Paddington Brown Would Have a Better Friend in Vida Boheme than the Queen.

Uh oh, kids. Watch out! The gays are coming to indoctrinate your parents this Monday Night at the showing of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar. This 1995 road comedy stars Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes, and John Leguizamo as three drag queens who break down in a small country town on their way to Los Angeles. While in 2023, there are certain aspects of the film that have aged poorly, watching To Wong Foo is still a delightful experience since it is essentially a kid’s film made for adults. It's a film that preaches sincerity and kindness above all else and offers the world an outline on how to be a full-fledged drag queen and a healthier person.

Comparing the film to a children’s movie is not meant to be a criticism. It’s not a bad idea to borrow structure from children's films when trying to tackle complex issues. For example, movies like Paddington 1 & 2 are able to talk about immigration and prejudice. Where is the Friend’s House? promotes responsibility and solidarity. Pee-wee's Big Adventure helps people understand the importance of creativity and play. All great children’s films are aimed at helping kids understand an increasingly complex world, so it’s intriguing to find a story like To Wong Foo using a similar structure.

At the start of the film, Swayze and Snipes’ Vida Boheme and Noxeema Jackson have just been crowned New York’s Drag Queen of the Year, an honorific bestowed by the astounding RuPaul. With this honor, the pair wins plane tickets and the chance to compete in the Miss Drag Queen of America Pageant in LA. However, upon finding Leguizamo’s Chi-Chi Rodriguez disappointed by her loss, Vida decides to exchange the plane tickets for a rental car. They select a beat-up 1967 Cadillac DeVille from the lot, though the dealer explicitly warns it will never make it to Los Angeles. Naturally, the trio ends up stranded when the car breaks down in a backwards town filled with backwards people. 

The characters and actors aren’t your prototypical stars (Patrick Swayze is certainly not the first to come to mind when thinking of drag queens). Even so, this setup of essentially foreigners in regressive societies has become a staple of modern children's programming. Films like Homeward Bound are no longer in vogue. You can’t just be trying to get back home. You must instead be making the world more comfortable. The road traveled becomes a metaphor for your own changing perspective and also for changing the world.   

To clarify, this 1995 film is not the peak of queer cinema and is certainly regressive and obtuse at times. However, you can take the sequence where Ms. Vida takes the women of Snydersville out on the town (consisting of a general store and hair salon) for extensive makeovers and see it as just camp fun: a montage of tired women energized by updos and steeped in glamor. This can come across as cliche, but when the yokel men harass one of the women, Noxeema grabs the man by the balls to force an apology. Respect is a two-way street, and this is the film’s theme splayed out with a hammer. Noxeema's liberation from traditional ideals allows her to fight for what is right and show the women of this town that the patriarchy can be rebelled against.

To Wong Foo can sometimes be blunt and overly simplistic in explaining its themes, whether it’s Vida pointing out the misspelling of Sheriff Dullard’s badge before he attacks her or Chi-Chi’s savior in a pick-up truck spray painting her name on a billboard. However, its simplicity is its power. In a story about belonging , esteem, self-actualization and Right vs. Wrong, it can be useful to use a direct tone. Not just in 1995, but even today as we continue to face the same bigotry expressed by the state. Just look at modern day Sheriff Dullard, Texas Senator Bryan Hughes who has authored two bills in 2023 trying to defund libraries and ban drag shows.

In Paddington, Aunt Lucy explains that “If we’re kind and polite, the world will be right.” In To Wong Foo, we have Noxeema’s four steps to becoming a drag queen: 

1. May good thoughts be your sword and shield.

2. Ignore Adversity 

3. Abide by the rules of Love

4. Larger than life is just the right size. 

Noxeema’s steps and Aunt Lucy’s mantra may be criticized by those with the knowledge that actual work needs to be put in. We can’t just go high when they go low. The world is so much more nuanced and cynical, but simple rules are able to teach simple ideas. To Wong Foo may not serve as high art for those who don’t need to learn broad subjects such as basic empathy. However, it can be a tool to teach people who don’t know where to start or showcase the same regressive, dull mindsets of government officials who think they can take away our rights.

Queer cinema can be more than what To Wong Foo brings to the table but it stills has a place set. We should embrace these more gentle stories along with other titans of the genre like Paris is Burning and Happy Together because together they produce a more nuanced view of the world. A broader understanding for the audience to understand and empathize with even more aspects of the queer experience. What To Wong Foo brings into focus is humanity's capacity for greatness and the solidarity of others. It uses the same storytelling techniques that teach children how the world works. For some, that may be cliche but there is no other film that shows an entire town supporting one another as Spartacus-esque drag queens fighting for what’s right. 

Films like Paddington and To Wong Foo nestle close to your heart because they are simple films about doing the right thing. It is inspiring to believe the world can be changed just by being the better person. That doesn’t mean Senator Dullord is invited to the Strawberry Social, but for those people willing to try and make the world a better place, let’s get together and have a great time at the movies.