Retrospective Film Review

The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994) • 30 Years Later — confused messaging harms an iconic road movie

Two drag performers and a transgender woman travel across the desert to perform their unique style of cabaret.

The unforgiving sun bears down on three stranded misfits. Practising their routines on the dunes of the Australian outback, the dusty landscape comes alive with vibrant colours on display: reds, yellows, and blues. This trio have a knack for injecting colour and drama wherever they go.

Anthony “Tick” Belrose (Hugo Weaving) is called by his lifelong friend Bernadette Bassenger (Terence Stamp), who informs him their mutual friend has just died. Tick decides that they all need to get out of Sydney, taking Bernadette and Felicia Jollygoodfellow (Guy Pearce) on a road trip to Alice Springs, where a job should be awaiting them. However, along the way, they will discover much about their country — and themselves — that they hadn’t known…