Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Calling itself a “post-punk neo-glam rock musical,” Hedwig and the Angry Inch was an Off-Broadway smash, and John Cameron Mitchell reprises his role as the title character in this “clever, funny, wildly innovative film.” (NY Times)

As we’re told through flashbacks and glorious rock anthems by Stephen Trask, Hedwig began life as Hansel, an East Berlin boy who endures a botched sex-change operation so that he can become a she and marry a U.S. army sergeant.

Abandoned in a Kansas trailer park, Hedwig falls for Tommy, a dumb teenager with rock star dreams. When Tommy steals Hedwig’s songs and becomes a pop success, the embittered, lonely Hedwig embarks on a cross-country tour of tacky seafood restaurants, singing her story to perplexed crowds.

Mitchell not only gives an incredibly charismatic performance -- he also directs the film with lots of flash and dazzle, and an underlying sincerity to Hedwig’s search for wholeness.

“Filmed with ferocious energy and with enough sexual variety to match the late Fellini... on its way to a long run as the midnight successor to The Rocky Horror Picture Show.” (Roger Ebert)

Part of our Cult Classics series.