
After jointly winning a local Drag Queen pageant in New York City, Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes) and Vida Boheme (Patrick Swayze) win the right and are given the round trip airfare to compete in the Drag Queen of America pageant in Hollywood, California. Noxeema sees herself as the next Dorothy Dandridge, who bucked the trend of most black American movie actresses of her time by never playing the slave house maid. Vida's style reflects her past of growing up in upper class ... (Full plot summary below)
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After jointly winning a local Drag Queen pageant in New York City, Noxeema Jackson (Wesley Snipes) and Vida Boheme (Patrick Swayze) win the right and are given the round trip airfare to compete in the Drag Queen of America pageant in Hollywood, California. Noxeema sees herself as the next Dorothy Dandridge, who bucked the trend of most black American movie actresses of her time by never playing the slave house maid. Vida's style reflects her past of growing up in upper class suburban Pennsylvania. One of their fellow New York City contestants, Chi-Chi Rodriguez (John Leguizamo), is a straight-talking, but naive and inexperienced Drag Queen. Seeing that Chi-Chi needs some Drag Queen confidence (despite her bravada), Vida and a reluctant Noxeema decide to cash in their plane tickets and buy an older model Cadillac convertible and drive to Hollywood with Chi-Chi. Their drive takes them through much of the country where alternate lifestyles are less tolerated than they may be in New York City or Los Angeles. The three have an extended stay in small town Snydersville, where their car breaks down. If they ever make it out of Snydersville, they may be the better for their stay by learning more about themselves while dealing with the issues of town residents and spending more time together. Their stay is made even more precarious when they find out that Sheriff Dollard (Chris Penn), a homophobic, racist, and sexist highway Sheriff with whom they had an earlier encounter, is on their tail.
Leave your thoughts about To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar.
| Baltimore SunLawrence ToppmanFor all its message about self-discovery and self-respect, this is really a 100-minute opportunity to titter at hunks in heels. |
| Austin ChronicleAlison MacorCalling To Wong Foo campy doesn't do the film justice: The film camps it up but still allows us to believe in the characters. Snipes and Swayze are so successful in exploring their feminine sides that all of their future roles should be played in drag. |
| Chicago TribuneGene SiskelOK, it's a formula picture, but the ingredients are lively and combined with style by director Beeban Kidron. |
| San Francisco ChronicleEdward GuthmannWong Foo is pure fantasy and sets up the cross-dressers as avenging spirits of fun, frolic and frisky style. Like samurai cleans ing a village of its criminal scum, they transform Snydersville from a drab, dusty whistle stop to a wonderland of wigs, sidewalk cafes and spontaneous dance parties. |
| Time OutGeoff AndrewLeguizamo's Chi Chi is the only one who looks anything like a drag queen, let alone a woman; yet we are asked to believe that it's Swayze's breathy Vida and Snipes' squealing Noxeema who've got their stocking seams straight. |
| New York TimesJanet MaslinKidron's direction stays flat even when the actors are funny. It doesn't help that the screenplay, by Douglas Carter Beane, is so thin that one of its biggest events is the three main characters' having car trouble. |
| Washington PostJoe BrownScreenwriter Douglas Carter Beane pilfers not just plot elements from "Priscilla," but also stirs in big chunks of "Fried Green Tomatoes," "Bagdad Cafe," "Auntie Mame," "The Music Man" and "Cinderella." |
| Filmcritic.comChristopher NullAlthough it borrows heavily from last year's Priscilla: Queen of the Desert, To Wong Foo is still quite a bit different and takes cross-dressing into realms I never knew existed. |
| San Francisco ExaminerBarbara ShulgasserDouglas Carter Beane's script is so wickedly clever (the title refers to an autographed photo the drag queens carry with them), you come away from this film with the impression that you've had a much better time than you've actually had. |
| Washington PostRita KempleyDirected by Britain's Beeban Kidron, To Wong Foo has a split personality—it feels like three separate spliced-together movies with the same characters. Part I is the most fun, as we watch Swayze and Snipes undergo their transformation, a la Torch Song Trilogy. |