Exhilarating. Hilarious. Heartbreaking. Visionary. Ferocious. Moving. Just plain fucking genius. There really aren't enough superlatives in the English language to describe how great Hedwig and the Angry Inch is. No, I never got a chance to see the stage show, but the movie is one of my all-time favorites -- one of the best rock-and-roll films ever made.
As wonderfully fiery as the upbeat material is that John Cameron Mitchell wrote for Hedwig, it's always been the ballads that just leave me awestruck. Here now, two of them -- basically the end of the movie.
First up, what I think is honest-to-God a near-perfect song. It's the gorgeous Wicked Little Town.
And of course, the film's crescendo -- Midnight Radio.
Friday, January 22, 2010
Listening Post
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17 comments:
My metalhead brother put that movie on over the holidays when we were visiting our mom. I was always curious about it, but it was far more amazing than I had ever imagined. No wonder he was so obsessed with playing it.
Yes! Such an under-recognized film! John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask couldn't have put together a more perfect movie. And writing, directing, and starring in it? JCM outdid himself.
I saw this live at Playhouse on the Square in Memphis and it was awesome -- even without the original cast.
I LOVE Wicked Little Town. It's one of those songs that works its way into my subconscious and I end up singing it in bits and pieces for days. Although, I like the clip that starts with Kwang Ye. :)
This is completely what I needed on a Friday morning. I have to go find "Wig in a Box" and "The long grift" now. Thanks Chez.
I saw the stage show after I saw the movie, and much preferred the movie. It could be a shoddy production I saw, but the movie just made it much easier to follow what was happening.
No Origin of Love?
His follow-up, Short Bus, was also enjoyable.
Hooray! I finally saw Hedwig for the first time a few months ago, and listened to the soundtrack pretty much nonstop until my life was filled with awesome.
YES! The music from that show/film is just fantastic.
I've never seen it staged, but it really is a brilliant little movie.
Oh thank you! I'm going to send these round to my pals today, but I'm including Origin of Love too. That song KILLS me.
Once again, another reason why I love coming to your blog. A meeting of the minds. I saw the original off-broadway show and I have to say JCM really did a great job of translating it into a movie. Both were great for different reasons.
I saw Hedwig in Germany many years ago, awesome movie. Thanks for the reminder Chez.
Origin. Of. Love.
The theatre in Austin where I worked at the time staged the musical with JCM's own Hedwig understudy.
Our staging was absolutely top-notch, but the performances by the NYC cast mingled with our local cast & band was stellar.
I love this movie! Thank you for giving it props.
One of my favorite movies. I haven't seen it in over a year. Thanks for posting.
Yeah... it goes from being silly, flippant, fun to punching you in the gut... back and forth... such a good movie.
The handing off of the wig in Midnight Radio totally just chokes me up.
Agree 100%. Strange thing is I much prefer the Tommy Gnosis version of Wicked Little Town to Hedwigs. But Tommy was still a bastard - stole Hedwigs shit and laughed all the way to the bank.
Yeah, our tastes are usually fairly similar, but with this film (never saw play and got only 1/2 way through movie), I was left only with the immortal words of Josh Baskin: "I don't get it."
Thanks for opening my eyes to this. I Don't know how I missed this when it first came out. I must have been asleep. Just watched the DVD for the first time and now I can't get the songs out of my head. Awesome movie.
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