Friday Movie Review – To Wong Foo Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar

I’ll preface this “review” by saying that To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything Julie Newmar  is one of my favorite queer/LGBT movies. If you’re looking for an unbiased review of it, this probably isn’t it. If you want to know why I like it, read on!

First of all, I first saw this movie before I ever came out. Why? Because Patrick Swayze is (was…RIP Patrick) one of my favorite actors. Dirty Dancing anyone? Roadhouse? Ghost? Anyway, I digress. I first got the movie because I was intrigued by the thought of him doing drag. As a dancer, I knew he could pull it off but I wanted to see it. I definitely wanted to see how Wesley Snipes pulled off drag.

Now, I have to admit, neither Patrick nor Wesley were totally convincing as drag queens. They didn’t have me fooled from the word go that they were women. They were though, 2 of the biggest actors in Hollywood at the time of filming so I was very familiar with their work, their looks and their mannerisms. Wesley though, to his credit, really did seem to have worked on getting feminine mannerisms down.

Given the premise of the movie – 3 drag queens stranded in a very small hick town waiting for car parts so they could  get back on their way to the big drag queen competition – I would have expected the leads, especially Wesley Snipes, to act a little less tough in public and to look just a bit more like women to maintain their cover. Patrick, whose role was one of an aging queen, was not particularly appealing as a woman but I think that was the point. That said, John Leguziamo who played the “3rd wheel”, the younger Miss Chi-chi Rodriguez (who was trying to steal Patrick’s characters thunder), was totally convincing. At first, I thought it really was a woman playing his role!

Yes the story line is a hokey kind of camp. Yes it all ends exactly as you expect it to. There are no real surprises. Despite this, the movie created a bit of an uproar and some backlash in the transgender community when it came out for it’s use of straight actors portraying the drag queens. This movie is funny. I don’t think anyone would have found it nearly as funny had there been 3 complete no names in the roles. What makes it fun is the fact that 2 famous actors played 2 of the 3 leads.

I give this one four out of five stars. A less predictable ending would have made it the perfect Friday night relax and enjoy the show type of movie. I’ll still watch it and enjoy it!