The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert Movie Review 1994

Quirky down-under musical-comedy follows two drag queens and a transsexual across the Australian Outback on their way to a gig in a small resort town. They make the drive in a pink bus nicknamed Priscilla. Along the way they encounter, and perform for, the usual unusual assortment of local characters. Scenes depicting homophobic natives play out as expected. Finest moments occur on the bus or onstage (all hail ABBA). Strong performances, especially by usually macho Stamp as the widowed Bernadette, rise above the cliches in what is basically a bitchy, cross-dressing road movie, celebrating drag as art and the nonconformity of its heroes. Costumes (by Lizzy Gardner and Tim Chappel) are a lark, the photography's surreal, and the soundtrack fittingly campy.

Distribution

USA Home Entertainment, 1 W. Forest, Englewood, NJ 07631-4004, Phone: (201)871-1000, URL: http://www.polygram-us.com

Available on VHS, DVD
Running time 102 minutes.
Originally from Australian.

Cast and Crew

Genres

Musical Comedy, Road Trip, Gender Bending, Down Under, Buses, Deserts

Screenplay

Stephan Elliott

Cast

Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, Bill Hunter, Sarah Chadwick, Mark Holmes, Julia Cortez, Rebel Russell, June Marie Bennett, Alan Dargin, Al Clark, Margaret Pomeranz

Cinematography

Brian J. Breheny

Director

Stephan Elliott

Music

Guy Gross

Other

Sue Blainey, Colin Gibson

Producer

Michael Hamlyn, Al Clark, Rebel Penfold-Russell, Polygram, Australian Film Finance Corp., Latent Image/Specific Films, Gramercy Pictures

Awards

Oscars 1994: Costume Des.; Australian Film Inst. 1994: Costume Des.