Review of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) by Spencer S — 13 Jul 2011

Priscilla is one of the few films that can make a straight female want to become a drag queen with one viewing. (The other main one would by Rocky Horror) It's vividly colorful, authentically cheerful, heartbreaking, and funny for all those who know or frequently hang out with people of different sexual orientations.

The setting is the outback of Australia, and the cast is made up of the most heterosexual of actors: Hugo Weaving (V for Vendetta), Guy Pearce (Memento), and Terence Stamp (Valkyrie). This is in the same vein as the other wildly popular film about principally straight male actors portraying drag queens on a road trip, To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.

The difference between that and Priscilla, is the involvement in character development, replacing of over the top personifications of gay men as flighty queens with love of sequins and erotic puns with the truth in subject material.

Pearce's character takes the brunt of this, but in a believable way, evoking all the priss and bitchiness of a denial ridden queen on the brink of self annihilation. The plot traces the journey while calling on their pasts as an explanation to the ubiquitous audience to whether or not they're allowed to enjoy the frock fun, all the while digging deep for the traumatic events that any person who is different goes through, including taunting, getting beat up, or cussed out.

It's a funny flick, and an adventure through a real and metaphorical desert.