PicoBlog

Happy New Year and Welcome to 2024! I was sick for New Year’s Eve festivities but enjoyed a quiet night at home watching Anderson and Andy dance around euphemisms and giggle with their guests. A highlight was John Mayer beaming in from a cat cafe in Tokyo, a moment that was truly weird and fun. I hope you all were able to take time off over the holiday season to relax and enjoy. While I wasn’t here writing, I did use the time to think about what I might do for January (I don’t always do a monthly theme, but they help guide me) and the result of this brainstorm is something special so make sure you subscribe! 

Welcome to Leguizamo John-uary! I get that it’s not that catchy but I'm going to talk about John Leguizamo this month whether it works or not. One of the most prolific actors of our time, Leguizamo has performed over 150 film roles in addition to an equally impressive number of television, theater, and producing roles. He’s also a well-known activist for a number of causes but most recently he put out a documentary about Rikers Island and anti-recidivism work, which is a particular area of concern and passion of mine. He’s a New York City icon, and I’ll do my best to capture his excellence in four weeks' time. 

Though Leguizamo had held smaller roles in movies like Die Hard 2 and starred in the flop that was Super Mario Bros. (don’t fret I will cover this one too), To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar (1995, 109 minutes) is often considered the project that put him on the map. He earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role which led to meatier roles like Tybalt in Baz Luhrman’s Romeo + Juliet and Vinny in Summer of Sam. All three showcase not just his raw talent, but his obvious stage presence built via his years spent in New York City theater. 

In To Wong Foo Leguizamo is Chi Chi Rodriguez, an aspiring drag queen who is taken under the wings of two seasoned and tenured queens: Vida (Patrick Swayze) and Noxeema (Wesley Snipes). All three are headed to the Miss Drag Queen of America Pageant in Hollywood via a junker convertible they pick up, opting for “style over substance”. The car inevitably breaks down in a middle-of-nowhere town called Snydersville (shot on location in Nebraska) where they are forced to stay while waiting for car parts to arrive. Vida, Noxeema, and Chi Chi work to make the best of their stay redecorating the room they rent from Carol Ann and her abusive mechanic husband Virgil, give the women of the town makeovers, and teach the roughneck men a few lessons along the way. 

To Wong Foo has been critiqued and celebrated, poked and prodded, since its release. And isn’t that the marker of a film that matters? There are arguments that it is just fluff and an equal amount of editorials claiming it a watershed moment for gay characters in film. There are thoughtful essays about its portrayal of drag queens and its dated notions of transgender people. Not just any old movie can do that, you know. 

Whether we like to admit it or not, To Wong Foo was special because of the Hollywood weight behind it. It was not only produced by Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment, but Spielberg himself championed the making of the film and supported the then-pregnant director by agreeing to be her second so she could be insured. (Shocking, I know, to hear that a pregnant woman was denied the necessary insurance needed to do her job in 1994.) Robin Williams encouraged Spielberg to make the movie and did his cameo uncredited. Action stars of all kinds were falling over themselves to play Vida. It very much carried the approval of “straight white men in Hollywood”. And while this is of course not the way it should have been or be, it is the truth of moviemaking at the time. All of this is to say: it was a big film. Which is why so many supporters of the film still believe in its impact today, even if its content is less than groundbreaking. 

It is here I’ll break to mention The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, an Australian film that came out just the year before with a similar storyline. There is a lot of back and forth about whether To Wong Foo stole material from Priscilla, but the overall consensus is that To Wong Foo was already under development. I’m not sure the truth will ever be known to us for certain, but Priscilla stands to this day as the grittier sister of the two films. The characters of that film face far more homophobia and abuse, and it also features an openly transgender woman. If you watch the two together, it’s easy to see why To Wong Foo is often labeled as “fluff”. 

Fluff or not, To Wong Foo made an impact on American film. And despite all of the “heavy hitters” involved, the role of Chi Chi Rodriguez was written specifically for Leguziamo, a relatively unknown actor at the time. Chi Chi is young, Latinx, and new to the drag circuit of New York City. A lot of fans of the movie interpret Chi Chi as a trans woman, but that is never explicit. However, in recent years Leguziamo has agreed with this take and said that if the movie was made today that Chi Chi should be played by a trans Latina actor. (The same should be applied for our gay characters played by Swayze and Snipes.) But all that said, Leguziamo’s portrayal of Chi Chi is tender and honest. And it’s Chi Chi’s perceived naïveté that captured my attention in this latest rewatch. 

Both Vida and Noxeema find Chi Chi’s openness about who she is alarming. They are older and established and with that carry their own prejudices. When the three need to stop for a night in Pennsylvania, Vida and Noxeema stress about going into the hotel and even suggest they just sleep in the car instead of facing potential prejudice or worse. But Chi Chi’s not having it, and marches right in. They’re of course accepted as women and spend the night. Lesson learned? No. Repeatedly Vida and Noxeema attempt to hold Chi Chi back from leading an open life. In Snydersville, Chi Chi develops feelings for Bobby Ray (Jason London) and Bobby Ray for her, but in the end Chi Chi is convinced to let Bobby Ray go for a local girl. I think in some contexts you could read this as, Vida knows Chi Chi isn’t going to stay in the middle of nowhere and it's the right thing to do, but the overall tone is more related to who Chi Chi is. Not her future plans. Even though the movie ends on a high note with Chi Chi winning the pageant, I can’t help but feel she is consistently hindered. 

One thing I do appreciate about the fluffiness of To Wong Foo is that it shows a world in which Queer people can not only live an open life but positively affect the world around them. When Vida, Noxeema, and Chi Chi head to Hollywood, they leave Snydersville better than they found it. The streets are colorful, the women are empowered, and Carol Ann is free from her abuser. And yes the movie glosses over a lot of struggle, and the sexuality of our lead characters, but the truth that it gets at is one I love: our lives are better and richer with Queer people in them. And that is why I come back to this one again and again. 

Thank you for reading The 90-Minute Movie. This post is public so feel free to share it.

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SOURCES:

https://www.today.com/popculture/how-steven-spielberg-made-film-wong-foo-cult-classic-t190808

https://www.advocate.com/commentary/2015/08/13/op-ed-amazing-story-behind-wong-foo

https://www.them.us/story/to-wong-foo-camp

https://www.queerport.org/post/the-cultural-significance-of-to-wong-foo-and-why-we-can-t-get-enough-26-years-later

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