Hedwig and the Angry Inch

El Paso-born John Cameron Mitchell won Best Director at the Sundance Film Festival for this unconventional rock musical comedy-drama based on the Obie-winning off-Broadway production he wrote with Steven Trask. A huge hit on Broadway, this 2001 film adaptation is about a transgender singer from then-Communist East Germany who pursues the man with whom she fell in love — and stole her music. With solid performances and well-constructed songs, it often has been described as the natural successor to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The Angry Inch, by the way, refers to Hedwig’s botched sex change operation. — Doug Pullen