'HEDWIG' OFFERS SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

Who says they don't make musicals like they used to?

Well, probably John Cameron Mitchell and Stephen Trask, the writer and music composer of the ofroadway cult hit ``Hedwig and the Angry Inch.''

Sure, you can see influences from earlier times in the new film adaptation of the play, which Mitchell makes his movie-directing and -starring debut in. There's a little ``Cabaret'' here, a little more of ``The Rocky Horror Picture Show'' there, and a lot of Marlene Dietrich drizzled over the whole production. But that acknowledged, along with a great debt to the German New Wave cinema of Werner Herzog and especially Rainer Werner Fassbinder, ``Hedwig'' nonetheless stands out as a one-of-a-kind creature, radically unique unto itself.

That only seems right. The saga of a Berlin army bride whose slightly botched sex-change operation left her with the title measurement demands nothing less. And, in fact, there's so much more: Abandoned by the soldier who brought her to Trailer Park, Kan., Hedwig pluckily dons a blond bouffant wig, trowels on the eye makeup, puts together a rockin' pickup band of illegal, Eastern European immigrants and sets out on a diner-bewildering concert tour of chain seafood restaurants.

Our semi-/anti-heroine has a not-so-hidden agenda, too. Her playdates at various Bilgewater clam bars parallel the nearby appearances of Goth rock superstar Tommy Gnosis (Michael Pitt, as impressively believable amid all this film's tricked-up artificiality as he is in the scummy, naturalistic ``Bully''), whom borderline-crossing stalker Hedwig has quite a history with.

All of this is mighty campy and pretty funny, not to mention charged by blisteringly good, glam rock tunes and Hedwig's amusing tendency to break into world-weary, confessional patter between songs. But much like Fassbinder at his most behaviorally extreme, the movie's core purpose is to chart a very confused person's dead serious effort to come to terms with themself - even if they think what they're really after is validation from someone else.

For a novice film director, Mitchell takes remarkable risks that, while often teetering on the brink of overindulgence, he usually manages to make pay off. Aside from the studiedly tacky design of both the production and its production numbers, there's a lot of surreal, primitivist animation (by one of the form's masters, Emily Hubley). Flashbacks and fantasy sequences are scrunched into the narrative with the same wholesale abandon with which genders are bent (Hedwig's bearded guitarist, Yitzhak, is played by the inchless Miriam Shor). And the plot is repeatedly put on hold for sardonic sideswipes at cultural targets both broad (some trailer bride endlessly practices ``I Will Always Love You'') and localized (Hedwig plays a hilariously downscale Lilith Fair clone).

As impressive as his high-wire directing act is, though, it's overshadowed by Mitchell's performance. Besides displaying great singing and even some comic dancing chops, he adroitly balances humor and pathos, accesses Teutonic irony like nobody's business and builds both sides of Hedwig's sexual identity to a persuasive synthesis. ``Hedwig and the Angry Inch'' will surely not be everybody's brew, but - paradoxically, like its namesake - the movie's rich swirl of sounds, outlooks and attitudes truly incorporates something for everyone.

``HEDWIG AND THE ANGRY INCH''

(Rated R: sex, language, nudity, violence)

The stars: John Cameron Mitchell, Miriam Shor, Michael Pitt, Stephen Trask, Andrea Martin.

Behind the scenes: Written and directed by Mitchell, based on his stage play. Produced by Christine Vachon, Katie Roumel and Pamela Koffler. Released by Fine Line Features.

Running time: One hour, 31 minutes.

Playing: Playhouse 7, Pasadena; Sunset 5, West Hollywood; NuWilshire, Santa Monica.

Our rating: Three stars

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Photo:

Michael Pitt, left, and John Cameron Mitchell, and share a song in ``Hedwig and the Angry Inch.''