LogFAQs > #933279159

22. Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Scarlet: 7
Genny: 8
KBM: 17
Johnbobb: 20
JONA: 26
Karo: 28
Inviso: 35

Scarlet - The story and meaning of Hedwig and the Angry Inch overshadow the clear lack of good music. And make no music, the music in this movie is very unremarkable. One of the rare movies that is uplifted by good writing on this list.
Best Song: Wicked Little Town

Genny - Hedwig and the Angry Inch was a surprise for me: I'd honestly never even heard of it before this list, but I ended up enjoying it immensely (obviously). I admire the overall theme it had to offer about wearing your scars and flaws with pride regardless of what others might think about you. If only I could be as confident as Hedwig I could accomplish so much more than I have. The way Hedwig tells their life story makes it exceedingly difficult to feel sorry for them, because they spend so little time feeling sorry for themselves which is precisely why those moments when Hedwig does show even the smallest vulnerabilities are that much more poignant.

KBM - Why I Chose It: The original 1998 Off-Broadway production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, with music and lyrics by Stephen Trask and John Cameron Mitchell and starring Mitchell in the title role, proved a pretty large cult success on the stage, winning the Obie and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Best Musical and spawning hundreds of worldwide productions including at the West End. It didn't take long after the original production closed for Mitchell himself to write, direct, and star in a film adaptation of his show. However, despite a positive reception from critics and the audiences who saw it, including multiple awards at the Sundance Film Festival and a Golden Globe nomination for Mitchell's performance, the movie was a box office bomb, only making $3.6 million on a $6 million budget. Despite its lack of financial success, it lives on as a cult classic.

My Thoughts: I'm of two minds regarding this movie. I certainly had a good time watching it, and that counts for a lot when a lot of the stuff towards the bottom of my list was either genuinely boring or actively bad. At the same time, for a musical, the MUSIC element in this is... not as good as it could have been. Certainly not as good as a Rocky Horror Picture Show or a Xanadu or other similar cult classics we've watched; there are a few pretty strong rockers but not quite enough to convince me that this person is as big an underground rock success as they are portrayed. It's also a fairly PrObLeMaTiC story, for reasons I won't go very far into here (let's just say John Cameron Mitchell isn't exactly the most trans-friendly artist out there and leave it at that). Despite that, there is a pure subversive joy here that proves pretty contagious, and though I have my quibbles with the forced-transition story and the way Hedwig is portrayed, the performances from the leads, gleeful subversiveness, and the pure kinetic energy on display here prove just enough to turn my mixed feelings into mostly positive ones.

Favorite Song: Wig in a Box

Johnbobb - This was... not quite as good as I was hoping it would be. I mean, it's an interesting concept, and I (for the most part) dug the music and characters, but something about it just felt... incomplete. It definitely struck me as something that needs to be viewed live compared to some of the other movie musicals on the list, some of which benefitted from larger production values and effects than the stage would've allowed for. I enjoyed it but was hoping for a little more.
Favorite song: Tear Me Down

JONA - I feel bad for not liking this movie because there are aspects of the movie I like, and I see how this movie could be something special to someone. I remember seeing this get compared to The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which was in the first list and I didnt like. However, what makes me like this movie more is that it does have an interesting story to tell. Seeing Hedwigs life is intriguing even if it still has shades of the obnoxious weirdness of Rocky Horror. I did get some enjoyability out of the weirdness, but it did take me out of the story of Hedwig. The soundtrack was forgettable besides The Origin of Love. If you liked this, more power to you, but this just wasnt for me.
Favorite Song: The Origin of Love

Karo - So there's a young boy in east berlin who befriends an american soldier who for some odd reason is allowed free reign to walk all around on the commie side of the wall. This weirdo offers to take the boy to the states as his sex slave, but only if he becomes a girl first, and thanks to the efforts of glorious communist medicine Hedwig and her angry inch are born.
As for story, there is not a lot. Hedwig's other ex-boyfriend has stolen her music and so they follow his tour around singing obnoxious songs to screw with him or whatever while they do flashbacks to the dubiously legal beginnings of their relationship.
Things get ever more confusing the longer the film goes on, culminating in a bizarre finale where Hedwig eats some bad shrooms or something and ends up wandering naked though the alleys of new york. Hurrah.
The movie wants way too hard to be artsy and edgy and ends up with its head stuck its own ass half the time, and stuck in an oven the other half.
It is simply nothing more than an unpleasant and disjointed experience that can't even lay claim to the title of being the best rock musical about a transsexual, and the only angry inch this movie needs is a good solid middle finger.

Score: 42/100

Best Song: 'The Origin of Love'

Inviso - Every single character in this film was unpleasant, and the style of music was completely unpleasant to listen to, to the point where it made a ninety-minute film feel like it was drag for hours. There isnt even a good story to go along with this. There have been bad stories on this list so farbut this was just awful. Its like a biopic for an awful person who treats those around themselves like utter shit. And the problem is that there are so many metaphors and flashbacks that I cant follow whats supposed to be going on in this story. I justthis wasnt even remotely enjoyable to behold, and I dont even understand what the point of this film was, other than some weird, gross-out scenes involving the guy from The Cube, and what I ASSUME was an underaged boy. No thanks on ever watching this again.