The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert

Two drag performers and a transgender woman board a tour bus they have named Priscilla and head from Sydney into the outback. They perform in towns along the way, meeting applause in some places and hostility in others. Stephan Elliott wrote and directed. Terence Stamp, Hugo Weaving and Guy Pearce lead, with Bill Hunter in the cast. The parts were written from real drag performers, but once the financing grew the originally intended cast was replaced by bankable actors. The budget was 1.8 million Australian dollars. It took 29.7 million worldwide and 18.5 million in Australia, making it the fifth-highest-grossing Australian film domestically at the time. It won Best Costume Design at the 67th Academy Awards. Rotten Tomatoes sits at 94 percent, with critics finding it surprisingly tender and thoughtful alongside the comedy. It counts as one of the films that carried LGBT characters to a mainstream audience, and it became a stage musical in 2006. The bus itself was rediscovered in 2019 and is being restored for museum display. Who it is for: viewers who like road films, drag numbers and an eighties and nineties pop repertoire. Who it is not for: anyone measuring its jokes against today's standards. Some lines and portrayals show their age.