So I planned on watching
The Killers this morning. Woke up, reset all the clocks, drank my coffee then headed downstairs to watch
The Killers in the movie watching room, sit down crank up the Criterion Channel and....it's GONE! It was there ten hours ago! SOB! So, I ended up watching:
Hedwig and the Angry Inch
So, yeah. When you plan on watching a 1940's film noir that's no longer available the next best thing is a 2001 musical about a transexual East German rock singer with mommy, daddy, boyfriend, husband, professional and body issues (hence the Angry Inch). Makes sense to me.
Hedwig seems to get screwed, in the bad way, at every opportunity and it's been happening FOREVER! All she wants is to be whole again. We learn this mostly through flashbacks which are often times hilariously sad. At the same time her band is currently touring the country playing a chain of ****ty restaurants in front of small, aging crowds and dealing with the fact that the
ONE that got away, got away with all the songs she wrote and is a now a major star on the strength of them songs. So, on the surface this sounds like it should be a fairly depressing flick except that it's not. Not really. In fact, I found myself smiling quite often. It gets a little misty towards the end, I guess or maybe I completely missed the point and if I did so what? I enjoyed what I got from it. I'm sure if I watched it again I'd pick up on a few of the smaller things.
Hedwig is a musical so how's the music? Not bad. I would say I enjoyed most of the songs with my favorite being the Wig in the Box(?) (kicking out the ONE light bulb cracked me up for some reason) production number and the Angry Inch is memorable as well. The performances at the restaurants are all pretty funny, sometimes hilarious. The thing with the songs is they are part of the story. Listen to the words and you get the insight.
Hedwig is a very interesting character which is good because it's a movie about Hedwig. She's a lot more complex than I expected and the movie is well written. I think the underlying story is something most people would get into but the wrapping, unfortunately, may hold some back from seeing this. I really liked this and would highly recommend it. My guess is this is a Miss Vicky nomination.