Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Hedwig and the Angry Inch (2001) — watch online on iFILM the rock musical written, directed by and starring John Cameron Mitchell. 95 minutes, US production; the tagline "an anatomically incorrect rock odyssey" is doing honest work.

Hedwig grew up in East Berlin and got out — thanks to a botched gender-reassignment surgery that left the titular inch behind. Now fronting her band The Angry Inch, she plays the fast-food bars and strip-mall venues along the tour route of Tommy Gnosis, the rock star she claims she invented, taught, and lost. The whole film is structured as a live show: Hedwig performs, tells her story between songs, and slowly makes clear how much she is not over any of it.

Mitchell and composer Stephen Trask developed the show off-Broadway from 1998, and the film version landed the Sundance Audience Award and Director's Award in 2001. The music — glam, punk, and something genuinely personal — carries the emotional weight that dialogue alone couldn't. Hedwig is a character about the gap between who you are and what the world made of you; the film is funnier and sharper about that than most dramas that try to tackle the same territory straight. Stream Hedwig and the Angry Inch online on iFILM.