To Wong Foo, Thanks For Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)
August 5, 2014 7:10 AM - Subscribe
Three drag queens travel cross-country until their car breaks down, leaving them stranded in a small town.
Sheriff Dollard: I know what you want. Do you know what you career girls want?
Vida Boheme: Careers?
Summer camp, for the other kind of camp.
Sheriff Dollard: I know what you want. Do you know what you career girls want?
Vida Boheme: Careers?
Summer camp, for the other kind of camp.
I LOVE this movie.....just saying.
posted by pearlybob at 8:03 AM on August 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by pearlybob at 8:03 AM on August 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
This was my first time seeing this. I knew of it, but I had always assumed that it was a road trip movie...I was surprised (pleasantly so) when the road tripping gets cut short and the story settles in the rinky-dink little town populated by familiar actors whose names I'd missed in the opening credits. I'd noticed Blythe Danner's, Jason London's, and Chris Penn's names somehow, but I guess otherwise I was too busy watching the drag show at the beginning to notice that Stockard Channing, Arliss Howard, Melinda Dillon, Beth Grant, and Michael Vartan would be showing up, so each of those was a nice surprise. And a fellow mefite present who totally called that Kathy Geiss from 30 Rock is there!
The attempted rape and domestic violence aspects were unexpected (by me)...They felt sort of incongruous with the overall tone of light comedy...They do raise the stakes, just maybe a tad high when we're going for laughs?
(But just wait for next week's movie, where what is pretty much a sexual assault is perpetrated by the hero and is played for laughs. It's pretty dated, a cringe-y scene in an otherwise harmless little movie. We'll get there...)
posted by doctornecessiter at 8:33 AM on August 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
The attempted rape and domestic violence aspects were unexpected (by me)...They felt sort of incongruous with the overall tone of light comedy...They do raise the stakes, just maybe a tad high when we're going for laughs?
(But just wait for next week's movie, where what is pretty much a sexual assault is perpetrated by the hero and is played for laughs. It's pretty dated, a cringe-y scene in an otherwise harmless little movie. We'll get there...)
posted by doctornecessiter at 8:33 AM on August 5, 2014 [2 favorites]
I haven't seen all of this, so without asking for spoilers, does it end up having a deep melancholic element like The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert? And/Or ping pong balls?
posted by sammyo at 2:33 PM on August 5, 2014
posted by sammyo at 2:33 PM on August 5, 2014
I watch this every single time I catch it on TV. I honestly couldn't tell you why I loved it so much, I still don't have the words. I didn't even really understand the full impact of men dressing as women and being bad ass was controversial until I was much much older.
posted by royalsong at 4:42 PM on August 5, 2014
posted by royalsong at 4:42 PM on August 5, 2014
I hadn't seen this movie in years, and I am surprised at how the whole "drag queen" (their words) thing was played so straight. I was worried that there would be a lot of deeply uncomfortable jokes, but overall it seemed really positive. Well, I guess the language was dated, or maybe just incorrect, but overall yeah, it was nice.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:35 PM on August 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Literaryhero at 5:35 PM on August 5, 2014 [1 favorite]
Rizzo!
This was a nice excuse for me to watch this film. A lot of great bits that I'd totally forgotten about. The contrast between the muscles and the femwear at the beginning was great.
I've always felt that Wesley Snipes was hamming it up and having a grand time but Swayze seemed to have fully committed to the role. It plays great but those two were definitely coming at the movie from different angles.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 3:09 PM on August 9, 2014
This was a nice excuse for me to watch this film. A lot of great bits that I'd totally forgotten about. The contrast between the muscles and the femwear at the beginning was great.
I've always felt that Wesley Snipes was hamming it up and having a grand time but Swayze seemed to have fully committed to the role. It plays great but those two were definitely coming at the movie from different angles.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 3:09 PM on August 9, 2014
Yeah, I agree. Swayze's character perfectly nailed the serious middle aged church mom vibe, while Snipes was totally fabulous Rupaul. Both were good, but there was a big difference in how they were played. I wonder if it was a deliberate choice to have them act that way.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:53 PM on August 9, 2014
posted by Literaryhero at 5:53 PM on August 9, 2014
Literaryhero, I thought that might have the director's choice as well. John Leguizamo played it straight, too, I thought.
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 6:50 PM on August 9, 2014
posted by Ik ben afgesneden at 6:50 PM on August 9, 2014
One of my favorite sequences of dialogue is about the young man romancing Jon Leguizamo's character. Patrick Swayze thinks the budding romance is charming, and Wesley Snipes is unimpressed. One day - as the three are sort of hanging out on the porch, Wesley reading a magazine and the other two talking - the young suiter comes calling, and is all dressed up (and I think is carrying roses). And the three react thus:
JON: I declare!
PATRICk: I declare!
WESLEY: I decline.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:36 AM on December 4, 2014
JON: I declare!
PATRICk: I declare!
WESLEY: I decline.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 11:36 AM on December 4, 2014
You are not logged in, either login or create an account to post comments
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 7:21 AM on August 5, 2014 [1 favorite]