Shannon

Let's talk Hedwig and the Angry Inch for a moment. Apparently, falling in love with that movie also means becoming completely fucking obsessed with it because I haven't been able to think about anything else properly since I first watched it. The more I think about it, the more I believe John Cameron Mitchell is a total genius. He was clearly born to create and embody this character. The most impressive thing is that Hedwig has such a larger than life presence but his performance is actually extremely subtle. He lets the clothes and the wigs and the makeup and the songs be dramatic and over-the-top but the most interesting part of his portrayal is that the little things are the most affecting. He says a lot with just his eyes and his facial expressions which is kind of surprising considering he originally played Hedwig for the stage, where things like that don't matter quite as much - or at least will go rather unnoticed by the people watching from the very back - as projecting and filling the entire stage with your presence. My favorite scene from the entire movie is the "Origin of Love" performance for this very reason; it's a ballad so there aren't any crazy stage antics going on - there's just pure emotion. Even with all of that makeup caked on his face, just the look in his eyes, his body language, his delivery of a certain line of the song, all of these things are extremely touching and devastating. The slow part that starts at 3:50 in this video is especially beautiful. Specifically, 4:08 - "I could swear by your expression that the pain down in your soul was the same as the one down in mine" - absolutely kills me. I've watched this segment quite a lot now and it gets to me more every single time. It's just so perfect yet so simple.



I also find this part really touching.



And I love how adorable and quirky this sequence is. (Ignore the Spanish subtitles, it's the only clip I could find.)



I think part of what makes JCM's performance so raw and powerful is that all or most of his vocals were recorded live as the scenes were filmed. So he's actually singing and feeling the songs instead of lip-syncing them a million times in a row.



That's the last song, now here's the first one. Again, ignore the subtitles - they're Chinese or something this time.



Okay, I'll stop before I end up posting practically the entire movie. But I'm so obsessed. OMG. I rarely get obsessed with movies like this but I am enjoying the feeling.