Customer Reviews

Wigstock: The Movie [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I first saw Wigstock in an Art-house cinema in Berlin amidst an audience largely made up of glamorous and extremely vocal German drag queens. And let me tell you, it was one of the most fun experiences in my life. Talk about audience participation? It was a riot!

I've since bought first the video and now the DVD and watch it again and again - whenever I need a pick me up - whenever I need to remind myself that, as The Lady Bunny says: "We can all get it together and have a great time!"

I have only two minor criticisms of this movie. 1. At a running time of approx 85 mins, it is not long enough! And 2. I really don't like Leigh Bowery's performance at all. Otherwise, it's all good. The audience are every bit as fabulous as the performers on stage and backstage.

A couple of my fellow posters have complained about the lipsynching. Why? It's a given in drag culture. And Girlina, Mistress Formika and the like are awesome exponents. Got a complaint? You try lipsynching in those heels, honey!

This film somehow manages to be both a celebration of diversity and community at the same time. I am totally in awe. My thanks to all concerned.

Wigstock is simply one of those movies every gay man should own. If you haven't heard of it, go watch it. I don't care if you're the butchest gym bunny or the gruffest leather daddy, the messages of freedom, the celebration of homosexuality and the importance to unite our community is one that every gay man should experience. Besides, there are drag queens in this flick! Gaggles of them! And draq queens are the bestest! They have more nut than the butchest of the butch because they don't just wear their sexuality on their sleeve, they flaunt it, they own it and they take the brunt of a lot of negativity only to pick themselves up, fix their hair and do it again.

The highlights of this film are the performances of the artists. There are a few doozies but, for the most part, they are great.

There is no real theme or plot. It's basically video footage of the annual drag show held in New York. A very campy video to watch.

Some of the commentaries are nice to add a bit of depth to the film. Wonderful contribution by Jackie Beat and Alexis Arquette! Alexis is hilarious!

Wigstock:The Movie is a colorful entertaining love letter to New York. It's all about drag, but it's also about one of the most unique cities in the world where crazy underground culture can flourish. It's a lot like the movie Woodstock but with better hair.

Now that Lady Bunny has taken an indefinite hiatus from producing "Wigstock", this video is even more valuable as historical documentary. Most of the big names are here captured in good performances. Joey Arias, Lypsinka. Rue Paul, Lady Bunny and others make for a fun show. The behind the scenes footage puts the occasion into perspective. Even if you don 't care about the historical context of this film, you're in for a treat just watching the show unfold. Even the "on the street" scenes are fun.

From ancient Greek drama to Chinese opera, from the era of Shakespeare to the reign of the Italian castrati, throughout the world and for most of history women did not appear on stage. This gave rise to a revered theatrical tradition of what might best be called "female illusionists"--male artists who specialized in the performance of female roles and who were capable of making an audience believe a woman stood on stage before them. Such artists are still very much with us today. But you won't find any of them in WIGSTOCK: THE MOVIE.

The high-end performers here are RuPaul and Lypsinka. RuPaul is essentially an entertainer who plays with gender and racial iconography to create an enjoyable stage persona, and as such is very well known to mainstream audiences; although lesser known, Lypsinka is the more talented artist, creating considerably more subtle and wickedly camp charactures. Both are very enjoyable--but the vast majority of the performers on stage might best be described as "tacky barroom drag queens." Some of these are very, very good at what they do, with "Lady Bunny" a case in point, but most are of a type: toying with a mix of 1950s-1960s-1970s female fashion brought up to a ludicrously "glamorous" degree and mixed with 1990s punk-and-funk styles, these are the drag queens you might find on stage in any mid-size city's gay bar of note. But because they are so common, viewers familar with the drag world will be unimpressed: we've seen it again and again and again. They aren't particularly original, and therefore they aren't any more interesting on stage than the acts you've seen a hundred times before.

On the other hand, they are VERY interesting off-stage, and this documentary works best when it contrasts the preparations of the performers and their on-stage performances--giving us glimpses into the lives, motivations, and complicated preparations of the performers. And the audience itself is fascinating, a huge array of gay, straight, costumed, and (sometimes considerably) uncostumed people who are all bent on having a good time and don't mind showing that in front of the camera. Unfortunately, these backstage glimpses and audience shots are too few to make WIGSTOCK: THE MOVIE more than merely tantalizing, and the film in general eschews the "politics of drag" (for drag has always been to some degree a political statement) in favor of a "happy party" tone that wears thin well before the film comes to an end. Recommended, but primarily for those who know absolutely nothing about drag queens, their performing styles, and their backstage lives.

This movie shows the freedom and the drama behind people who strive to be
lively and enjoy life.

This doco on the 1994 Wigstock festival, held in New York City in Tompkins Square Park and the Bulkhead of the Christopher Street Pier, offers a range of entertainment. Although primarily a 10 year anniversary for anyone who wanted to wear a wig, the majority of participants and audience are specifically male and gay. Since apparently one can't don a wig without also being tempted to add high heels and a frock, the cross-dressing of drag is highlighted. The gay community's representation of drag has always been loaded with resonance, sometimes considered a political force to mock the straight world's inhibitions, other times a mean-spirited expression of mysogyny. However since here we aren't shown any defined transexuals, the emphasis then is on drag as performance, and not lifestyle, which makes the exhibition more palatable to the bipartisan onlookers (and also presumably the authorities whose permission would have been required to stage the event). Once we look beyond the spectacle of dress-up to make one feel free "and fab-ulous"), one then must consider the performers on stage. Do we apply the same standards (or lack of) that we would do to any gay bar show, or do we consider the performers as show business professionals and judge them accordingly? Perhaps I should reveal my prejudice in that I find little to praise in the art of lip-sinking, no matter how the performer is dressed. Therefore my appreciation of those who limit themselves to this activity is low. However I tend to be more generous to those who accompany lip-sinking with another form, be it dance or as in the case of Lypsinka, with a concept. As hard as it is to define what Lypsinka does, I can say that his/her adoption of the persona of Kay Thompson, mixed with redubs of dialogue from Mommie Dearest, creates an unusual and original phenomena. My opinion of the initially lip-sinking Misstress Formika improved when later he/she sang live with a reasonable sounding voice. Ironically although we witness Joey Arias previewing his Billie Holliday "channelling", when we see him live it sounds like lip-sinking. Some acts like the duelling Bankheads are in the school of deliberately bad drag, though I found the Bankheads a particularly one-joke joke. And although RuPaul delivers an inspirational speech to those with a dream, his/her miming to a prerecordering, even his/her own, is somehow reductive. It's interesting to observe the change of tone when the female Dee-Lite appears, and even the female in male drag Crystal Waters, since Dee-Lite comes across as being at the wrong show, and Waters does a lazy lip-sink, with macho male dancers which only emphasises her femininity. Perhaps the most arresting acts are the ones that verge on performance art. Leigh Bowery who wears a kabuki-like outfit which hides any personality, Flloyd who deconstructs his drag, and John Kelly who wears the obligatory wig but has a great voice. Director Barry Shils occasionally cuts between performers rehearsing to the performance, which is most effective for the Wigstock dancers who dance to Chic, since we can see the disparity of the individuals as themselves and as their performance selves. Shils coverage of the acts and the crowds never feels lingering - he seems to know how much we can tolerate of each - and he nicely captures the balloon tribute to Donna Giles, as symbolic of many who unable to return from the previous year. The insistance that these people are only here to have a good time becomes a bit tiresome when it is repeated so often, because it sounds apologetic, particulary when it seems obvious the film crew are hardly hostile. Perhaps this is done for the camera and posterity. Or perhaps it is said without the realisation of the huge crowd that turns out for the day and evening. Occupying such a space, even for 24 hours, is empowering.

for anyone who has not experienced the New York Wigstock festival, this is a perfect representation. RuPaul's performance at the height of her "Supermodel" phase is worth the price alone. Great performance art.

This DVD makes you wish you were at the live Wigstock event back in the day when it was not a commercial event.

The perfomers are funny. The music is great. My favorites being RuPaul and DeeeLite.

Too bad there aren't any extras, but all in all a fun look at cross dressers and trannies who aren't afraid to poke fun at themselves.