The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert review

 Number 826 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 1994 Australian road-comedy film 'the Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert.'

Adam "Felicia" Whitely (Guy Pearce) and Anthony "Mitzi" Belrose (Hugo Weaving) are two drag queens in Sydney Australia. Joined by their transsexual friend Bernadette (Terrence Stamp,) the three embark on an epic road trip to Alice Springs under the promise of a new show. They travel in a bus they name Priscilla. Along the way they discover new things about themselves and each other.

This was a quiet, but powerful film about a topic that you wouldn't have often seen in 1990's cinema. This and Philadelphia are the only 90's films that I can think of that so brilliantly tackle the theme of LGBTQ+ identity. In fact, Priscilla was lauded for its positive portrayal of the LGBTQ+ community. It would have been all too easy to have mischaracterised the characters as either gross cartoons or helpless victims, but Felicia, Mitzi and Bernadette are neither.

They are all fully fleshed-out humans with their own flaws and imperfections. Yes, they have all experienced traumatic events yet they stay positive. This is no more evident than with Adam who gets his own back on his abusive uncle by trapping his ping pongs in a bath drain. Far from being a victim, he has lots of agency. And when he adopts his Felicia persona, he becomes larger-than-life. Yes, he is obnoxious and annoying, but that's supposed to be the point. He is unapologetically himself.

This contrasts with the transsexual Bernadette who is more reserved and cynical about life. But like everybody else she is just looking for acceptance which she eventually finds in her love interest of Bob. Terrence Stamp was excellent in the role.

Mitzi is somewhere in-between the two, often acting as a mediator to their quarrelsome way. If anything it showed the versatility of Hugo Weaving. A few years later, he would go onto play the bad guy in the Matrix and then the elf-lord Elrond in the Lord of the Rings. The same can be said for Guy Pearce who has played a range of characters.

Along the way, the trio experience horrific trans/homophobic abuse - again these themes were tackled with care and sensitivity. But there was also plenty of laughs to stop things getting too dour like with Bob's mail-order Filipina wife. And, of course, the costumes were just brilliant. No wonder it won the best Costume Design Oscar.

I did enjoy Priscilla. If I were to describe it in three words, it would be "absolutely fabulous, darling."