The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) - 7/10

I wish the phrase 'still highly relevant today' wasn't a phrase I see so often with movies. And yet, over 30 years since its release, society is still struggling to wrap its collective head around drag and transgender people. Priscilla wasn't designed to be a lecture or harbinger of the future - its a celebration. I just wish after seeing this film I could scoff at how backwards we all used to be instead of lamenting how we have seemingly failed to progress at all. I don't mean to be completely dismissive there - of course we have progressed. Its just at a rate that is depressingly slow. But I will try to not mired down in the politics and focus on the rubric.

1. Acting 

We should just get it out of the way - in a perfect world the actors cast in this film should have been directly representative of the characters (i.e drag and transgender). But I'll save more comments for later on. 

So, the original plan for casting the three leads was to have them be directly representative of the characters, but the filmmakers/studio instead opted for actors with some more notoriety. Enter Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce. And while their real world gender experiences may not align with the characters, each actor seems to bring as much authenticity and empathy to the roles as they can.

Guy Pearce imbues Adam/Felicia with a chaotic, energetic, and all around bitchy persona. However, what Pearce seems to understand is that while Adam may play at having a thick coat of armor on him, he is still young and vulnerable to other's perceptions. His flamboyance is both an outward expression of who he is, and a social crutch to protect himself. And while Pearce is more than capable of keeping Adam operating at full volume at all times, he doesn't miss the beats that show the softer or wounded sides - most notably after being attacked in Coober Pedy. 

Hugo Weaving, as always, was clearly ready to give the role everything he has. Tick and Adam are similar in a lot of ways, but I think the script and Hugo were able to tap into the fact that Tick is clearly at a different point in his life. In addition to some of the self-assuredness issues that Adam has, Tick is meandering into middle age. He worries about his continued life in drag performing and he worries about embracing fatherhood and what his son thinks of him. Weaving as Mitzi is also a treat. Weaving has a very expressive face and his Drag performances do not disappoint in terms of fierce looks. 

Terrance Stamp was the most established of the three lead actors at the time the film was released and was known mostly for serious and dramatic roles. Bernadette is certainly stern and more serious than her counterparts, but Stamp brings to her a sense of vulnerability, humor and deep caring. Stamp's performance, out of the three, feels the most authentic and layered. He also gets to explore some of the deeper relationships built into the script - to Adam she is a annoyed maternal figure, to Tick she is a mentor and confidant, and to Bob she is a love interest. Juggling all of that required the deft hand of an established performer.

2. Cinematography 

 The quality of the images has suffered over time. The settings, lighting and photography all look old. However, beneath the lower quality rendering, there is a clear flair to the imagery. Drag has never been a subtle, so a movie centered around drag certainly isn't either. The key to the cinematography then for this film, was finding the best ways to capture the incredible work of the costume design teams.

3. Production/Costume Design 

Having only seen it once, I am sure there are a ton of details buried in the various outfits put together by the amazing costume team on Priscilla. Even on this first pass I see how each outfit or sets of outfits have a story of their own to tell. I really find that level of detail and artistry impressive and something that doesn't get captured on film too often. Or maybe its just that these costumes are so outrageous and so over the top that its impossible to not take notice. 

I also enjoy the utility of the costumes. I was completely unaware about how watching Guy Pearce sit on top of Priscilla driving down a desert road while wearing incredibly extravagant garb is something that was missing in my life. Even sillier bits like during the final show when their costumes suddenly transform into a silhouette of the Sidney Opera House - its all very fun to look at.

4. Writing 

The writing can be a mixed bag but is mostly a strength for the film. If we zoom out its a fairly standard road trip movie. The characters are friends but all have distinct personalities tropes that rub each other the wrong way. And then at the end of the day, they all learned something along the way and grew as people and as friends. Simple. But obviously there is more to this story than the premise. 

Starting off, just the mere attempt at bringing a story like this to the mainstream consciousness while being unapologetically itself is an accomplishment. Thirty years later we are still struggling with how to tell the stories of LGBT characters without it feeling overly stereotypical or overly saccharine. So what I like about Priscilla then, is that while drag and transgender are major themes for the movie, the characters themselves still just feel like people and not avatars for an entire community. They struggle with the same issues that most people do, just with a very specific context to it. Its make the characters more approachable for audiences to relate to. 

I also like that the film isn't overly cynical. The characters are confronted multiple times with the hardships that LGBT and Drag people face, but still offers glimmers of hope in current times (i.e Bob) and for the future (Benji). So, even though the film is willing to go into dark places like when Adam gets attacked, it is also optimistic in how much Benji loves Tick and is proud of what he does.

5. Sound Design 

I've never been a big ABBA fan, but their music certainly does make for a great scene partner. Better yet, its prominent use in Priscilla pre-dates Mamma Mia! by over 5 years for the musical and 14 years for the movie. That's not to ignore the rest of the soundtrack which is also great fun. For a film centered around Drag lip syncing, they needed to nail the soundtrack and I think they managed it.

6. Editing 

The runtime comes in at just around 108 minutes which is fairly short. But I think the film does feel a bit slow and meandering at times. Luckily it stays on the right side of fun for most of it so some indulgences can be forgiven.  

7. Visual Effects 

Nothing to note for VFX. 

8. Originality or Strength of Adaptation 

Like I said before, at its core this is just a buddy road trip movie. But because it centers around a marginalized and overlooked set of characters it is a fresh take on an old formula. It doesn't reinvent the wheel in its approach, but exposing the general public to a group they may not know much about and showing them how much common ground exists is more than a worthwhile effort. 

9. Stunt Coordination 

Nothing to note. 

10. Direction 

Writer/director Stephan Elliot reportedly wrote the script for Priscilla in only 10 days while waiting on casting to be complete for another film. He also had doubts that the film would get made at all. I am pleasantly surprised the not only was he wrong, but he got $2 million dollars to make it - and then grossed nearly 10x that at the box office. This film was able to reach a worldwide audience and I think that is a testament to the vision and execution that Elliot brought to the project.

Legacy/Final Thoughts

Priscilla was a complete unknown to me. It had a great showing when it was released and was highly regarded amongst critics at the time. It surprisingly also captured a much larger audience then you'd expect for an obscure low budget Australian film. Unfortunately, time has likely won out as most people today will not have even heard of this film before. 

Nevertheless, Priscilla is an important stepping stone in the wave of better LGBT representation in media that we are finally starting to see today. For their latest report of LGBT characters on TV, Glaad found that LGBT characters represented about 8.6% of series regulars. That number is actually a decrease from a peak of 10.6%, but is also about double what it was in 2012. That 8.6% is also fairly close to real world research which shows that about 9.6% of the adult population identifies as LGBT. 

Now that doesn't mean that we've solved everything. There are still plenty of problematic things that people discuss about LGBT representation in media - but at least we are now talking about it and representing at better rates. And this is, in part, thanks to films like Priscilla which help drive those conversations and representations.