Movies of Interest

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I love movies almost as much as I love books and reading.

This time of year the worthwhile available new movies are slim pickings.

I decided to review "TG" movies as rated by Rotten Tomatoes. I realize Rotten Tomatoes isn't always right, but the audience scores generally provide good direction. After reviewing this list I added about thirty movies to my Netflix queue.

I hope you find some value in this list of Rotten Tomatoes audience scores.

1.) Psycho - 94
2.) Some Like It Hot – 94
3.) All About My Mother – 93
4.) Farewell My Concubine - 93
5.) Hedwig and the Angry Inch – 93
6.) Carl(a)
7.) Holiday Heart - 92
8.) Dallas Buyer’s Club – 91
9.) Dog Day Afternoon - 90
10.) A Girl Like Me - 90
11.) My Life in Pink – 90
12.) Beautiful Boxer – 89
13.) Paris Is Burning – 89
14.) Tipping the Velvet - 89
15.) The Adventures of Priscilla the Queen of the Desert – 88
16.) Ed Wood - 88
17.) Funeral Parade of Roses - 88
18.) Boys Don’t Cry – 87
19.) Cabaret - 87
20.) Soldier’s Girl – 87
21.) Bad Education – 86
22.) My Dearest Senorita - 86
23.) Victor Victoria – 86
24.) Mulan - 85
25.) The Rocky Horror Picture Show – 85
26.) La Cage Aux Folles - 84
27.) Outrageous - 84
28.) Princesa – 84
29.) The Skin I Live In – 84
30.) The Cockettes - 83
31.) Southern Comfort – 83
32.) Venus Boyz - 83
33.) Orlando - 82
34.) Tomboy - 82
35.) TransAmerica – 82
36.) 20 Centimeters – 82
37.) Kiss of the Spider Woman – 81
38.) Law of Desire - 81
39.) Tootsie – 81
40.) The Birdcage - 80
41.) Breakfast on Pluto – 80
42.) Come Back to the 5 and Dime - 80
43.) Lady Valor - 80
44.) Shakespeare in Love – 80
45.) A Woman’s Way - 80
46.) Boy Meets Girls – 79
47.) She’s the Man - 79
48.) The World According to Garp – 79
49.) XXY - 79
50.) Better Than Chocolate – 78
51.) A Funny Things Happened on the Way to the Forum – 78
52.) Laurence Anyways – 78
53.) Prodigal Sons - 78
54.) The Crying Game – 78
55.) Stage Beauty - 78
56.) Mrs. Doubtfire - 77
57.) Different for Girls – 76
58.) Hussar Ballad - 75
59.) Tangerine - 75
60.) Normal – 75
61.) Yentl - 75
62.) Dressed to Kill – 74
63.) Kinky Boots - 74
64.) The Danish Girl – 73
65.) Red without Blue – 73
66.) I Don’t Want to be a Man - 72
67.) Pink Flamingos – 72
68.) The Iron Ladies - 71
69.) Wigstock – 71
70.) To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar – 71
71.) Adventures of Sebastian Cole - 70
72.) Connie and Carla – 70
73.) I Shot Andy Warhol - 70
74.) She’s a Boy I Knew – 70
75.) Everything You Wanted to Know about Sex - 69
76.) Gun Hill Road – 69
77.) Stonewall - 68
78.) M Butterfly – 67
79.) Becoming Chaz – 66
80.) Me, Myself and Mum - 66
81.) Romeos – 66
82.) Just One of the Guys – 65
83.) Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil - 65
84.) 52 Tuesdays - 64
85.) Just Like a Woman – 63
86.) Cinema Verite - 61
87.) It’s a Boy Girl Thing – 61
88.) The New Girlfriend – 61
89.) Tiresia - 61
90.) Women in Revolt – 61
91.) He’s My Girl – 60
92.) The Hot Check - 59
93.) Starrbooty - 58
94.) Big Momma’s House – 57
95.) Little Sister - 56
96.) Just One of the Girl (Anything for Love) – 55
97.) St. Trinian’s – 55
98.) White Chicks - 55
99.) Sorority Boys - 54
100.) Flawless – 53
101.) Nuns on the Run – 53
102.) To Die Like a Man - 52
103.) The Triumph of Love - 51
104.) All the Queen’s Men – 50
105.) Charley’s Aunt - 50
106.) Never Too Young to Die – 50
107.) The Amazing Truth About Queen Raquela - 48
108.) Albert Nobbs – 47
109.) Peacock – 47
110.) Cockpit - 46
111.) Ticked Off Trannies with Knives - 46
112.) Let Me Die a Woman – 45
113.) Switch - 45
114.) K – 11 – 43
115.) Peaches Does Herself – 43
116.) Something Must Break – 43
117.) Woman on Top - 43
118.) Ladybugs – 42
119.) Open Up to Me - 42
120.) Melting Away – 40
121.) Prelude to a Kiss - 39
122.) 3 Generations - 39
123.) The Badge - 38
124.) Myra Breckenridge – 36
125.) Glen or Glenda – 33
126.) A Scream in the Streets - 27
127.) Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde - 22
128.) The Christine Jorgenson Story – 0
129.) Dinah East No Score
130.) Ladyboys No Score
131.) Vegas in Space No Score
132.) Shadey No Score

Good luck.

Jill

Comments

I happen to like

Dr Jekyll and ms hide. The remake Dr Jekyll and mrs hide was bad either.

Funeral Parade of Roses

laika's picture

is one of the strangest t.g. films ever made.
It has one of the prettiest stars
but unfortunately, by the end
it's also one of the bleakest
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EteaHqdX6hU
and not something I'd watch for fun
(That would be DIFFERENT FOR GIRLS
or MA VIE EN ROSE, or even
BREAKFAST ON PLUTO,
which was dark but not nearly as much
as PARADE OF ROSES...)

Its groundbreaking pop art style was a huge influence
on Kubrick's A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.

Not My Rankings

Just a reminder . . . the rankings are NOT mine. I used the audience score from Rotten Tomatoes.

If I was to rank these movies I would place The World According to Garp number one. When it came out psychologists were still treating trans as having a mental disorder. The character played by John Lithgow (Roberta) was an ex-professional football player who was the voice of reason. She was believable and smashed the horrible stereotypes of that time.

She simply moved the trans cause down the field toward where we are today.

Jill

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

Eh...

I happen to know that quite a few on that list are absolutely shitty in their portrayal of us. Either as just a joke, or as drug addicted perverts, or even as perverted "men pretending to be women" in order to rape defenseless women and men!!! Seriously... Movies with TG in them are usually horrible.

Mulan should be a LOT higher on the list even though it's not really even TG at all, simply because it's at least a damn good portrayal of a strong woman. The "TG" element is, of course, Mulan crossdressing to join the army. She's not doing it as a joke, and she doesn't actually think herself a man. She does it for honorable reasons, and that's it.

Some of them I've never heard of and might actually look into. There may be a few gems hidden in there...

I'm not going to comment on most of the ones that are decent and truly TG because my reservations about them are likely to be controversial. I only commented about the pure shit because, well, I can't honestly believe anyone here would disagree with me about them!

Oh... Orlando was... interesting btw. A serious mind fuck, mind you, but, interesting. It's definitely one of those more artsy films... but the TG aspect wasn't bad. I'd probably move it up the list as well, especially if you LIKE artsy films. If you don't... Just, be forewarned that it's an artsy mind fuck.

As for the bad ones... right off the top of my head, the highly rated Dallas Buyers Club is absolutely horrid. IDK, MAYBE it could have been a great movie... IF they hadn't treated the TG character like shit and actually gave the poor girl some depth. Yeah. A lot of us DO end up falling into lifestyles like that... but you should explore what went bad in her life to lead her there. Not just use her as a damned prop.

Abigail Drew.

Mulan

I agree about Mulan.

BTW If you want to see a great movie about a strong woman check out The Eagle Huntress. It's a beautiful documentary about a charming and assertive young girl on the Mongolian Steppe. Rated 86 by audience score.

Jill

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

List

Melanie Brown's picture

Does the 1961 movie Homicidal count as a TG movie?

I don't see ...

AuPreviner's picture

I don't see 'Goodbye Charlie -- 1964' on the list.

AuP


"Love is like linens; after changed the sweeter." – John Fletcher (1579–1625)

Good Bye Charlie

It was on my list, but when I looked it up on Rotten Tomatoes I got a 404 reply. One of my favorites in high school.

Jill

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

One of my favs too.

I saw Goodbye Charlie on late-night TV and was simply enchanted. (Except for the horrible acting, directing and Pat Boone.) And my sisters all called me Charlie for a month afterwards, so there was that, too ;-)

Casting

erin's picture

The casting on Goodby Charlie has an interesting tale. Originally planned was to reunite the stars of Some Like it Hot with Marilyn as Charlie, Lemmon as George and Curtis as Bruce (the Pat Boone part, which would have been much more important).

Marilyn turned it down, saying she didn't think she could be convincing as an ex-boy. Lemmon became unavailable while they were futzing around. They approached Lauren Bacall (who had played Charlie on stage) but they mutually decided that she would not do it. Curtis was moved to the Sir Leopold part but he didn't really want to play a villain. Walter Matthau became available and they gave him Leopold and Curtis took the biggest part left, George. Pat Boone came in at kind of the last minute to take the rich boyfriend part which was reduced in screen time to give more to Curtis and Matthau. (Also because Boone was problematical as an actor.) Even so, they kept hoping for Lemmon to return to do George and give Curtis back the Bruce part because it just made sense. Then Debbie Reynolds signed on as Charlie and they had to go with the cast they had before someone else caused a problem. Reynolds was practically perfect for Charlie and it is just a shame that Lemmon did not get to do George.

But I think Marilyn was wrong, she could have done Charlie as a burlesque of herself and KILLED! :)

Hugs,
Erin

(Some of the info above came from a European interview with Tony Curtis that I remember from the 80s, so the accuracy is only about 70% sure.)

= Give everyone the benefit of the doubt because certainty is a fragile thing that can be shattered by one overlooked fact.

At Least Three Sports Titles Missing...

"Juwanna Mann" and "New Girl" (women's basketball) and "Nobody's Perfect" (tennis).

Also didn't find "Beach Ball" and "Ski Party" -- two 1960s Beach Party clones with drag elements.

Eric

Thank You

Added "Nobody's Perfect" to my Netflix queue.

I assume the title of the movie is a homage to the last line in Some Like It Hot.

Jill

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

A few opinions.

Soldier's Girl is good. Very good. Uncomfortable at times, and rightly so, but definitely a must-watch.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch is questionable in terms of its focus on a TG character, as while Hedwig TECHNICALLY is... it's complicated, and very odd. The ending is also trippy and, for me, unsatisfying.

Stage Beauty is an interesting film up until the end, when it takes a dark turn that, while narratively sound, still gives me the heebie jeebies. The fact that they try to play it off afterward as nothing of consequence makes it even worse.

I quite liked Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde. I rented it in my teens (accepting the odd looks from my parents just to do so -- and was quite happy with it.

Both "To Wong Fu" and "Priscilla" are about drag queens, but still have interesting elements of gender in them. John Leguizamo was surprisingly charming I felt in Wong Fu, and Terence Stamp was FANTASTIC in Priscilla, even if the character's choice was presented as a means to an end rather than a true desire for the outcome. In my opinion, Priscilla definitely has more to say of the two, and says it better at that, but both are fun.

Boys Don't Cry is super super sad.

Melanie E.

The Triple Echo

The Triple Echo (1972) with Oliver Reed and Glenda Jackson? I don't see it on the list (or was it released under other titles?) but I thought it was a wonderful film and it strongly echoed (sic) many of the themes featured in great stories on this site.

I've Read...

...that it was retitled Soldier in Skirts in a re-release, or possibly in the U.S.

Eric

Wow..

It was a realistic, moody, sad, and even violent story. "Soldier in Skirts" sounds like a Benny Hill sketch!

Just like...

laika's picture

how the powerful film I, The Worst of All based on Octavio Paz's play about the genius nun (poet, scientist...) Sister Juana Inez and her persecution by the Catholic hierarchy in Mexico was renamed NUNS ON THE RUN

Yes I Do

Nothing is the same with Robin Williams in it. I loved both movies for much different reasons.

Jill

Angela Rasch (Jill M I)

Darn!

AuPreviner's picture

Darn! Now I have this sudden urge to watch Twin Peaks.


"Love is like linens; after changed the sweeter." – John Fletcher (1579–1625)

I liked "Lady Bugs" so much I did a fan fic on it.

Patricia Marie Allen's picture

Though "Lady Bugs" is not my absolute favorite TG movie, I did write a fan fic based on it.

My favorite is "Just Like a Woman." Not so much for the acting or well known stars, but because it hits all the problems we face as transgenders. Wife divorces, police arrest, job loss, friends and acquaintances discovering us, and yet Gerald triumphs in the end. The story line is great.

For entertainment value, "Mrs. Doubtfire" takes it hands down. Prior to that, "Some Like It Hot" headed the list.

Hugs
Patricia

Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt

Just realized

AuPreviner's picture

Maybe you should include Dragonslayer from 1981. There is a woman who disguises herself for much of he movie as man. Of course, she is doing it so she doesn't get eaten by the dragon, but I think it counts.

I remember walking out of the movie feeling depressed because I wanted to ... well, I think you can figure out the rest.


"Love is like linens; after changed the sweeter." – John Fletcher (1579–1625)

Thunderbolt and Lightfoot...

...probably fits here too, since Jeff Bridges' character is in drag for almost half the film. (It's part of a plot to burglarize a bank.)

Eric