THIS IS THE STORY OF HEDWIG, AN AMBITIOUS GLAM-ROCKER WHO COMES TO AMERICA DETERMINED TO FIND FAME, FORTUNE AND HIS OTHER HALF.Sometimes grace and hope come in surprising packages. The title character of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a would-be glam-rock star from East Germany, undergoes a botched gender-change operation in order to escape from the Soviet bloc, only to watch the Berlin Wall come down on TV after being abandoned in a trailer park in middle America. Hedwig gets involved with Tommy, an adolescent boy who steals her songs and becomes a stadium-filling musical act. Suffering from a broken heart and a lust for revenge, Hedwig follows Tommy’s tour, playing with her band (the Angry Inch) at tacky theme restaurants. Into this simple storyline, writer-director-star John Cameron Mitchell packs an astonishing mix of sadness, yearning, humor, and kick-ass songs with a little Platonic philosophy tucked inside for good measure. A visually dazzling gem of a movie. –Bret Fetzer
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May 13, 2008
#1
This is, without a doubt, the worst movie I have ever seen. Aside from lacking completely in worthwhile dialogue and storyline, this movie is blunt and disturbing for the sheer sake of it! I don’t understand why this movie ever go past step pre-production. Unless you feel the need to be horribly repulsed and to enjoy pissing away your money, do not even consider this horrible excuse for a movie!
May 13, 2008
#2
This movie was the biggest waste of money! I actually threw my copy away. Seriously, don’t waste your time and money! It’s not worth it!!!
May 13, 2008
#3
Did I see the same film as the rest of the reviewers? This is overblown tripe without even the saving grace of decent music. You don’t care about any of the characters, and the only positive feeling I experienced in the whole movie was a warm sense of satisfaction when it finally finished.
Mitchell beats you over the head with trite metaphors until your ears bleed – just count how many times Hedwig says he was born in a divided city!
If this is the rebirth of the musical, God help us. Give me Busby Berkeley and “Singing in the Rain” any day.
May 13, 2008
#4
Had I been able to cut out the acted scenes and listen, sans picture, to just the music, I’d have rather enjoyed this strange little picture. Alas, since I am not locked in eternal angst over my sexuality, nor am I fond of indulgent, homoerotic navel-gazing, I couldn’t get into “Hedwig and the Angry Inch”. Obviously, there is a niche audience for this sort of material, and no doubt that niche adored Hedwig. For the rest of us who politely sat through this flick on behalf of wives/girlfriends… Well, what can I say?
May 13, 2008
#5
John Cameron Mitchell’s stage show was infinitely better than this poorly directed version. It’s self-aggrandizement to the nth degree. What do all the meaningful looks actually mean when one character sings to another? What is Andrea Martin as the Agent doing in the movie? Her character’s actions make no sense. Why should we care about Hedwig? At least with the stage show you have the raw excitiment of live theatre, and you develop a rapport with Hedwig; however, here, it feels as though Mitchell just wanted to toot his own egohorn. It’s just plain bad storytelling.