100
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
It’s a tremendous film that was ahead of its time on LGBT issues and, in some ways, is ahead of ours.
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
- Australia
- 1994
- · 104m
Director
Stephan Elliott
Cast
Terence Stamp,
Hugo Weaving,
Guy Pearce,
Bill Hunter,
Sarah Chadwick,
June Marie Bennett
Genre
Drama,
Comedy
Three Sydney drag queens are contacted to do a show in Alice Springs, a resort town deep in the Australian outback. Undeterred by the distance, the three purchase a new ride, a lavender tour bus named Priscilla, and head into the desert. A campy, hilarious, and surprisingly heartwarming film about the discoveries and exploits of these three friends during their travels.
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What are critics saying?
88
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by Rick Groen
Good ain't the half of it in this case - it's funny, it's endearing, it's strangely touching. [19 Aug 1994]
83
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
The generosity and gorgeousness with which Aussie writer-director Stephan Elliott (and costume designers Lizzy Gardiner and Tim Chappel) turn this most unlikely road picture into something arresting - if a tad sentimental - in its naive vision of a perfectly tolerant world.
80
The New York Times by Janet Maslin
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert presents a defiant culture clash in generous, warmly entertaining ways.
80
Variety by David Stratton
A cheerfully vulgar and bitchy, but essentially warmhearted, road movie with a difference, which boasts an amazing star turn by Terence Stamp as a transsexual, Stephan Elliott's second feature is a lot of fun.
75
Rolling Stone by Peter Travers
In this roaringly comic and powerfully affecting road movie, Terence Stamp gives one of the year's best performances.
75
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert is about the most fun you can have with three guys who like to dress up as women.
75
TV Guide Magazine by Staff (Not Credited)
The script is spiked with cheeky, occasionally hilarious encounters, like the trio's stroll through a lazy Outback town in flamboyant space-age drag, or Bernadette's deliciously unprintable riposte to a hostile woman in a bar.
75
Chicago Tribune by Clifford Terry
On the whole, though, it is funny and compassionate, silly and sweet. [26 Aug 1994]
75
Portland Oregonian by Henry Sheehan
Elliott has come up with an ebullient entertainment propelled by garishly jaunty musical numbers, adroitly handled comic banter and an optimistic faith in people's ability to roll with the punches. [26 Aug 1994]
70
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
This nicely made 1994 comedy-drama could be described as an Australian "Easy Rider," with Sydney drag queens instead of bikers and no apocalyptic ending.
67
Austin Chronicle
Where drag is concerned, though, the film does anything but drag; Elliott has no compunction about restraint, and Priscilla gushes with bitchy repartee, campy comedy, sappy Seventies pop (Abba! “Billy, Don't Be a Hero”! “Take a Letter, Maria”!), and production numbers so outrageous, they make the Divine Miss M's excess look like the efforts of a Baptist boys' camp.
63
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
It is done well, yet one is still surprised to find it done at all.
60
Empire by Angie Errigo
Those who find men in feathers inherently divine will have a high old time here, and there are enough hilarious cinematic moments for the gob-smacked rest.
50
San Francisco Chronicle by Mick LaSalle
Director Stephan Elliott too easily buys into the drag queens' conception of themselves as valiant pursuers of illusion, without ever questioning the value of the illusion being pursued.
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