Enter the Drag Dragon
| Enter the Drag Dragon | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Lee Demarbre |
| Written by | Mark Pollesel |
| Starring | Sam Kellerman Jade London Matt Miwa Lloyd Kaufman |
| Cinematography | Randy Smith Petr Maur Robert Patterson |
| Edited by | Lee Demarbre |
| Music by | Dave Bignell John Carroll |
Production company | |
Release date |
|
Running time | 99 minutes |
| Country | Canada |
| Language | English |
Enter the Drag Dragon is a Canadian action comedy film, directed by Lee Demarbre and released in 2023.[1] Billed as "world’s first ever drag queen, martial arts, comedy", the film centres on Crunch, a drag queen and amateur detective in Ottawa who is drawn into a strange criminal underworld of construction goons, anti-gay Christian vigilantes and an Aztec mummy, when asked by a client to help find a lost dog.[2]
Crunch is portrayed by three different actors, Sam Kellerman, Jade London and Matt Miwa, over the course of the film, with the narrative rationale being that he is hit by a car more than once and has to have his face reconstructed by plastic surgeons.[2]
The film's cast also includes B-movie filmmaker Lloyd Kaufman in a small supporting role as a villainous construction foreman.[2]
The film premiered on January 27, 2023, at Ottawa's Mayfair Theatre,[3] before opening on a tour of various independent and repertory cinemas across Ontario in March, including the Fox Theatre in Toronto, the Apollo Cinema in Kitchener, the Sudbury Indie Cinema Co-op in Sudbury, the Gateway International Film Festival in North Bay, and the Playhouse Cinema in Hamilton.[1]
Critical response
Jim Slotek of Original Cin rated the film "Z-plus", writing that "you'll know whether you want to see Enter the Drag Dragon if you’ve enjoyed the work of John Waters or Troma’s Lloyd Kaufman, of The Toxic Avenger fame.[2]
Richard Crouse rated the film three and a half stars, writing that "Enter the Drag Dragon knows who its audience is. It is an anarchic, queer gorefest that owes a debt to everyone from Bruce Lee and Russ Meyer to Luis Buñuel and RuPaul. Demarbre is obviously a student of Midnight Madness genre, and delivers, for better and for worse, a movie that simultaneously pays homage to the form while reinventing it for a new generation."[4]
References
- 1 2 Andrew Mack, "ENTER THE DRAG DRAGON: Watch This NSFW Clip From the World's First Drag-Fu, Action-Horror-Comedy". Screen Anarchy, February 21, 2023.
- 1 2 3 4 Jim Slotek, "Enter the Drag Dragon: Lowering the Bar for Fun, Zombie Fights and Dildo Nunchucks". Original Cin, March 3, 2023.
- ↑ Denis Armstrong, "Local filmmaker Lee Demarbre loves making movies". CityNews, February 1, 2023.
- ↑ Richard Crouse, ENTER THE DRAG DRAGON: 3 ½ STARS FOR FANS OF KITSCH. “psychotronic cinema.”. RichardCrouse.ca.
External links
- 2023 films
- 2023 action comedy films
- 2023 LGBTQ-related films
- Canadian action comedy films
- 2023 Canadian films
- Films directed by Lee Demarbre
- Films shot in Ottawa
- Films set in Ottawa
- Canadian drag (entertainment)-related films
- LGBTQ-related crime comedy films
- 2020s LGBTQ-related comedy films
- Canadian martial arts films
- LGBTQ culture in Ottawa