A surprising number of drag-queen movies are currently out or on their way, among them, “Priscilla” and the forthcoming “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar.” (What unlikely titles. Luckily, when you call MOVIEFONE for tickets, you have to punch in only the first three letters.) The influx of these movies doesn’t necessarily herald a new open-mindedness. Drag can be a subversive subject, but Hollywood has never had trouble wringing conventional ideas out of it. You know the story: a guy poses as a gal to get a job. He stumbles around in high heels, but all he really wants to know about women is how to pick one up. Wasn’t that the plot of “Some Like It Hot” – and “Tootsie”?
“Priscilla” isn’t shy on laughs, but it also says a little about gender and sexuality, and it celebrates drag as art – a sort of Western version of Kabuki. The movie follows three drag performers as they steam across the barren Australian Outback in a lavender bus, stopping to drink, lip-sync and freak out the locals. Stamp gives a magnificently minimalist, world-weary performance as Bernadette, a regal transsexual of a certain age. Her husband recently passed away (he asphyxiated on peroxide while bleaching his hair), and her parents haven’t spoken to her since that fateful day she got “the chop.” But the movie doesn’t want your pity. It’s full of wonderfully funny set pieces (the girls perform “I Will Survive” in full regalia for Aborigines in the middle of the desert), and it doesn’t beat you over the head with the cliche that all drag queens are crying on the inside.
On paper, “Wong Foo,” due out next year, looks an awful lot like “Priscilla.” Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze and John Leguizamo play drag queens rolling through nowhere, though this time it’s Nebraska. Universal Pictures, distributor of “Wong Foo,” reportedly got nervous when “Priscilla” was a hit at Cannes, but the consensus is that “Wong Foo” will be more mainstream. Tim Burton will likely be bolder in October’s “Ed Wood,” starring Johnny Depp as the great schlock director, famous for his angora fetish. Who knows what will become of the “La Cage aux Folles” remake? United Artists reportedly hopes Mike Nichols will direct and Robin Williams will star.
Despite Williams’s success in “Mrs. Doubtfire,” Hollywood is still hedging its bets and marketing drag pictures as broad entertainments. " “Priscilla’ is a fish-out-of-water story, like “City Slickers’,” says Russell Schwartz, president of Gramercy Pictures. Point taken, though comparing “Priscilla” to something as banal as “City Slickers” seems less than flattering. That’s no way to treat a lady.
