To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar

To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar is a 1995 American road comedy-drama film directed by Beeban Kidron and starring Wesley Snipes, Patrick Swayze, and John Leguizamo as three New York City drag queens who embark on a road trip. Its title refers to an iconic autographed photo of Julie Newmar they carry with them on their journey. Newmar also has a cameo appearance in the film as herself.

The film was released by Universal Pictures in the United States on September 8, 1995, and held the number-one spot at the North American box office for two weeks with a worldwide gross of $47.8 million against a $30 million budget. Critical response was mixed, with particular criticism towards the plot and its familiar elements, but the performances of Swayze, Snipes, and Leguizamo were lauded. It has since become a cult favorite amongst the LGBT community. At the 53rd Golden Globe Awards, Swayze was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy, and Leguizamo was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture.

World Golf Hall of Fame member Juan Antonio "Chi-Chi" Rodríguez sued Universal Pictures for defamation, especially involving the use of his name in the film, eventually settling on undisclosed terms.

Plot

After tying for the win in New York City's "Drag Queen of the Year" contest, Noxeema Jackson and Vida Boheme win a trip to Hollywood to take part in the even bigger "Drag Queen of America" pageant. Before they depart, Vida persuades Noxeema to take along the inexperienced "drag princess" Chi-Chi Rodriguez as their protégé (they initially refer to him simply as a "boy in a dress" rather than as a full-fledged drag queen). To do this, they cash in their plane tickets to a friend, John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt, and use the money to buy a yellow convertible 1967 Cadillac DeVille. They set off for Los Angeles in it, carrying with them an iconic autographed photo of Julie Newmar (signed "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar") that Vida took from a restaurant wall.

While on the road, they are pulled over by Sheriff Dollard, who hurls racial slurs then forces Vida out of the car and tries to rape her. Vida strikes him, and he is knocked unconscious. He is presumed dead, and the queens drive off. At a rest stop, they recover from the incident, but their car breaks down. Bobby Ray, a young man from the nearby small town of Snydersville, happens to pass by and gives them a ride to a bed and breakfast inn. The inn is owned by Carol Ann and her abusive car repairman husband, Virgil.

They are stranded in the town for the weekend waiting for the replacement part for their car. Chi-Chi is harassed by a group of rednecks but is saved by Bobby Ray. While volunteering to help with the town's Strawberry Social, they decide the town's women need a day with them getting their hair done, picking out new outfits, and talking in a café. While searching for the new outfits, they are ecstatic to find vintage fashions from the 1960s in the town's clothing store and give the female residents (and themselves) a makeover.

Following their makeover, they are abused by the same rednecks that attempted to harass Chi-Chi. Fed up, Noxeema handles the situation in a typical New York City manner and teaches their ringleader a lesson in manners by making him apologize and compliment the female residents. Vida, Noxeema, and Chi-Chi do what they can to be positive, and they set out to improve the lives of the townspeople, including offering assistance in organizing the Strawberry Social. Meanwhile, Sheriff Dollard is ridiculed by his colleagues, who believe he was beaten up by a girl. He goes in search of the drag queens.

Vida becomes acutely aware of Carol Ann's abuse at the hands of Virgil and, one night, decides to intervene, beating Virgil up before throwing him out of the house. Carol Ann is able to repair their car, but they remain for the Strawberry Social. Carol Ann reveals to Vida that she knew she was a drag queen all along due to her Adam's apple.

Virgil runs into Sheriff Dollard at a bar, and they realize that the newcomers are the same people Dollard has been searching for. They head back to Snydersville, and Dollard demands that the townspeople turn them over. The other townspeople, who now realize that their new friends are not women, devise a ruse to protect them. One by one, they confront Dollard, each one claiming to be a drag queen (in a similar fashion to Spartacus). Dollard is humiliated and flees. The Strawberry Social commences with everyone dressed in vibrant red outfits. The townspeople then say goodbye to Noxeema, Vida, and Chi-Chi as they prepare to leave. In honor of their friendship, Vida gives Carol Ann the autographed photo of Julie Newmar that has accompanied them on their trip.

They eventually make it to Los Angeles where Chi-Chi, after having received many tips from Vida and Noxeema during their ordeal, wins the title of Drag Queen of the Year. The crown is presented by Julie Newmar herself.

Cast

Cameo appearances

Production

Development

Writer Douglas Carter Beane originally envisioned the script as a stage play but changed his mind when he realized putting a car on stage might not work.

The script found its way to Mitch Kohn, then a development executive at Amblin Entertainment. Kohn passed the script along to his boss Steven Spielberg, who "loved it". Though advertising companies wanted to change the film's title to the shorter Ladies' Night or She's a Lady, Beane's script managed to keep the original title, which came from an autographed picture of Julie Newmar that Beane saw on the wall of a Times Square Chinese restaurant in the mid-1980s.

Casting

When it came to casting the leading men, Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo (for whom the role of Chi-Chi Rodriguez was specifically written) both immediately said yes. Patrick Swayze was one of the last actors to audition for Vida. Director Beeban Kidron said that it was ultimately Swayze's walk that sealed the deal, saying "Swayze had his own makeup people transform him into a woman, and he insisted that he and Beeban take a walk around the city to prove he could pass as a woman" and "With his beauty and dancer's grace, he did just that. He had the job."

Filming

Filming took place from July to October 1994. Film locations in New Jersey included Jersey City (site of the Canton Restaurant in which the opening restaurant scenes were shot) and Montclair. Much of the film was shot on location in Nebraska in the areas of Loma, Lincoln, and Omaha.

In interviews and recollections with actors and crew after the film, the production of To Wong Foo has been described as "a tough shoot", partly due to the discomfort the male leads experienced with their extensive makeup and costumes. On location filming and a 4½-month-long shoot also contributed to friction among cast and crew. The success of Priscilla, along with the popularity of drag queens like RuPaul and the 1990 documentary Paris Is Burning, is credited with helping pave the way for To Wong Foo. It consists of eleven tracks:

Music and songs not included in the soundtrack: It opened at the number-one position with $9 million Its lifetime box-office gross revenue totaled worldwide. The edition includes the behind-the-scenes documentary Easy Rider in Dresses: A Look Back at the Making of To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar, which features interviews with screenwriter Douglas Carter Beane, director Beeban Kidron, and John Leguizamo. In Sweden, the film was titled High Heels and released in May 1996 on VHS.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 48% based on 46 reviews, with an average rating of 5.4/10. The site's consensus states: "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar seeks to celebrate individuality, but is too timid and predictable to achieve its admittedly noble aims." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 60 based on reviews from 24 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade "B+" on scale of A to F.

Though critical reviews were mixed, the performances of the three leads were roundly praised. Joe Brown of The Washington Post called the film "fiercely funny" and wrote, "Three snaps up for Patrick Swayze, Wesley Snipes and John Leguizamo, who walk the walk, and work it." Emanuel Levy of Variety gave a mixed review but wrote, "Sporting blond wigs, Snipes admirably wiggles his hips while wearing high-heeled red shoes. Using a low register, Swayze also excels as a man still suffering from parental rejection. Shining throughout is the brilliant Leguizamo, as the Latino spitfire who needs to prove to his comrades that he's more than 'a mere boy in a dress.

Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote, "What is amazing is how the movie manages to be funny and amusing while tippy-toeing around (a) sex, (b) controversy and (c) any originality in the plot. Credit for that belongs to Swayze, Snipes and Leguizamo, who are surprisingly good at playing drag queens." While Ebert gave the film stars out of four, his colleague Gene Siskel gave a more positive review and predicted an Oscar nomination for Swayze.

Multiple critics pointed out the film's similarities to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert and said To Wong Foo was subpar in comparison due to the predictability of its plot, script and tonal unevenness. The decision to have the leads spend most of the film in drag, even going to bed in their wigs and makeup, was also criticized as straining credulity. The film's omission of "any hint of gay sexuality" was noted by Janet Maslin of The New York Times,

The Austin Chronicles Alison Macor shared a similar sentiment, writing that while the film's sentimentality may go too far for some, To Wong Foo "is such a delight that it's easy to overlook the few awkward moments", adding, "The film camps it up but still allows us to believe in the characters."

Emanuel Levy concluded though the film "is not as outrageous or funny as [Priscilla] ... it still offers some rewards as mainstream entertainment" and that "ultimately, the comedy comes across as a celebration of openness, alternative lifestyles and bonding, all life-affirming values that in the 1990s are beyond reproach—or real controversy".

The film was nominated for Outstanding Film at the 1996 GLAAD Media Awards.

Legacy

To Wong Foo is considered groundbreaking for being the first mainstream Hollywood production to depict drag queens. Rita Kempley of The Washington Post wrote that in comparison to previous films that featured cross-dressing like Some Like It Hot or Tootsie, "The heroines [in To Wong Foo] aren't cross-dressing to escape the mob or to prove a point, they're just being true to their nature."

In a 2019 retrospective piece about the film, writer Naveen Kumar noted "the film's language and understanding of gender variance is undoubtedly limited as a product of its time" and that the film "[blended] iterations of queer experience that tend to have clearer distinctions in the real world, and for which we have more nuanced language today".

Of the leads being in drag for the duration of the film, some critics said this was an intentional part of the film's camp element. Kumar added, "That To Wong Foos drag performances remain completely unbroken throughout the film's entirety heightens the movie's extreme emphasis on beauty and artifice" and that the film is very "conscious of its ironies [as] Swayze and Snipes were both box-office draws known for hypermasculine and romantic leading roles; the perceived incongruity of dressing them in drag is part of what fuels the comedy". In an interview, Beane stated that he had originally written To Wong Foo for the stage and had retained stage rights when the screenplay was produced. The musical premiered at the Hope Mill Theatre in Manchester on October 21, 2023.