30 Day Movie Challenge: Day 12: Hedwig and The Angry Itch (2001)

I hope everyone is enjoying the 30 Day Movie Challenge (the more challenging version) and hopefully you are checking out some great films. When you are a film junkie like myself then you have seen a whole bunch of films especially as a film studies minor in college. So today's objective was a little challenging because I had to find a film that was adapted to the screen from a play and I have seen a lot of them, but I found 2001's Hedwig and The Angry Itch which was written and directed by John Cameron Mitchell (How To Talk To Girls At Parties) and he also stars as the films main character Hedwig. You see Hedwig is a rocker from Germany who underwent a sex change that was botched, but now he is in America and touring in every city that his former protege plays in as a matter of revenge for stealing his songs. The film also stars Miriam Shor (Bedazzled) as Yitzhak,  Stephen Trask (Little Fockers) as Skszp, Theodore Liscinski as Jacek, Rob Campbell (The Undiscovered Country) as Krzysztof, Michael Aronov (The Drop) as Schlatko, Andrea Martin (My Big Fat Greek Wedding) as Phyllis Stein, Michael Pitt (Bully) as Tommy Gnosis, Maurice Dean Wint (Captain Power and The Soldiers Of The Future) as Sgt. Luther Robinson, and Alberta Watson (The Prince and Me) as Hansel's Mother.

One of my sentiments on yesterdays review was that I was happy that I was doing challenges like this because I am discovering movies that I end up loving when I am done watching. In all honesty, this was actually a very good punk rock film that was challenging the norms back in 2001. The transgender issue just became that realistically maybe a couple of years back, but the film was released in 2001 and it's main character was a transgender singer of a punk rock band who just wanted to be loved and accepted for who they were. Sure in this film, it ends with Hedwig just freeing himself of everything and accepting a new norm of sorts without the wig. The film has a very Velvet Goldmine kind of vibe to it where it almost seems that Hedwig is the last of that once great scene that featured the likes of Lou Reed, David Bowie, etc. The music in the film is absolutely great to the point that I want to see this on stage on Broadway right now (if that were possible to do). The music may be labeled punk rock on some sites, but it contains all the best of that art rock scene and I loved it. The make up and everything from sets and costumes were amazing as well and the cinematography was awesome as well with all the live concert like shots. The only part I didn't care for was the artwork scenes, but they really didn't bother me that much because I don't mind music video styled scenes. I definitely reccomend this film for anyone looking for something different to watch and I am going to go ahead and give the film an A- for a final grade.