As this entertaining documentary makes clear, the witty, wisecracking, son-of-a-Marine drag queen was an artist in his own right.

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Superstar in a Housedress (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:18
Fresh:18
Rotten:0
Average Rating:6.8/10
Theatrical Release:May 5, 2004 Limited
Synopsis: Superstar in a Housedress examines the life and legend of Warhol transvestite superstar Jackie Curtis who was a poet, playwright, performer, and one of the great personalities of his time. The film... Superstar in a Housedress examines the life and legend of Warhol transvestite superstar Jackie Curtis who was a poet, playwright, performer, and one of the great personalities of his time. The film features on-camera interviews with actor Harvey Fierstein who played Jackie’s mother in “Americka Cleopatra” when he was 18, Ellen Stewart, founder of LaMama Experimental Theater Club, John Vaccarro, founder of the Playhouse of the Ridiculous, Paul Morrissey, director of the Andy Warhol films, and surviving superstars Holly Woodlawn and Joe Dallesandro, plus 24 other friends and colleagues of Jackie’s. The film includes never-before-seen video and film clips of Jackie performing in stage plays including ”Femme Fatale”, and “Glamour, Glory and Gold”, and cabarets including the legendary ”Cabaret in the Sky: An evening with Holly Woodlawn and Jackie Curtis” (1974). The music of jazz musician and composer Paul Serrato, who wrote and performed music for many of Jackie’s productions, including ”Vain Victory” is featured, as is the photography of Jack Mitchell who took more photo-graphs of Curtis and the Warhol crowd than any other professional. Interviews with media personalities, writers and editors put the work and life of Jackie Curtis in historical perspective. Narrated by Lily Tomlin. [More]
Starring: Penny Arcade, Joe Dallesandro, Harvey Fierstein, Joe Franklin
Starring: Penny Arcade, Joe Dallesandro, Harvey Fierstein, Joe Franklin, Taylor Mead, Paul Morrissey, Sylvia Miles, Frank Mitchell, Michael Musto, Holly Woodlawn
Director: Craig Highberger
Director: Craig Highberger
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Reviews for Superstar in a Housedress
A vibrant, skin-deep flirt, both refined and tawdry, fabulous and skin deep -- probably a comparison Curtis himself would appreciate.
Required viewing for all Warholia aficionados and any one with even a passing interest in the counter-culture of a New York City that exists only as a dimming memory in the minds of those lucky enough to have lived there.
The film is full of flamboyant personalities, and they all contribute to the impression that Highberger above all wants to pay tribute to Curtis' brave determination to discover and express his ever-changing identity at all costs.
An enthusiastic backstage biography of one of Warhol's drag-queen divas, Jackie Curtis.
There are several admiring -- and often hilarious -- interviews with an astounding array of Curtis' surviving pals.
It's an engrossing peek at an era that now seems as meteoric, crazy and distant as the Roaring Twenties.
The most resonant parts of the movie are, oddly, the interviews with his fellow glam bohemians.
What makes Highberger's docu so rewarding is the wealth of material available.
A vivid and affectionate portrait of Jackie Curtis, the drag personality who cut a speed-driven swath through New York's downtown bohemia in the late 1960's and 1970's.
[Curtis'] life fascinates, as colorful as one of the old movies he loved.
Highberger's movie is as much a reclamation of cultural territory as it is a bio-pic.
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