Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Torch Song Trilogy (1988)

Director: Paul Bogart

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

It's New York in 1971. Virginia Hamm wants a child, but the odds are stacked against her. She's single, given to emotionally masochistic relationships with immature men...and she's a Jewish professional female impersonator named Arnold Beckoff. But forget the drag, this is not another La Cage aux Folles; it's a straightforward, very funny love story which glows with fulfilment and promise. Beckoff (Fierstein) picks up Ed, a bi who's not happy about being so (Kerwin), and they embark on some sort of affair. It falls apart. Alan (Broderick), the big romantic interest, pursues the reluctant and disbelieving dragster, they set up home, they fight, they come through it and get ready to adopt. The second half of the movie - featuring a manic performance from Bancroft as Arnold's Ma, the epitome of Jewish Mommishness - is a rollercoaster of politics, parenthood (Arnold's and Ma's), death, independence, reconciliation, and more romance. It's a solid, old-fashioned, soppy movie - Arnold has been described as 'Doris Day with a dick' - and a great retro-romance.

Author: TC 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Paul Bogart

Producer: Howard Gottfried

Cast: Harvey Fierstein, Anne Bancroft, Matthew Broderick, Brian Kerwin, Karen Young, Eddie Castrodad, Ken Page full cast

Duration: 119 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.