This is a great rock movie, about a gay East Berliner (John Cameron Mitchell) who endures a botched sex change operation for love, ends up abandoned in Junction City, Kansas, tutors the next Bowie, and then stalks that Bowie (who has ripped off Hedwig's songs) with his own band, the Angry Inch. The film is a sparse story interspersing several really great musical numbers. What makes it works so well is that the story is seemlessly woven into the music, and the music, rather than schmaltzy and obvious, is really fine. Mitchell wrote, starred and directed the picture, but Stephen Trask, who wrote the music and produced the picture (he also serves as the lead guitarist for the Angry Inch), is the star. He has done more than ape a Bowie record - he has transcended the genre, and the picture features a glam opus that rivals Bowie's best; some very strong punk anthems; catchy riffs that put Blondie and Matthew Sweet to shame; and tenderness that evokes early Elton John. All original music, all rock solid, and the band aping the playing is actually the band that plays the music live (no hideously clumsy fret playing here, and no need to hide most of the guitar work, as Cameron Crowe was forced to do with Billy Crudup in Almost Famous). Trask also used perhaps the greatest rock guitarist in terms of a big, blended sound in Bob Mould, formerly of Husker Du and Sugar, and it shows.
The film also does well what most films do poorly in using animation as part of the story. Additionally, in every scene, there are several well-written, sharp lines. Mitchell is fantastic as the tortured and lovelorn artist.
Grade: A.
