Relative obscurity of certain Hollywood films is sometimes difficult to explain when their subject matter tend to correspond to few remaining battlefields in culture wars that plague American society. One such example can be found in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, 1995 comedy directed by Beeban Kidron.
The unusual title refers to autograph photo of Julie Newmar, dancer and actress famous for playing Catwoman in 1960s television series Batman (and who briefly appears in the film playing herself). It is prized possession of the film’s protagonists – Noxeema Jackson (played by Patrick Swayze) and Vida Boheme (played by Wesley Snipes) – two drag queens who have won drag queen competition in New York City and thus qualified to enter national competition which is to take place in Los Angeles. Young Chi-Chi Rodriguez (played by John Leguizamo) is depressed over not winning, so Vida talks Noxeema into taking him for a trip. Noxeema and Vida cash in airline ticket and buy rundown car which breaks down somewhere in Midwest. As they await for the repairs, three drag queens have to deal with locals. Some of them are hostile bigots, like Sheriff Dollard (played by Chris Penn), while others are friendly, like Carol Ann (played by Stockard Channing), owner of a local inn. Trio gradually wins over the community by giving local people fashion and style tips, as well as romantic advice to local youth. They also help Carol Ann deal with her abusive husband Virgil (played by Arliss Howard).
Too Wong Foo was supposed to be groundbreaking film and enter history books as the first major Hollywood production with drag queens as protagonists and another major step in efforts to to increase general public’s tolerance towards what was at the time euphemistically called “alternative lifestyles”. Made at the height of “political correctness”, the film did have decent box office results, but critics that would otherwise be quite enthusiastic about this sort of content were mostly disappointed. The main reason for that might be in film authors trying too hard. This included casting. Patrick Swayze and Wesley Snipes, actors who had built their careers by playing hypermasculine action heroes, took serious risks of alienating their potentially homophobic fans by playing women-like characters. While they, much to their credit, do decent job, they are overshadowed by John Leguizamo who is much better playing the most vulnerable member of the group. But the real problem is in script that tries to convey message of tolerance and inclusivity with the subtlety of bulldozer. Like so many Hollywood films before and afterwards, it plays to simplistic stereotypes of “hip” enlightened bi-coastal urban America against impoverished ignorant “deplorables” in “flyover country”, in some ways compromising its perceived message. The plot is riddled with cliches and the villains are one-dimensional. What ultimately made Too Wong Foo fail is bad luck of being released shortly after The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Australian film that used exactly the same concept. Inevitable comparisons made the previous film look much better and To Wong Foo as nothing more than uninspired and soulless Hollywood copy.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
Blog in Croatian https://draxblog.com Blog in English https://draxreview.wordpress.com/ Leofinance blog https://leofinance.io/@drax.leo
Unstoppable Domains: https://unstoppabledomains.com/?ref=3fc23fc42c1b417 Hiveonboard: https://hiveonboard.com?ref=drax Bitcoin Lightning HIVE donations: https://v4v.app/v1/lnurlp/qrcode/drax Rising Star game: https://www.risingstargame.com?referrer=drax 1Inch: https://1inch.exchange/#/r/0x83823d8CCB74F828148258BB4457642124b1328e
BTC donations: 1EWxiMiP6iiG9rger3NuUSd6HByaxQWafG ETH donations: 0xB305F144323b99e6f8b1d66f5D7DE78B498C32A7
