The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert review — embracing its identity in a rare, refreshing, talented way

☆☆☆☆☆

Two drag queens and a transgender woman (Hugo Weaving, Guy Pearce, & Terence Stamp) travel through the Australian outback to a show in a remote town on a tour bus they've called Priscilla in Stephan Elliott's 1994 queer road comedy.

Spoiler ahead.

With absolutely no dull scenes throughout, this gem of a film is absolutely charming. With a nuanced view of homophobia, transphobia, and queer identity under a cultural lens, paired with some heatstroke surrealism and fabulous costuming, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert was certainly ahead of its time.

In some ways, it falls into gross stereotypes from time to time, such as the very outdated mail order bride character, Cynthia, but it stays true to itself through and through. The characters' personalities shine just as brightly and distinctively as their dresses. The film blends nicely between comedy and drama, often dealing with the very real problems LGBT+ people have to go through in their lives; Weaving's character Tick/Mitzi's past and marriage to a woman, Stamp's character Bernadette's constant misgendering and the danger that comes with it, Pearce's character Adam/Felicia falling victim to a hate-crime. Along with these, there's a part in the film where they need to repaint the bus because someone sprayed "AIDS FUCKERS GO HOME" over the side. It gets dark at certain points, making the plot even out with a genuine and tender view into topics that are so unfortunately common for many people in the community.

To juxtapose the dark realism of some of the situations, the comedy is daft and a little gross - including but not limited to Adam/Felicia's ABBA turd in a jar and the ping-pong balls which I will never look at the same again.

There is such a distinctive, alternative visual appeal to the film that I haven't seen in anything else. It's bright, clashing, colourful, Elliott's cinematography allowing the landscape and actors to work amazingly together. Additionally, the soundtrack compliments this, opening with Mitzi lip syncing to Charlene's I've Never Been to Me, and the scene at the end with Mitzi and Felicia lip syncing to Mamma Mia might be one of my favourites in the whole film. Who doesn't love a bit of ABBA, right?

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is a film with a good lot of heart and charm, and the ability to remain funny and determined in the face of adversity, bigotry, and struggles, looking good as it does so.