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 ways. 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." 

The Queen review

 Number 890 on the top 1000 films of all time is the biographical drama 'the Queen.'

Based on the true life story, 'The Queen' dramatises the events that occurred after the death of Princess Diana. Helen Mirren plays Queen Elizabeth II and James Cromwell plays Prince Philip. Together with Prince Charles (Alex Jennings) they must figure out how to deal with the Diana's death. Elizabeth and Philip want nothing to do with it, but the press, general public and prime minister Tony Blair (Michael Sheen) desperately want to convince them otherwise.

I have never understood this whole celebrity worship/hatred. As is evidenced from the copious amount of stock footage, the general public were devastated by Princess Diana's death. They descended upon Buckingham Palace in their thousands, left countless bouquets of flowers and queued for hours to sign a book of condolences. Thousands of people were upset over the death of somebody they never knew. Conversely, there were plenty of people who never liked Diana and were happy to see her dead. I was only two at the time, but if I was older enough to have know what was going on, I wouldn't have cared. Diana is a celebrity who wouldn't have even known that I existed. Why would I love or hate her?

Seeing as the Queen is indirectly about Diana and the love that seemingly everybody, except for the monarchy, had for her, it was difficult for me to truly resonate with this film. On a content level, I found everything quite meh, but on a technical level this film succeeded. Writer Peter Morgan could have easily fallen into a trap of painting a black-and-white picture. But he ensured that every character was nuanced and developed. 

Nowhere is this more apparent than with Helen Mirren's portrayal of the Queen. It was so good that not only did she win the Best Actress Oscar but Queen Elizabeth II herself invited her to dine at Buckingham Palace. Considering her obstinateness towards even publicly acknowledging Diana's death, she could have quite easily come across as a cliched baddie, but Mirren played the role with a great moral greyness. 

We can clearly see her moral conflict. She knows how badly Diana has torn apart her family and tarnished the royal image. She doesn't want to acknowledge her, even in death, but she also knows what her public expect of her. Eventually she bows to public opinion. I also particularly enjoyed Mark Bazeley as Tony Blair's odious director of communications: Alistair Campbell. Bazely was delightfully slimy and belligerent. But I can't fault the cast at all. From Michael Sheen to James Cromwell to Helen McCrory, they were all great.

I also liked the use of the aforementioned archival footage. It gave everything a brilliant sense of realism and it reminded us that these aren't just characters of the screen. At the film's conclusion, Michael Sheen makes an impassioned speech defending the queen against the constant barrage of criticism she has received for her reaction to Diana's death. Later on, the Queen reminds him that just as quickly as public opinion turned against her, it could just as easily do the same for him.

Although the film's content might not have resonated with me, I can recognise that it was a truly compelling narrative with strong performances across the board.