Customer Reviews
Hedwig and the Angry Inch 
2008-10-04
This is one of the best movies I have ever seen. I actually rented it and kept it for a week and kept watching it over and over again and finally realised I had to buy it! I've had it for a couple of weeks now and have probably seen it another dozen times. The actor John Cameron Mitchell who plays Hedwig is AMAZING!!! He wrote the songs, sings the songs, directed the film and came up with the original idea of Hedwig. WOW!!! There is something special about this movie-it's like a drug. The songs are catchy and Mitchell has a beautiful voice. I would describe it as an adult, alternative musical/movie. For me, it's sitting right up there with my Sound of Music dvd...I love it THAT much!!!
Hedwig is not for the faint of heart! 2008-07-22
I purchased this for my husband. He is a man of eclectic taste, and Hedwig is one of his favorite pass-times. I can't say that Hedwig is one of mine, but to each his own. Hedwig is an almost transgender, there is a botched operation. There is also a lot of music, which is humorous and entertaining. Its funny, not clean fun, but funny.
Brilliant 2008-06-19
This movie is absolutely brilliant. John Cameron Mitchell is a legend and true artist of our time. Not only did he write and direct this movie, he also stars as a stunning Hedwig. After watching the behind the scenes documentary, that is also included with the dvd, you learn a lot of the main players from the first ever stage performance of Hewig are in the cast. The guitarist in the movie is actually songwriter for the musical book of the play, Stephen Trask. John Cameron Mitchell wrote the original book and screenplay. Their genius is breathtaking. You'll laugh, you'll cry, and you'll want to hug John Cameron Mitchell for being so awesome. And high five him. Truly a great piece of artistic beauty.
Simply Brilliant 2008-04-18
Here's the deal, this movie and soundtrack is AWESOME! For those who expect a "Hollywood" A-lister movie, you wouldn't get this one. It's one of those movies in that every time you watch it, it gets better and better. My advice for those who don't get it is keep watching!!
Not much story, but great soundtrack 
2008-04-03
I'm giving this four stars for John Cameron Mitchell, the graphic and animation, the excellent soundtrack, and the overall idea.
I'm leaving out one star because there wasn't really that much to the story.
If the lack of plot doesn't bother you too much, you will probably enjoy the story of the East German wanna-be transsexual Hedwig, the band, the dreary tour of Bilgewater restaurants in the U.S., and the love/hate affair with Tommy Gnosis, who was Hedwig's lover until he stole the latter's songs for his own album and took all the credit.
A--uhm--memorable love story 2008-03-14
Sometimes grace and hope come in surprising packages. The title character of
Hedwig and the Angry Inch, a would-be glam-rock star from East Germany, undergoes a botched gender-change operation in order to escape from the Soviet bloc, only to watch the Berlin Wall come down on TV after being abandoned in a trailer park in middle America. Hedwig gets involved with Tommy, an adolescent boy who steals her songs and becomes a stadium-filling musical act. Suffering from a broken heart and a lust for revenge, Hedwig follows Tommy's tour, playing with her band (the Angry Inch) at tacky theme restaurants. Into this simple storyline, writer-director-star John Cameron Mitchell packs an astonishing mix of sadness, yearning, humor, and kick-ass songs with a little Platonic philosophy tucked inside for good measure. A visually dazzling gem of a movie.
--Bret Fetzer
Much more than a cult film -- a poignant and engaging story of love and loss 2008-03-12
I won't repeat the summaries of this film -- I only want to say it is much more than a cult film but is more exciting and intriguing and fun and sad than most films out there. Unfortunately even New Line decided to market this as a niche product -- comparing it to the Rocky Horror Picture Show. Without knocking that film, which is a phenomenon of its own, Hedwig is in a different league. While the style of Hedwig's band owes a lot to camp and to glam rock the film itself is never campy. It has the music and power and vision of some of the great musical celebrations like The Wall and The Commitments, but has a more intimate feel than either of those. It is, in style, closer to a documentary, and after watching this you will swear that Hedwig is not merely an invention of the actor and director John Cameron Mitchell but has a life of his own.
Apart from enjoying the film quite a bit, I was also quite happy when I noticed that the song "The Origin of Love" is a retelling of the story Aristophanes tells in one of the most exciting of ancient books, Plato's Symposium -- of how in the beginning we were created as a unity of two and the gods saw that the contentment this generated made us too powerful and divided us, so that love is the longing for our other half.
You Kant Always Get What You Want 2008-01-26
Sing along, now: My sex change operation got botched; my guardian angel fell asleep on the watch; now all I got is a Barbie doll crotch; I've got an angry inch!
And there you have it. Some of the wittiest, most outrageously delicious lines fall from the lips of Hedwig, the loveliest Eastern Berlin glam-Bloc girly boy to ever fall in love with an American soldier, only to become the angriest inch in the Junction City, Kansas trailer park. Abandoned by hir new husband, Hedwig becomes a sensation in hir own mind, touring local restaurants with hir band comprised of Korean Army wives. Along the way Hedwig meets and befriends a young Christian boy. Hedwig falls in love. The boy, Tommy Gnosis, steals all of hir songs and becomes a sellout rockstar.
If that thread of the story wasn't sad, humorous and compelling enough on its own, the animated interweaving of Aristophanes' speech in Plato's Symposium is beautifully spun. It is that smooth rendering against the garish and, angry world of Hedwig that the real story of transformation emerges. Resting solely on the fluid dynamic of sexuality, it's easy to go into this film with that in focus as the prevailing theme. Hedwig's effort to recreate hir desired body shape results in a state of being that requires perhaps even more self-acceptance than the original did. However, in hir relationship with Tommy the question of acceptance becomes one of a more intangible nature: can one live without one's soul complement? If not can one make the changes in oneself in order to live with one's soul complement?
So we wrapped our arms around each other,
Trying to shove ourselves back together.
We were making love,
Making love.
It was a cold dark evening,
Such a long time ago,
When by the mighty hand of Jove,
It was the sad story
How we became
Lonely two-legged creatures,
It's the story of
The origin of love.
That's the origin of love.
DVD 2008-01-23
Wow. I would have delighted in seeing John Cameron Mitchell's off Broadway rendition of this unique story of a glam rock star with a less than normal origin. All of the songs are "sing-along" worthy and delivered in the classic glam rock style. This is a sad story of a gay young man, victim of a botched sex change operation, desperately searching for someone to love him for who he is, rather than who he aspires to be. It's not particularly a happy ending, although perhaps an ending where Hedwig finally comes to terms with his / her lot in life. It is unique, refreshing, fascinating, and as bizarre as the story line is, has all of the pathos that make Hedwig an endearing character.
Hedwig 2008-01-20
one of my all time favorite movies, if you like this movie, you should check out Kinky Boots
