Sin #16: Wicked Little Town

Hedwig performs with her low-rent band on cafeterias and cheap bars. Most of her songs are autobiographical and describe an unhappy childhood in Germany where she started out as a boy, fell in love with a man in the army and then received an unsuccessful sex change operation leaving her with what she calls an “angry inch”.

She then fled to the United States where she met Tommy on a babysitter gig. He was a dreamy adolescent with hopes of becoming a rock star. Hedwig fell in love; unfortunately Tommy Gnosis (with his new rock star name) stole her songs and abandoned her.

The reason why “Hedwig and the Angry Inch” is such a memorable movie is because it features brave performances and extraordinary music; but this isn’t your typical fancy musical with glamorizing songs about love and perseverance, here they are raw and angry utilizing rock and roll as a medium to express Hedwig’s pain. In a way it’s one of the few last rock operas and an electrifying blast of fun.

The director and actor John Cameron Mitchell doesn’t show transsexuals or homosexuality in a sensationalist view, he merely observes them as troubled human beings that somehow have become outcast of conservative societies. In his next movie, the engrossing and touching “Shortbus”, he went for a more ambitious approach. He decided to turn the tables on the debate about pornography and art; by blurring those dividing lines and giving equal importance to the characters and their sexual ventures, he has made a liberal and open movie about tolerance. When most movies play it safe, “Shortbus” defies taboos from western societies and becomes a rather important work.

Another movie that deals with transsexuals in a thoughtful way is “Transamerica”, which features a remarkable performance by Felicity Huffman. It involves a cross-country journey to find the son of Bree, a transsexual about to receive her sex change operation. Her son turns out to be a troubled boy that works as a male prostitute.

In all of these films there seems to be a congenial theme of acceptance. And in a society still filled with taboos (especially with prop 8 in California) we need art to offer a mirror.