything but the kitchen sink.
Has a kind of self-deprecating, low-budget charm that's ideal for the material.
The rock score by Stephen Trask that dominates most of the film is loud and unbearable.
A rock 'n' roll movie that remembers what it's like to truly rock and roll.
Thanks to Mitchell's electrifying work in front of and behind the camera, you'll find yourself falling in love with this rock odyssey.
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