Swan Song (2021)

For those people, like myself, who are seeing Udo Kier for the first time in Swan Song (2021), you will be shocked to discover just how diverse and eclectic his vast filmography is. The German-born character actor has dove into characters as demented as Dr. Frankenstein and Dr. Jekyll and worked with filmmakers as notable as Lars von Trier, Gus van Sant, and Alexander Payne. His turn as the retired gay beautician and former drag queen Patrick “Mr. Pat” Pitsenbarger is delightful enough without a proper grasp on these credits, but that additional knowledge only serves to make the performance that much more remarkable. Not just in the sense that it’s one of the only times he’s been cast as a headliner, but also in that his more subdued presence here adds a bittersweet texture to the film’s delightful spark. Filmed in and set in Sandusky, Ohio — the hometown of both writer-director Todd Stephens and yours truly — Swan Song is fittingly small scale, yet a glamorous tribute nonetheless to the real-life Pitsenbarger, a local gay legend. It’s also a film that’s wise enough to shine a light on the forces that sadly force such legends into obscurity; we open on Pat as his best years have long since been forgotten by almost everyone except himself. He’s wallowing away in a decrepit nursing home with nothing but More cigarettes and the monotonous habit of neatly folding cafeteria napkins to keep him company as his fate slowly creeps up on him. Pat is more than content to live his remaining days in solitude until he receives a visit from a lawyer representing the estate of the recently deceased Rita Parker Sloane (