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Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Liev Schreiber as Vilma in "Taking Woodstock"

So I'm watching Taking Woodstock, Ang Lee's charmer about Elliot Tiber (Demetri Martin), who inadvertently made the storied Festival happen, and in walks Vilma, a musclebound blonde in a candy-pink dress, resembling Mamie Van Doren with stubble. S/he speaks in a familiar voice, like honey mixed with molten asphalt. Holy cow! Liev Schreiber in drag?!?

And how does Schreiber compare with other movie cross-dressers? Very favorably. While the effect is largely due to the contrast of pink frock with Deep Purple voice, his steel-ribbed sensitivity made me think he'd make a great Blanche DuBois.

I'd nominate him for cinema's genderbender Hall of Fame. Already enshrined? Greta Garbo's Queen Christina, Katharine Hepburn's Sylvia Scarlett, Doris Day's Calamity Jane, Julie Andrews' Victor/Victoria, Gwyneth Paltrow's turn in Shakespeare in Love and  Hilary Swank's Brandon Teena in Boys Don't Cry.   (I also would pull for Joyce Hyser in Just One of the Guys and Amanda Bynes in She's the Man, teen movies that dance over the slippery issues of heterosexual boys suddenly attracted to boys, not knowing that the object of their affection is a girl in jeans.)  Also enshrined are Cary Grant in  I Was a Male War Bride,  Jack Lemmon and Tony Curtis in Some Like It Hot, Dustin Hoffman's Tootsie, Robin Williams' Mrs. Doubtfire, Patrick Swayze, John Leguizamo and Wesley Snipes in To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, and Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and Nathan Lane in The Birdcage.

While I don't like all of these movies as much as I like the performances (many of which were Oscar-nominated and Oscar winning), the empathy engendered by a woman walking a mile in another man's loafers or a man walking a mile in another women's heels is contagious. Your favorite movie cross-dresser? Why?

Posted by Carrie Rickey @ 10:30 AM  Permalink | 8 comments
Comments   
Posted 10:48 AM, 08/26/2009
garyk
Anthony Perkins in PSYCHO. Sorry for the spoiler...
Posted 12:18 PM, 08/26/2009
Pash
Carrie, Carrie! You forgot that Schreiber played a cross dresser in his very first credited film appearance - as a character named Chris in Nora Ephron's "Mixed Nuts" (1994), in which he did a mean dance with star Steve Martin. Other than that, my favorite: Jean Arliss/Joan Marshall in William Castle's sublime "Hiomicidal" (1961)
Posted 02:59 PM, 08/26/2009
MaggieL
Well, it wasn't actually cross-dressing (depending on your prejudices) but you can't ignore Felicity Huffman in "Transamerica" http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0407265/
Posted 03:12 PM, 08/26/2009
carrierickey
All excellent suggestions -- and to my shame I wasn't thinking of Felicity Huffman.
Posted 05:02 PM, 08/26/2009
Bob Ross
Best: Lithgow in Garp. Worst: Streisand in Yentl
Posted 05:11 PM, 08/26/2009
Bob Ross
Mustn't forget Linda Hunt's Oscar-winning turn in The Year of Living Dangerously.
Posted 11:28 PM, 08/26/2009
californiafan
Can't forget Ted Levine as Jame "Buffalo Bill" Gumb in "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991). I wish I COULD forget him/her.
Posted 10:47 AM, 08/27/2009
carrierickey
Streisand was just as good a boy as Dustin Hoffman was a girl. But thanks for Linda Hunt -- and Ted Levine.
8 comments
About Carrie Rickey

Carrie Rickey has been The Philadelphia Inquirer’s film critic for 21 years. She has reviewed films as diverse as Water and The Waterboy, profiled celebrities from Lillian Gish to Will Smith, and reported on technological breakthroughs from the video revolution to the rise of movies on demand. Her reviews are syndicated nationwide and she is a regular contributor to Entertainment Weekly. Rickey’s essays appear in numerous anthologies, including The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll, The American Century, and the Library of America’s American Movie Critics.

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All blog items posted before May 23, 2008, can be accessed at http://blogs.phillynews.com/inquirer/flickgrrl/.