The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is about three drag queens from Sydney who need a change of scenery. When they are offered a job on the other side of the continent in Alice Springs, they acquire an old bus and set off into the Australian desert. Along the way they scandalise, delight and enrage the locals.

I dare call the film a gay comedy, for its humour is very loud and below the belt, but the film also has a more serious side. The older transsexual Bernadette is going through a crisis because her partner has just died, but there is hope when a local gentleman becomes more than usually fond of her. Guy Pearce plays the trio's unstoppable and crazy clown Adam, who is simply gay, like Tick. It is rather fun to see Pearce, who otherwise radiates machismo and is currently playing an iron man in "L. A. Confidential", being camp and feminine. Tick grows more and more nervous as the bus approaches Alice Springs, for it is his wife, who works at a hotel, who has hired them, and at the same time Tick is also to meet his son, whom he has not seen for many years.

There is a suitable amount of song-and-dance numbers to 70s pop. The drag stars' splendid costumes form an effective contrast to the barren, monochrome desert landscape.