Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Mr. Showbiz Kevin Maynard

Stomps the summer movie competition with heart and humor.

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

The sight of Hedwig and his band transforming a trashy trailer into a glitter-rock stage during "Wig in a Box" was so exhilarating I almost leapt out of my seat. The movie is pure theater, as it should be.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Builds into a moment of such gorgeous rocking that you truly lose yourself in some musical otherworld you never dreamed you'd reach in current films.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The story is told so passionately that it demands as much of you as it does of its performers, all of whom are up there, giving everything.

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

On the screen, the rip-roaring rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch retains all the excitement and energy it had on stage while adding depth, clarity and emotional texture.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

Mitchell retools his play magnificently, opening it up into a vibrant cinematic work.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Clever, funny, wildly innovative film.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

The film's not only funny and weird, it's oddly poignant. I miss Hedwig already.

Wall Street Journal Ed Epstein

This extraordinary flight from the humdrum is not to be missed.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

John Cameron Mitchell credits Plato as the inspiration for his rock musical Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Now Mitchell has turned his play into a raucous, touching celebration of a film.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

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.

New Times (L.A.) David Ehrenstein

Offers an enormous amount of pure silly fun for the entire non-nuclear family, no matter what gender they may be.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Mitchell gives this post-punk, neo-glam rock extravaganza everything in his loaded arsenal of talents. He gets the sound right, the look right, the fun right and - this is crucial - the pain right.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Mitchell, who also directed and wrote the screenplay, originally created this glorious rock opera for the stage with composer-lyricist Stephen Trask.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

If you thought ''Moulin Rouge,'' or, for that matter, ''Tommy,'' was trippy, Hedwig, with its glorious convergence of material and performer, will show you what you've been missing.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

This is Mitchell's show, and his performance lives up to his triple billing as writer, director and star.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

It's a positive hat trick by John Cameron Mitchell.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Wildly witty, but also inventive, audacious and poignant.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Ever hear of a rock musical that actually rocked? John Cameron Mitchell's glorious adaptation of his acclaimed Off-Broadway show might be a first.

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

Cameron's imaginative directing and screen-shaking performance give this rock musical plenty of oomph.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The production is fantastically funny, high-energy camp, punctuated by Trask's infectious score and by Mitchell, dressing in a succession of wigs twice the size of his body.

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

Falters in its final 15 minutes, when the funny lines peter out and the flashbacks get fuzzy.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

This drag-queen melodrama, like its star, perseveres.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

There's a lot more at work in this raucously entertaining movie than cross-dressing clichés.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

There's some kind of pulse of sincerity beating below the glittering surface, and it may come from Mitchell's own life story.

Chicago Tribune Mark Caro

(Mitchell's) Hansel may be small-boned and soft-featured in an androgynous way, but his Hedwig is a force of nature, burned out and jaded yet brimming with compassion and bursting with energy.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

A screen spectacle that beseeches its audience for adoration and mass acceptance.

Variety Dennis Harvey

Despite some imaginative packaging too often proves a drag in more than the sartorial sense. Taking Mitchell's sketchy book far too seriously, the movie grows leaden between its terrific songs.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

It's this strategy (however unconscious), and not simply a lack of directing talent, that makes Hedwig so relentlessly assaultive, heavy-handed, and emotionally monochromatic.