The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)

The worldwide cultural hit that helped introduce LGBT themes to mainstream audiences. Not only did it encompass drag queens, transgenders and homosexuality, but bravely tackled deeply moving subjects including homophobia and cultural segregation. It's easy to class this as a comedy road trip, and on the surface it is, yet surprisingly the humour disguises a powerful drama within. Two drag queens and a transgender woman journey across the Australian outback, meeting various individuals along the way, to perform their drag act in a remote casino resort. The energy that keeps this narrative flourishing is the chemistry of the cast. If the friendships are non-existent then the darker subjects pack no emotional resonance. Fortunately, both the literal characters and the performances were exceptional. These three fully independent sassy "queens" each have their own personality when in the disguise of drag. Felicia becomes extremely flirtatious, this juxtaposes Bernadette's more withdrawn persona which in turn results in Mitzi being viewed as tawdry. It's a testament to the power of drag, being able to portray someone else that opposes their conventional behaviour, and the film captures that both elegantly and comedically. Weaving (consistently underrated), Pearce and Stamp all give outstanding performances. The costumes were illuminatingly vibrant, the utilisation of resplendent colours against the backdrop of the dusty outback made for many memorable moments, particularly when Felicia sings atop of Priscilla (the name of the bus they travel in). Whilst the story addresses homophobia, it would've benefited from more tender moments considering how well developed the characters are. Also, I saw the camera crew in various reflections, just took me out of the film occasionally. Despite these criticisms, Priscilla remains hilariously flamboyant, boasting a stupendous screenplay by Elliott and fantastic central performances, cementing this as the pinnacle of LGBT films.

Available on Blu-ray Disc (Region B)Australia 1994 English (Colour); Comedy/Drama/Musical/LGBTQ (PolyGram/Australian Film/Latent Image/Specific); 103 minutes (15 certificate)Crew includes: Stephan Elliott (Director/Screenwriter); Al Clark, Michael Hamlyn (Producers); Rebel Penfold-Russell (Executive Producer); Brian J. Breheny (Cinematographer); Owen Paterson (Production Designer); Sue Blainey (Editor); Guy Gross (Composer)Cast includes: Terence Stamp (Bernadette Bassenger), Hugo Weaving (Anthony "Tick" Belrose/Mitzi Del Bra), Guy Pearce (Adam Whitely/Felicia Jollygoodfellow), Bill Hunter (Bob), Julia Cortez (Cynthia), Sarah Chadwick (Marion Barber), Mark Holmes (Benjamin Barber)Academy Award: Costume Design (Lizzy Gardiner, Tim Chappel); BAFTA Awards (2): Costume Design (Gardiner, Chappel), Makeup/Hair; BAFTA nominations (5): Actor (Stamp), Original Screenplay, Cinematography, Production Design, Film Music; Golden Globe nominations (2): Picture - Musical/Comedy, Actor - Musical/Comedy (Stamp)"Finally, a comedy that will change the way you think, the way you feel, and most importantly... the way you dress."Two female impersonators (Weaving, Pearce) and a recently bereaved transsexual (Stamp) travel halfway across Australia on board a dilapidated bus christened "Priscilla," to perform their cabaret act at a remote casino, encountering absurd situations and individuals almost as nonconformist as they are.Stamp is amazing and totally credible in his quietly dignified transgender portrayal, as are Weaving and (especially) Pearce as "her" flamboyant, lip-synching (to a marvellously camp soundtrack featuring ABBA, Gloria Gaynor, Village People et al) drag queen companions.The gaudy, outrageous (and cheap) costumes won a well-deserved Oscar, and the photography of the barren, surreal landscape is masterful, as is Elliott's creative direction and hilarious, ultimately poignant script.Blu-ray Extras: Commentary, Documentary, Deleted Scenes, Interviews, Bloopers, Trailers. ***½ (7/10)

many superlatives have been thrown at this film, many sycophantic accolades. In my opinion, it is an attempt to cut through, a bold, and even adventurous exercise in film story telling. the sad reality is that it is a failure in honest theatrical terms.Like a sparkling cuvée, it is imbued with effervescent enthusiasm, but its pedigree lacks the finesse of the champagne it attempts to imitate, and, not surprisingly, it conveys very little taste.The direction is stilted and obvious, even clunky at times; the acting, with one, and occasionally two notable exceptions, rates from bold to over the top, and the dialogue suffers from poor scripting and unrefined delivery. Like many (alas too many) Australian films, it is a work based upon a script devoid of a good story, which is competently shot (although in this case containing some technical errors of judgement) but rather over enthusiastically played out. PQD is like the outpourings of an amateur theatre troupe, hell bent upon having fun, strutting their individual stuff, and playing for laughs.

If the makers of this film intended to show drag queens as vain, shallow, boring, and fundamentally insecure, they did a great job. Other than that, this movie was just ONE. BIG. DRAG. Maybe the problem is that it was mislabeled as a comedy, when it should have been marketed as a horror film. Because staring at Terence Stamp's face up close was absolutely horrifying. This movie, like its plot, got lost around midway and never quite found itself. I've seen worse, but I've DEFINITELY seen better. Check out Hedwig And The Angry Inch, for example. That movie was much better, and so was the acting and the direction.(10 line minimum, eh?) Well...that's abouttwo more linesthan this movie reviewdeserves.