Hedwig and the Angry Inch

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Hedwig and the Angry Inch

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Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Alberta Watson, Andrea Martin, Ben Maver-Goodman, John Cameron Mitchell, Maurice Dean Wint, Michael Pitt, Miriam Shor, Rob Campbell, Stephen Trask

Hedwig was born a boy named Hansel in Communist East Berlin who dreamed of finding his other half and becoming a big American rock star. When a handsome American GI promises love and liberation, it se...( read more  read more... )ems like a dream come true. But there's a catch-in order to marry and emigrate Hansel must "leave a little something behind." Hedwig survives a botched sex change operation that leaves her with an "angry inch" only to be stranded in a Kansas trailer park the very day the Berlin Wall comes down. Undeterred, Hedwig dons immaculate makeup and a Farrah Fawcett wig and forms a rock band-The Angry Inch. While supporting herself with babysitting gigs, she falls for a 16-year-old Jesus freak she renames Tommy Gnosis. Tommy steals her songs and becomes the rock star Hedwig always dreamed she'd be. Refusing to be defeated, she fiercely performs in crumbling theme restaurants seeking recognition, retribution, and reconciliation with her other half.

Id: 10897624

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Recent Reviews

Hedwig and the Angry Inch Recent Reviews
  • SirPant
    September 18, 2009
    SirPant
    This is a great film! Watch the DVD because the documentary on the history of the theatre production is almost as good as the film itself! Brilliant and very funny!
  • flixsterman
    February 22, 2009
    flixsterman
    I honestly thought I was going to hate this film. A friend of mine convinced me to rent it and frankly, after reading the synopsis, I was prepared to send it back unopened. I am so glad I didn't. This is a wonderful film. It reminds me of All About My Mother but it's a...( read more) little more edgy and a lot more in-your-face. Yes, I really couldn't identify with the lifestyles, but that's part of the beauty of film. It allows us to get inside the head of diverse characters and in the end we discover that we're not so different after all.
  • EarthlyAlien
    September 24, 2008
    EarthlyAlien
    Amazing. Wildly witty, but also inventive, audacious and poignant. So well-written and acted that it can fairly be considered the only film capable of reaching Rocky Horror Picture Show cult status. Finally, an awesome musical for Rock fans! Bravo, Mr. John Cameron Mitchel...( read more)l, bravo!
  • Stinger839
    September 19, 2008
    Stinger839
    Most overrated binary-biased queer film since....well it's still at the top. And good thing Mitchell moved on to work like Shortbus. It's a mirror image of how Neil Jordan did the (second) most (to Boys Don't Cry) binary-affirming ignorant view of trans people with Crying Game, ...( read more)and then struck brilliance years later with "Breakfast on Pluto". I guess you have to make mistakes in understanding your themes as well as implementing your film techniques (at least cinematography in this can't be slagged). Hedwig gave Mitchell a career, but should it have done? Based on story and acting, absolutely not. Based on his eye - maybe okay for the mainstream festivals, but not a trophy film that is touted to be.
  • lyndsiekivell
    June 25, 2008
    lyndsiekivell
    This movie was brilliant. The lyrics of the songs were better than most music today. Almost up there with Rufus Wainwright. Almost! The characters were meaty and the storyline compelling. Truly a brilliant film! I want the soundtrack!
  • ythelastman89
    November 18, 2009
    ythelastman89
    Probably the only musical that I consider a great movie. It succeeds in giving the music a symbolic and expressive role in the storytelling. John Cameron Mitchell gave an amazing performance as well as a masterpiece bit of directing. Michael Pitt also did a great job at playing s...( read more)uch a naive yet wise role and the same time. I don't think it's possible to hate this movie.
  • ahhh1989
    October 27, 2009
    ahhh1989
    So full of life, love, heart, soul, and energy. John Cameron Mitchell is definitely a filmmaker to keep an eye on! This really is a masterpiece. It works perfectly as a musical, a period piece, and a gay-themed film.
  • anastasia57001
    October 23, 2009
    anastasia57001
    Absolutely magnificent in any way -- and you can't help falling in love with the soundtrack. features some pretty fucked-up, visceral rock n'roll, the way rock n'roll is supposed to be. simply brilliant !!!!!!

    P.S. Notes on the Soundtrack:
    If the "Origin of Love"doesn't make you...( read more) wanna sing or "the angry inch" probe you to dance and jump till you break your neck... then there must be absolutely someting wrong with you. LoL
  • magnolia12883
    October 20, 2009
    magnolia12883
    Writer-director John Cameron Mitchell's self-proclaimed "post-punk neo-glam rock musical" is more visually alive, musically delightful, hilarious and, ultimately, profoundly moving than we could ever have anticipated. Mitchell stars as Hedwig, the leader of a would-be punk band c...( read more)alled The Angry Inch (named for the aftermath of a botched surgery) which is touring the U.S. salad bar/family restaurant circuit via a franchise called Bilgewater's, stalking Hedwig's successful one-time protege Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt of Larry Clark's "Bully"). Hedwig is flanked, as always, by her manager and would-be conscience Phyllis Stein (Andrea Martin), without whom Hedwig might be just as lost as ever. Via flashbacks, we learn that Hedwig was born in Communist East Berlin and raised during the lead-up to the destruction of the Berlin Wall, that he was in fact once called Hansel, a "slip of a girly-boy" who met a big, black American GI named Luther and decided to have a sex-change in order to get married, that she was raised on music by the likes of David Bowie and Iggy Pop (among many others) before growing to so love their sound that she would try to make a living out of emulating or copying it. The tale of Hedwig's would-be rise and quick downfall is punctuated particularly by the introduction of Tommy Gnosis (Pitt), an uninspired and unoriginal "Jesus freak" turned rock musician who, somewhat ironically, steals Hedwig's songs and becomes an international superstar with them. This turns Hedwig into a bitter, mean-spirited, acid-tongued viper even toward her disillusioned "husband" and band-mate Yitzhak (actress Miriam Shor, wearing a convincing beard), an aspiring "Rent"-cast member in the making. In a sense, this film has a character at its center with the unconventional sexuality and self-absorbed, egotistical nature of a Fassbinder heroine ("The Bitter Tears of Petra Von Kant" came to mind on occasion). Mitchell's performance as Hedwig/Hansel is one that is at times repugnant, often funny, and ultimately quite moving. The film, based on the 1997 Off-Broadway musical, seems inspired as much by the musical influences of the character as by other glam rock musicals like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" (1975). Mitchell, working with cinematographer Frank G. DeMarco, seems to have been utterly cut loose with his visual style here: they employ a hyperkinetic camera, occasionally frenetic editing, even animation (as in the heartwrenching and funny number "Origin of Love") - there's even a dreamy shot from Hedwig's POV where he jumps off a stage, floats improbably straight and seemingly forever above the crowd, and the whole time the sides of a wig can be seen on the edges of the frame. The songs, by Mitchell and Stephen Trask (who plays one of the band mates), are often hilarious, sometimes poignant, always entertaining - from the fun "Wig in a Box" to the sad "Midnight Radio," from the hilariously furious "Angry Inch" to the eerie "Wicked Little Town." Ultimately, this is a film about a journey of self-discovery - although Hedwig seems unaware of the journey she's on for most of the film's running time. It's about discovering who or what you are and being it, finding your place in the world and embracing it - not just for Hedwig, but for everyone. This was one of the year's most entertaining and, in fact, best films.
  • graveling861
    October 5, 2009
    graveling861
    I thought this was kinda overrated the first time and years later...I think the same. It has enjoyable moments and some good music but I think it gets overly caught up in being artistic, especially towards the very end.
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