Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001)

Facts first re: the deliriously inventive rock & roll movie musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch: The unit of measure in the title refers to the stub of flesh left after a botched operation meant to transform Hansel, a uniquely dreamy boy living in 1960s East Germany, into Hedwig, who sacrifices his penis to escape communism as the wife of an American GI. What with one soap opera crisis and another, Hedwig finds herself living in Kansas, singing crummy gigs with her ''internationally ignored'' band (called, neatly, the Angry Inch) and stalking her former lover and protégé, Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt, bless him for his teen-faced earnestness), who has stolen her songs, broken her heart, and become the rock star she was meant to be.

Love, fame, self-acceptance, fabulous wigs — Hedwig achieves everything Moulin Rouge aspires to with far less effort. John Cameron Mitchell directs and stars in the riotous, loving, and only occasionally pathos-milking film adaptation of his own acclaimed Off Broadway play, with great up-your-ante music and lyrics by Stephen Trask. And Mitchell has done the damn difficult thing of giving a staged work a look that honors the original medium while recognizing that movies are a whole other shebang. (Emily Hubley's lilting animations enhance the carnival.) Among the fine costars, Miriam Shor, with a pasted-on beard, stands out as Yitzhak, Hedwig's underappreciated husband.

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