Review – Hedwig and the Angry Inch

If nothing else, this one’s a shoe-in for the palme d’or at this year’s Working It Way Too Hard Film Festival. And to be fair, I ended up liking this more than I thought I would. A rock opera about a transsexual’s journey from youth in East Germany to brief life as a military wife in Junction City, Kan., and from there on to success as a glam rock minor leaguer wouldn’t normally draw me into the audience. Plot aside, I found some of the music off-putting as well. Most of the score comes across as awkward blends of glam and pop, with one song sounding like a blend of the Velvet Underground and Brian Adams followed by another tune blending Freddie Mercury with Billy Joel. And I’m yet to see a rock opera – this one included – that doesn’t end with a big, over-wrought, go-nowhere nonsense number. However, parts of the movie actually manage to be cute and/or funny in a self-conscious but nonetheless genuine sort of way. Mildly amusing