paulclaassen Fantastic costumes. Fantastic photography. Fantastic visuals. Fantastic acting, notably Terence Stamp.After a promising start, their adventures ultimately takes a dip to near boredom, though, and unfortunately never recovers.

bbewnylorac There are many outstanding features in Stephan Elliot's legendary examination of prejudice and triumph relating to Australia's queer community. Firstly, of course, those incredible costumes by Lizzie Gardiner and Tim Chappell - you can't take your eyes off them. The lush colour and attention to detail is astounding. Next, the stunning landscape (although stunning seems an understatement) of outback Australia, with the light and perspectives used to amazing effect in every scene. The acting, with Guy Pearce, Terence Stamp and Hugo Weaving in the main roles, is impeccable. All of them inhabit their characters to such an extent that you forget they're acting. Terence Stamp, in particular, struck me as just perfect for his role. His character, an older transsexual, is brittle, yet witty and resilient, and later on shows she is supportive and empathetic of her friends. Guy Pearce gives an astonishing physicality to his role - he is so immersed in his character that he doesn't have to impersonate anyone, his IS the camp, flamboyant muscled up young drag queen. The role when he/she confronts the violent thugs chasing her in Coober Pedy is outstanding - it manages to be funny, disturbing, offensive, shocking and confronting all at once. The film's script is sharp and entertaining, although sometimes there is too much dialogue. Sometimes scenes are more like a play and the actors fall to reciting their lines, albeit with great wit. It's a very Australian film. There are many people who are encountered along the way who accept the three main characters, love them and help them, but also a lot of senseless hostility, and the film lays out those issues effectively. The film also shows how there are many grey areas with the characters, for example Hugo Weaving's character has a wife and child, and is conflicted in many ways in his sexuality. He's still working out who he is. He feels guilty and uncertain. It's a great portrait that the scriptwriters paint in his case. The films is amazingly assured and accomplished. A real landmark of Australian cinema.

Steve Pulaski Few films tackle the gay/lesbian genre with such flamboyant and outrageous tendencies, but The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert manages to be one of the genre's rarities. It's an uncommonly free-spirited film, bound by nothing and restrained by no one, with a writer/director who clearly understands and empathizes with the subculture and a cast committed to giving it the respect and the zany fun it deserves.We focus on Anthony Belrose (Hugo Weaving), who uses the drag pseudonym "Mitzi Del Bra" and works in Sydney as a performer for Lasseter's Hotel Casino Resort in the remote town of Alice Springs. Anthony, despite success at Lasseter's, hungers for something more out of his life and his performances; he's sick of being belittled to "get naked" or show skin when he's pouring his heart out on stage before the microphone. As a result, he rounds up his colleagues Bernadette Bassinger (Terrence Stamp), a transsexual performer and Adam Whitely (Guy Pearce), a younger, more obnoxious soul who goes under the stage name "Felicia Jollygoodfellow" to embark on a four-week tour through the Australian Outback in their large RV named "Priscilla." Classic road trip tropes ensue the second this eclectic trio embark on their journey. The three find a group of Aborigines, whom have never seen the art of drag performance, along with a group of rednecks that nearly have them lynched for intruding on their territory. Along the way, the gang gets equal parts feisty and sentimental with one another, getting on each others nerves at times and finding solace in one another for at least empathizing with their desire to be understood and respected for what they do.The Adventures of Priscilla, in order to really succeed as a film, needed to occasionally capture human emotions through a tender, sentimental lens and Elliot perfectly delivers it without the violins and the overblown emotional manipulation. He gives us a lot of time to spend confined with this trio on Priscilla before the emotions take over. He starts off lighter, peppering the film with bouts of wittiness (when the three harmonize the drinks they want in tune of "Twelve Days of Christmas") and light-hearted fun.The first leg of their trip about the goofy, somewhat hostile conversations they can have with one another. The second leg of the film is when most of the antics kick in and we see the trio's interactions with other minority subcultures, who choose to respond to the three in whatever way their own culture has perceived them (either openly or narrowly). Finally, the final leg of the film takes the aforementioned introspective look into these characters as human beings, with their own sense of idealism for themselves and the people around them. This is when The Adventures of Priscilla becomes a bit sadder, but never forgoes the element of good-natured, consistent fun.Aside from the conversational banter being a real hoot, Tim Chappel and Lizzy Gardiner's Oscar winning costume design is almost a character in itself. Chappel and Gardiner bathe the film in an exciting, eye-popping array of flamboyant color schemes and loud tones and hues that make for a visually delicious experience. Brian J. Breheny's cinematography also lends a hand to making the Australian Outback a lively character, accentuating every detail of the land in a way that makes the excursion that much more enjoyable. All the background devices in the film are precise, which makes The Adventures of Priscilla not only an interesting character study but a royal feast for the eyes.The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert also features some of the most compelling and uproariously funny work from Pearce, Stamp, and Weaving, three veteran character actors who continue to expand their horizons with the variety of roles they take. With all of this, there is a general showstopping quality to the film that stems from all its aesthetic attributes and central performances. Like a drag show, the film steps out with a bold, unflinching amount of confidence and persists to exploit every ounce of entertainment and humane element that it can handle and, in turn, delivers terrific entertainment for most of its runtime.Starring: Terrence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, and Bill Hunter. Directed by: Stephan Elliot.

Jason Shaw A relatively low budget Australian film about drag queens took the world by storm, almost caused a riot at the Cannes film festival and drove a million young queens to the dressing up box in the hunt for sequins, sparkles and pink flip-flops! The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of The Desert gave us such classic lines as, "Just what this country needs, another cock in a frock on a rock!" and "Listen here you mullet, why don't you just light your tampon and blow your box apart, it's the only bang you're ever going to get, sweetheart"It is without exception the best and arguably the most successful drag queen movie of all time, breaking box office records and capturing the top of the charts in numerous countries around the world. It was an Academy award winning extravaganza of glitter, glam and lip-syncing with the most outrageously camp costumes the world had seen outside Madame JoJo's or Funny Girls! Uproariously funny and yet deeply affecting it proved to be way more than just a camp outing of tried and tested queer humour. The late eighties was a bit of a coming of age time for Australia's gay population, especially Sydney, it really came alive and blossomed into one of the bigger gay populations in the world. Australia has a reputation for all the big butch manly men, which considering how the modern nation of Australia started, would seem pretty accurate, only it's not, it's completely different, ever so much more vibrant and colourful. It is that vibrancy, that colour and that hopefulness that is so perfectly depicted in Priscilla.Stephen Elliott, the director and writer, who incidentally has a small cameo in the movie as a cute door boy in Alice, says he saw drag shows in other places, like the US and England, which were essentially men in dresses lip-syncing to other peoples songs. In Australia they did the same, but took it in a completely new direction, it became a completely new strange variety of theatre, so much so that he even used to go to drag queen jelly wrestling, pushing the envelope to the maximum. It was this experience along with watching a drunken drag queen at the Sydney gay Mardi Gras, which gave birth to the movie idea, which took hardly any time at all to write. From the very opening you know this film has deep rooted soul, first shots of Hugo as Mitzi mouthing the words to the poignant Charlene song, 'I've been to paradise, but I've never been to me' give the impression of an emotively sad song, yet this is so rapidly defused by the appearance of a lethargic priest and Felicia nursing a baby rubber chicken. You have left in no doubt after that that is no ordinary Australian movie and the jokes and gags just tumble on from there in rapid succession. However it's not all giggles, there are some key moments of high emotion - seeing the graffiti sprayed on the side of the bus in pink paint the morning after shocks the trio along with the audience and strikes a chord with those of old enough to have lived through a time of such prejudice and discrimination and how true those word seem when they ring in our ears, that no matter how tough we think we are, such things still hurt.There are deeply moving scenes, such as the gay bashing of Felicia and the confrontation between Mitzi and his son in Alice, which really seem seep through the comedy to dance in your heart and make you fall in love with the film.  One of the key aspects of the movie is the superb casting; Terrence Stamp previously typecast as your typical British villain, took a risk on the role of Bernadette and knocked it out of the water in a downbeat, down trodden put upon yet completely resilient way. Hugo Weaving is the less visually striking member of the trio and the central character of Mitzi, who really is the lynch pin between the two worlds. The role of Felecia is taken by the simply stunning Guy Pearce who had literally just left long running soap Neighbours, in which he played goodie two shoes Mike and was an inspired choice and oh so pretty. Guy's superb performance takes the movie to new heights and is so good that the he has had trouble-convincing people he is actually straight in real life, even to this day. Bill Hunter a massive Australian character actor shines outstandingly as the gruff and butch Bob, the mechanic and unlikely love interest for one of the three. Priscilla is a beautiful magical combination of humour, catty bitchiness, kitsch costumes, stunning disco soundtrack and subtle sentiment with provocative thoughtful scenes and a delicate brush of honesty. Some jokes are obvious so too is the stereotypical veneer of the characters upon first glance, yet look a little deep as the film rolls on, you see more and more layers being unpeeled and exposed in a gently moving and comical way. It is one of the most enjoyable gay movies of all time; each subsequent viewing cements that sentiment further into fact. Read more and find out where this film made it in the Top 50 Most Influential Gay Movies of All Time book, search on Amazon for Top 50 Most Influential Gay Movies of All Time, or visit - http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B007FU7HPO