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To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar (1995)

post #1 of 11
7/30/10 at 12:28pm
Thread Starter 
So I watched this on the suggestion of the girlfriend and the new roomie, and I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It was very funny, and I felt for the most part it avoided going for the easy jokes. Well, at least in the first half.

See, I liked the opening and the road trip part, but once they get stuck in Snydersville (which looks straight out of the old west) the movie drags to a halt. Why couldn't the whole story have been about them bumbling into more and more ludicrous situations?

Kudos to the actors, who totally immerse themselves in the roles. Around the time Snipes and Swayze meet Leguizamo on the stairs I totally bought them as women rather than men in dresses. I liked how the movie accepted them, presented little motivation, and then moved on.

I do have a question, and this is something I wonder about any movie that presents a niche culture: how accurate is it? I have no experience with drag queens. I've had a few gay friends, but (although the movie doesn't really bother to differentiate) I understand that not all gay men like to dress as women, and not all drag queens are gay. So has this movie been accepted by the gay/drag queen community, or is it a blight? How does Priscilla, Queen of the Desert hold up?
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post #2 of 11
7/30/10 at 9:49pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartleby_Scriven View Post
How does Priscilla, Queen of the Desert hold up?
I only saw Priscilla for the first time around 6 months ago, and it's really good. I remember when To Wong Foo was released, I figured it was just a rip-off of sorts that just went for the easy joke, nice to hear that's not so much the case.
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post #3 of 11
7/30/10 at 10:01pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bartleby_Scriven View Post
So I watched this on the suggestion of the girlfriend and the new roomie, and I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would. It was very funny, and I felt for the most part it avoided going for the easy jokes. Well, at least in the first half.

See, I liked the opening and the road trip part, but once they get stuck in Snydersville (which looks straight out of the old west) the movie drags to a halt. Why couldn't the whole story have been about them bumbling into more and more ludicrous situations?

Kudos to the actors, who totally immerse themselves in the roles. Around the time Snipes and Swayze meet Leguizamo on the stairs I totally bought them as women rather than men in dresses. I liked how the movie accepted them, presented little motivation, and then moved on.

I do have a question, and this is something I wonder about any movie that presents a niche culture: how accurate is it? I have no experience with drag queens. I've had a few gay friends, but (although the movie doesn't really bother to differentiate) I understand that not all gay men like to dress as women, and not all drag queens are gay. So has this movie been accepted by the gay/drag queen community, or is it a blight? How does Priscilla, Queen of the Desert hold up?
I'm not gay or a drag queen myself but I have friends who are and they LOVE this movie! Same with Priscilla.

Personally I was pleasantly surprised. It did slow down towards the end but I guess they had to get the message about acceptance and growing in there somewhere, it's still really really hilarious most of the way through. "Sometimes all you need is a fairy."

Also, as a girl I found the intro especially funny because I was drooling over these incredibly hot muscular men the whole time they were putting on their drag.... That is until the moment when Wesley Snipes kicks his toes in the air and starts giggling like a school girl.

If girls could get erections mine would have died right there.
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post #4 of 11
7/31/10 at 12:21am
Thread Starter 
"What in gay hell?" has totally entered my lexicon.
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post #5 of 11
7/31/10 at 12:37am
The key to the performances is the actors' training; Swayze was a longtime dancer, Snipes has trained in however many martial arts, and Leguizamo has a lot of theater experience and has done female characters in his shows. So they're not just alpha males bumbling around in dresses; they all move gracefully, and despite not being remotely gay or feminine in reality, they could tap into their respective training and find some sort of physical truth.
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post #6 of 11
7/31/10 at 4:17am
It's been forever since I've seen it, but I always enjoyed this movie a lot. The performances are sincere, and, at no point, are the actors winking into the camera. It's a little cliche, but a it's a fun little movie.
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post #7 of 11
7/31/10 at 4:40am
Much love for this flick, the Wonder Woman montage is all kinds of Awesome.

And I never thought I could buy Snipes as a drag queen till I watched this flick.
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post #8 of 11
7/31/10 at 1:27pm
Watching for all the celebrity cameos is pretty amusing. RuPaul in her confederate sequined dress, Naomi Campbell in the club...But geezus, that was not Julie Newmar's best face at the end, if it indeed was she.

Who do you think pulls off the drag the best? I think Leguizamo inches past Swayze, with Snipes definitely in third.
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post #9 of 11
7/31/10 at 1:36pm
Leguizamo passes the best. But Swayze has a warm, matronly quality. Only someone completely confident in his own masculinity/sexuality, and someone who clearly loved and honored women, could pull off what Swayze did there. Shit, this thread is making me miss the magnificent bastard all over again.

Well, not really magnificent "bastard." But you know what I mean.
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post #10 of 11
8/4/10 at 1:42am
For some reason I always used to confuse Swayze and Kurt Russell. So for a long time I thought it was super cool that Snake Plissken looked so good in drag.

This film was a big family event film for some reason. My entire family just loved it and we all saw it multiple times in theaters. Even now "I got more legs then a bucket of chicken" is an instantly recognizable quote used frequently during holidays.
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post #11 of 11
8/4/10 at 1:50am
Oh, he does.

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