Superheroics Through Drag

Tyler Perry's Madea Goes To Jail (two and a half stars total) For the record, I don't watch any movies I expect to be bad. And if a movie that I chose to see has more bad than good in it, I still get some enjoyment out of it. I just love watching movies, and then discussing what could have made them even better. I have yet to see the "coveted" zero star movie, so let me known if you find one. The reason I keep watching Tyler Perry movies is that I want to be there when they get better. I tried this time to find a new perspective or a different lens with which to watch Madea Goes to Jail. And then POW! BAM! ZOKK! It hit me like a cult, campy crimefighter! You must watch the Madea character the same as you would read a comic book (and I KNOW comic books). You must completely suspend your disbelief. You must realize that, like Batman, Madea is a vigilante and therefore a criminal, but he/she does things for the right reasons. You must agree that a cross-dressing Tyler Perry is empowered to do and say things he otherwise wouldn't be able to as a man, just like Bruce Wayne is empowered by wearing tights and a cape, silly as that may seem. We can't and shouldn't trust just anyone to defend our traditional family values amidst the reality of drugs and prostitution, but we can trust Tyler Perry and Bruce Wayne.

Watching the movie with this angle, throwdowns in a Kmart parking lot and with Dr. Phil mean so much more (speaking of the Kmart parking lot scene, it's stolen wholesale from Fried Green Tomatoes, but at least it adds a forklift). This concept of silliness versus seriousness has been used (the movie straddles two unrelated stories which take an hour to come together) by Chris Rock with his ghetto do-gooder Pootie Tang. Although production values are higher on Tyler Perry movies (and they can afford cameos from Steve Harvey and other talk show hosts from The View), their plots are as thrown together as Pootie Tang's, which is fine. I'd rather watch beautiful people with beautiful backgrounds listening to Tom Jones and Curtis Mayfield over watching an intricate storyline with no budget that would make a better book than a movie. I just wish there didn't always have to be a female who is one-sided and evil to the core in every movie. That's as realistic as say, Joker or the Penguin, which is fine. I'd still rather watch Tyler Perry over a Lifetime TV movie. I just wish they didn't have to be exactly like Lifetime TV movies save for the addition of circus clown characters. The back and forth between melodrama and low comedy can be jarring, but I'm okay with that.

After I watched this movie, I went to the laundromat and saw an actual transsexual, but it wasn't funny like Madea. I'm not sure what real drag queens think of the character, which shares more in common with Alec Guiness (Kind Hearts and Coronets) or Eddie Murphy (Norbit) playing every role in a movie than it does drag. As you can see below, most U.S. drag movies are about straight people cross-dressing for short-lived empowerment and/or escape. In contrast, foreign drag movies nearly all deal with gay issues from birth to death. I think some of the best acting is done in drag, but while RuPaul's Drag Race is the best (and only good) reality TV show I've seen, that doesn't mean I appreciate any movie with drag. I keep waiting to see a convincing job of it, but perhaps the really convincing ones have walked past me without my knowing. I have yet to discover that I was fooled by any movie roles. I organized the following list by genre to illustrate that drag is not all fun and games. For every silly Madea production, there are at least a couple serious leading roles in drag (where the character faces harsher consequences than going to jail):

Comedy - Big Momma's House (2000); I Was a Male War Bride (1949); Juwanna Man (2002); Mrs. Doubtfire (1993); Nuns on the Run (1990); The Nutty Professor I & II (1996 & 2000); Tootsie (1982); To Wong Foo Thanks For Everything, Love Julie Newmar (1995); White Chicks (2004)

Drama - Boys Don't Cry (1999); The Crying Game (1992); Ed Wood (1994); Flawless (1999); M. Butterfly (1993); Mulan (1998); Shakespeare in Love (1998); Torch Song Trilogy (1988); Transamerica (2005)

Foreign - The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (2001); All the Queen's Men (2001); Before Night Falls (2000); La cage aux folles I, II & III (1978, 1980 & 1985); Breakfast on Pluto (2005); The Iron Ladies I & II (2000 & 2003); Kinky Boots (2005); Ma vie en rose (1997); Twelfth NIght: or What You Will (1996)

Musical - Hairspray (1988 & 2007); Rocky Horror Picture Show (1975); Some Like It Hot (1959); Victor/Victoria (1982); Yentl (1983)

Teen - Just One of the Guys (1982); Ladybugs (1992); She's the Man (2006)

OUT TODAY ON CD: MONUMENTS AND MELODIES - Incubus