A few months ago I watched a pair of movies on a plane: “To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar” & “But I’m a Cheerleader”, impulsively doing an LGBTQ double feature.
I watched “But I’m a Cheerleader” as discovered Natasha Lyonne via Russian Doll and then Poker Face, and I wondered what she was like in her early movies. “But I’m a Cheerleader” is weird time-capsule film, bringing us back to the late 90s. It’s a really odd movie that seems to want to be camp, but can’t help but let the seriousness of the subject matter leak in around the edges. In my opinion, it’s good, but not entirely successful. It’s wild to see Ru Paul in that movie —
“To Wong Foo” is sort of the opposite: It is camp fantasy, and refuses in many ways to let reality in through the window. As a result it feels like it says less, but is smoother an more Hollywood. Seemingly every actor in that movie is giving it their all.
I was reminded to write this blog post though by me reading the wikipedia page on the movie, and they pointed to this quote from Variety:
““To Wong Foo” safely distinguishes among hard-core transvestites, transsexuals and its own heroes, “harmless” gay men whose only deviation is dressing in drag and having fun. In the big farewell scene, when the socially reawakened Carol Ann tells Vida, “You’re not a man, you’re not a woman, you’re an angel,” she sums up the film’s cautious manifesto. Ultimately, the comedy comes across as a celebration of openness, alternative lifestyles and bonding, all life-affirming values that in the 1990s are beyond reproach — or real controversy.”
With the recent hate thrown at drag queen, and deteriorating respect for trans and LGBTQ people, I find the idea of a reviewer saying that “Too Wong Foo” is without controversy cultural whiplash.