To Wong Foo Thanks For Everything Julie Newmar (1995)

Three drag queens (Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, John Leguizamo) are driving from New York to Hollywood to enter the Miss Drag Queen Of America pageant. But when their car breaks down in a small hick town, they are not prepared for what happens. Though the film is too close for comfort to the previous year's Australian road film ADVENTURES OF PRISCILLA, QUEEN OF THE DESERT, it stands on its own. This is primarily due to the three central performances especially Leguizamo's sassy and hilarious Chi Chi Rodriguez. It helps that of the three leads, Leguizamo is the most convincing as a female and one can see why the naive country boy (Jason London) becomes smitten with "her". The ending is pure fantasy, it's unlikely a small town in the mid-West would be so unequivocally accepting but hey, it's a movie, not real life. The situations may be cliched but the performances have some depth to them allowing us to see the men under the make up. Directed by Beeban Kidron. With Stockard Channing, Blythe Danner, Melinda Dillon, Chris Penn, Arliss Howard, Beth Grant, RuPaul and cameos by Robin Williams and Julie Newmar.