User reviews

SXSW 2021 Greetings again from the darkness. It's never too late. We've all heard the phrase, but is it accurate ... at least mostly? Writer-director Todd Stephens met the real life Pat Pitsenbarger in a small town gay bar, and he turned that person into this engaging story by casting the great Udo Kier in the lead. When we first meet Pat, he's living a life of daily drudgery in a nursing home. He's a curmudgeon whose hobbies are folding (perfectly) the paper napkins he takes from the cafeteria, and sneaking a smoke when no one is looking. We also see how tenderly he treats an incapacitated neighbor. It's not the last time we see his two sides.

Pat was once a renowned hairdresser in Sandusky, Ohio. When he is informed that a long-time former (wealthy) client has passed away, and her dying wish was for Pat to do her hair for the funeral, he sneaks out of the home and begins a road trip down memory lane. Despite Pat spending the time on foot, the film has the feel of a true road trip movie as he crosses paths with many folks - some new and some with ties to his previous life. One of his first stops is the graveyard to visit his life partner who died of AIDS. We realize Pat still grieves.

There is a hilarious stop at a convenience store as he tries to knock off the items on his shopping list for the project. Since he has no money, Pat depends on the kindness of others ... and his own sticky fingers. As he makes his way through town, some folks remember him, while others remind him of how long he's been gone and how much has changed. His house and business may be gone, but his memories remain.

Two folks from his past generate tremendous scenes. Pat confronts Dee Dee Dale (a reserved Jennifer Coolidge) who gets to tell her side of the story of their unpleasant business split so many years ago. Even better is a "conversation" in the park with his old friend Eunice (a superb Ira Hawkins). The two old friends toast the bygone days of their gay club, while also acknowledging the new world of the gay community. It's a touching sequence.

But the most surprising portion of the film occurs at the funeral home, where Pat imagines a final chat with that recently deceased client, Rita Parker-Sloan. What a pleasant surprise (actually shock!) to see Linda Evans back on screen. She is terrific in her brief appearance and we've really missed her over the last 23 years. But this film belongs to Udo Kier, and he kills. Pat is known as "The Liberace of Sandusky" and Kier embraces all that entails. This is a sentimental story punctuated by a spirited performance - and a Shirley Bassey song!

A very touching film regardless of it's gay theme. That said, it's the gay theme that makes this film truly special.

This lovely slice of love film documents the life of a member of "the lost generation" of gay men, most of whom died during the AIDS crisis. Very few are left. And very few have had their lives dramatized in such a touching way.

This film also tells a fascinating story, in a very authentic way, of how a "flamboyant" gay man lived-or moreover "survived"- in a small American southern town during a time a few decades ago now when it was NOT okay at all to be gay, especially if your personality just so big than you could not hide your fabulous gayness no matter how much you tried.

Such men often had no choice other than to pursue one of a few select careers (florist, hairdresser, waiter, mortician, etc.) that society deemed "acceptable" for gay men, assuming you didn't announce your gayness to most people These jobs were often the ONLY choice for such gay men.

That said, if you could actually hide your homosexuality enough in a convincing way, you could pursue a other more mainstream career, but if you did, such careers were often cut short if you were discovered or "outed." And to add insult to injury, these outed men would not only lose their jobs, but they would often.face criminal charges, go to prison, and be shunned, their lives now ruined.

Most of these brave men (both in or out of the closet during these times) are now part of history, many tragically eventually dying in the 80s and early 90s from HIV-related illnesses.

Very few of this "lost generation" of gay men survive, and those that do probably still think no one would be interested in their story. How wrong they are. This movie proves that point.

Gratefully, we have arrived at a time that the public, and especially younger gay men, now actually want...and need...to hear these stories.

This film competently portrays one such story-a story of fabulousness but also of love and loss and the realities of living in those homophobic times, especially when AIDS created even more fear and distain for the gay community, especially in small town America.

This story is an important one, and an enjoyable and meaningful film to watch too. It has its sad moments, but also is an uplifting and inspiring story, a journey of this one amazing unapologetic gay citizen of a small town from a few decades "back in the day.".

I give it a bug 2 thumbs up. 👍🏼 👍🏼!

An eldergay has fallen on hard times in Sandusky, Ohio. His partner died of AIDS before SSM, and he had no legal rights to the home he had built with him. His partner's death caused him to lose the toney customers at his hair salon. And, as one of the few survivors of the AIDS pandemic, he is alone and lonely in a nursing home. He waits for death with the other elderly outcasts in his town.

A kind and compassionate Todd Stephens listened to one man's sad story and gave Udo Kier the role of a lifetime. It would have been easy to play this movie as broad comedy, making all the characters black and white. But the movie isn't drawn in broad strokes. Every detail, down to the Vivante shampoo and migrating hat flowers, is perfectly considered.

Watch it with your favorite frenemy,

It took 13 years but Todd Stephens finally return as a director with Swan Song. And personally, I think this is his best so far. Mainly because of the always charismatic Udo Kier who was able to defy the sometimes campy yet melancholic Stephens' narrative. While the film is sorely too subdued or moody for its own good, but at least it still has room for some moving and emotional moments.

Just saw Swan Song, and I was totally taken with Udo Kier's performance as Pat. He is a retired hairdresser and gay cabaret performer who lives in a nursing home. When he is offered 25K to do the hair & makeup on a deceased friend ( Linda Evans); he initially refuses . But he then leaves the home to do the job. We find out why he at first refused to help, and his story unfolds as he walks through the streets of Sandusky, Ohio. He meets old and new friends and each plays a part in telling his story.

Great supporting cast with Jennifer Coolidge, Michael Urie and even Linda Evans in a brief appearance.

A lovely movie about growing old as a gay man, and the lives that were lived back in the days of bars and drag shows, and how gay life has evolved and changed. And how one man , dubbed the Liberace of Sandusky found out how many lives he actually touched.

I really loved this movie. I rarely watch any GL movie, but today i just happened to click on this movie and i shed tears at the end. Thank Mr Stephens. The movie has brought me back to many many many memories. I have gone through the AIDS crisis where many of my friends had died. We are the survivor and in death or near death we start forgiving. Udo Kier.is really really a good actor. I love Jennifer Coolidge. And Linda Evans all portrayed how old age is like and i am getting to be in the twilight of my age and i feel for all of them walking on the same steps. Again, my life started have its meaning after watching this movie. And I need to thank all of the people who made this movie possible. Thanks!

There is much to recommend this movie: moments of absurd, tender, unexpected humor, the brilliance of Udo Kier, and the concept itself. Otoh, I found myself at times thinking that the director was culturally appropriating the very culture he is a part of. Some tiresome, cringe inducing bits about drag queens and a talk with an old friend on a bench that try way too hard. But those are really minor quibbles. This is a brilliant piece of work.

Simply put, Swan Song is the most heartwarming film I have seen come out this year, and the greatest Udo Kier role/performance I've ever seen by a long shot. Though all film fans should know Udo Kier, since he's been appearing in things nonstop since the 60's, this is the perfect time to get to know him if you don't already. I came across this one on streaming (Hulu) with a friend and we are both so immensely glad we noticed it and decided to give it a chance. It's one of the my favorite movies of 2021.

The plot is a bit like The Peanut Butter Falcon, another fantastic heartwarming movie from a couple years back. Udo plays a regionally infamous stylist who's been rotting away in an old folks home, but upon a request to style an old client for her funeral, he decides to ditch the retirement community and go on a mission to acquire his old favorite products, in order to do the best possible job he can with his old friend's corpse!

Precious dark comedy, through and through. Never a dull moment. There are a few cast members and conversations that are a bit off-putting and pull you out of the movie a bit with their amateurish presence, but that aside this is a near-masterpiece for anyone can appreciate the sub-genre. It's really just entirely hilarious and endearing! Perhaps we need more movies about old people...and maybe more specifically, old gay men! So refreshing and fantastic.

For me this movie is about a community of beautiful and unique people. Their hopes, dreams and most of all failures. It's about letting go..

Amazing performance by Udo Kier. Unfortunately few others were lacking but overall it made me feel what the authors intended, and I'm very grateful for this experience.

Swan Song (II) (2021) was written and directed by Todd Stephens. It's a narrative film, but the protagonist, Pat Pitsenbarger was a well-known flamboyant gay hairdresser in Sandusky. When director Stephens was young, he knew Pitsenbarger. Also, Stephens gathered anecdotes about Pitsenbarger from other people who had known him.

Pitsenbarger is portrayed by Udo Kier, who is a brilliant actor. The movie rises or falls on the talent of the protagonist, and in this case it rises.

Pitsenbarger has retired from hairdressing, but he has been called from retirement to dress the hair of a wealthy woman who has died.

This is, indeed, a road movie, but the road leads from Pitsenbarger's nursing home to the funeral home, both of which are in Sandusky. The plot consists of his encounters as he walks out of the facility and heads towards the funeral home.

This may sound like a pretty feeble premise, but it's just the opposite. The movie was overlooked when it was released. In fact, I'm just the second person to review it. That's too bad, because it's really good film. The movie has an excellent IMDb rating of 7.6. However, that's based on the ratings of just 44 IMDb members. I though it was much better than that, and rated it 9.

P. S. See if you can recognize the dead woman, named Rita Parker Sloan. (She appears in flashbacks and in Pitsenbarger's memories.) She's almost 80 years old, and she still looks great.

Udo Kier gives one of his best performances as a retired hairstylist who escapes from his retirement home to create one final masterpiece and come to terms with his past before it's too late.

It's a small scale, quiet indie film with a lot of heart and some great laughs and performances. It's nice to see Kier be given just a substantial role at this point in his career.

Very poetic, colourful, sad and uplifting at the same time. Not without shortcomings, too slow at times, but real and heart breaking. Great to see Jennifer Coolidge in a more down to earth part, without that silly voice of hers. 10 for story and effort.

Swan Song (2021) -

This story ambled slowly and didn't really have much going for it, but it was done in a way that still made it interesting and attractive. It also felt kind of Ad-libbed, but in a positive way that made it more natural and realistic.

As Pat (Udo Kier) struggled with his decision to attend to the hair and make up of one of his old clients and he made his journey across Sandusky, Ohio to the funeral home, his journey was not boring in the slightest, but it also wasn't a revolutionary tale that broke any boundaries or records. It was just a nice little piece that was fun and curiously innocent.

I suppose that it could have been considered a message about the different way of living for a gay person in the 21st century as opposed to how we existed in the mid to late 20th.

The loss of gay specific clubs and meeting places that the older generation had frequented, before Grindr and other online apps came along to take the mystery and the risk out of walking up to a guy in a bar, also somewhat meant the loss of a gay community and culture too. Now we are integrated and I still feel on the outside and I felt that Pat was in a similar position too.

In some other ways the film could have been considered as a vehicle to show the lasting legacy of the AIDS crisis. All those years later and the events of that time, the friends Pat had buried then, were still affecting his decisions and even the life he was living was different because of the decisions of others at that time, which I found out as the story moved along. The answers to the questions that had been raised earlier on all get cleared up and things slowly made sense. It was probably this drip feed of information that kept me interested, but I also wanted to see how things would come to pass when Pat finally reached the funeral home to do the job. Essentially it was a one man show, but the supporting cast did provide opportunities for him to explain the situation more clearly and show more of the character that had been hidden within a plain grey tracksuit initially.

It wasn't actually that easy to gauge a timeframe for this work, especially based on how cheap everything seemed to be, but based on the memorial information that came at the end of the film it would have to be set around 2012.

The film from start to finish did have a great soundtrack too with pieces from all over the last century.

Although IMDB and the Film4 channels synopsis claimed it as such I really didn't see the comedy that it was alleged to be. It was sad and thoughtful with moments of humour, but none of it was forced as I believe a traditional comedy to be. It was all just part of a normal interaction, normal life.

A sweet and sensitive film that didn't exactly wow me, but would certainly be worthy of revisiting again in a few years.

719.21/1000.

My mind unfairly convinced me the film was to be in the vein of 'To Wong Foo' and 'Priscilla Queen of the Desert'. As a result, I was a bit disappointed.

Udo Kier is wonderfully cast as Pat Pitsenbarger - I mean, this is Udo Kier like you've never seen him before! Pat was once a successful hairdresser, and performer. Although the film shows us glimpses of his past, I wanted to see and know more about the former Pat. I somehow feel the film would have been more interesting had they chronicled his life, instead of mere back flashes.

The premise is a bit strange. One of Pat's once regular clients is deceased, and her will stipulated him to do her hair for the funeral, and will be richly rewarded. Due to a feud between them years ago, Pat is initially reluctant, but decides to do it anyway. He then travels mainly on foot to a town called Sandusky. Despite some funny moments here and there, I found the film a bit dreary at times. It was also much more dramatic than I had anticipated. Then again, as mentioned, I had a pre-conceived idea what the film was going to be about, and that was a bit unfair towards 'Swan Song'.

Nevertheless, 'Swan Song' was still entertaining. It also offers a nostalgic look at how quickly time passes us by. We should indeed live every day like there's no tomorrow, and not take everything for granted. We so egotistically believe in a tomorrow...

Udo Kier's great performance makes the movie well worth it. It was also good seeing Linda Evans back in front of the camera again after a long absence - and she's looking incredible still! 'Swan Song' deserves at least one viewing.

Other reviews say it better but I'll say it with less words. Watch this and enjoy! It's a great film with a beautiful story.

"Swan Song" is a very slow paced drama. The story is engaging, with a dramatic ending. However, getting there is slow and rather dull. It is nice to watch a film with such a storyline, but I didn't enjoy it.

In local american history, of the city of sandusky ohio. Its a pretty dementia driven lgbtq+ flavoured story that wont suit the vast audiences, but still a knockout match due to meticoulus and well devoted acting, and pretty loose leach to improvise given from the director. So if you love udo kiers blue eyes, or love the milfy mistress of ''american pie 1's'' Finch , then be my guest. A little long playtime may become saggy for the most senior(and demented) part of the audience, but i may guarantee that your musculus laughtorious will get its yearly exercise if watching. The only thing the grumpy old man cant explain is the title...

It has class, soul, empathy, nostalgia, passage, character, value......and its timeless gem of a movie. Udo deserves critical acclaim for his role that embodies all these. Thank you for this beautiful and precious piece of exquisite vintage.

DVD lacked subtitles for the elderly, disabled, hearing impaired, and ESL viewers. Disrespectful & cheap on the part of the producers especially when audio & enunciation is poor thus a lower rating.

Opening credit, "Inspired by a true icon." The story of Patrick Pitsenbarger a Sandusky, OH gay hairdresser now retired will he perform one final client makeover (Rita Parker Sloan)? Well acted; well written.

Former small town hairstylist, Pat (Kier), has been spending his days in a retirement home recovering from a stroke. When he receives news that his friend and client, Rita (Evans), has passed away and wanted him to do her hair for her funeral, he gathers up enough strength for one last hurrah, meeting all sorts of interesting characters and resolving past drama on the way.

Swan Song is one of the few films to feature a lead performance by veteran character actor, Udo Kier, and he proves himself to be more than up for the challenge. His character of Pat is will probably be reminiscent of many small town hairdressers who were, unfortunately, born at the wrong time and had to deal with so much more oppression than many of the LGBT people of today.

Jennifer Coolidge turns in an equally great performance as Kier's former student/rival and she's not borrowing from her usual bag of comedy tricks. She creates a fully lifelike and moving character for the few minutes that she's on screen.

Swan Song might be a little too episodic at times, but it all wraps up in a moving and heartfelt way and it's one that's worthy of being seen by wider audience.

No pun intended - I can also not imagine this being better than the other Swan Song (same production year I think). I am really looking forward to watching that one. Having said that, if you are a fan of Udo Kier .. well it seems like this was tailor made for him - no pun intended. Actually since he cuts hair I reckon there is no real pun (his character that is).

Like him or not, like the movie or rather the theme or not ... it is quite an intriguing one. It doesn't seem like a stretch - Kier kind of playing himself (something he probably likes to do .. a lot - but that is a different story) ... so suspend your disbelief if possible and just go with it .... all the flaws it has - roll with them, like a hair ... thingy that rolls ... well you get what I mean! Some of the acting is almost as smooth as the joke I just made (that was not subtle now was it? Movie isn't either)

Kudos and blessings on Todd Stephens and Udo Kier for making an absolutely perfect movie. Acting, writing, casting, cinematography, editing, set design, costumes, soundtrack, music selections (two Shirleys.....Bassey AND Horn) and directing... it's all perfect.

(The scene with Pat treating his fellow resident to a makeover brings to mind the scene in All That Jazz when Joe comforts a fellow hospital patient, and tops it.)

Go. See. Laugh. Cry. Enjoy.

There is a whole genre of films about people at the end of their lives going on explorations to repair old relationships and maybe live for real one more time after not doing so for a long time. This is a nice example of the genre, with sweet encounters and gentle glimpses of a small-town gay life past and moving into the present. The main character is charming (with the required streak of irascibility) but a little too within the expected range of an ageing queen. His grief for his partner is very reminiscent of similar themes in other films of this sort; his one "conflict" is more gentle than not. Probably the most powerful moment comes when he learns his impact on a young man he'd never met. It's a very likable but not a very original or memorable film.

I really want to like this film. It is a film that has all the quality of a heartwarming last stand but it just did not work for me.

So practically , the film is about a famous now retired 'beautician' called for a final work to help a former customer as she lay in her last rest.

Sadly for me, its just too much self-aggrandizement without any build-up. Rather than making me like Udo Kier's character, it made me just question the narrative AND how he is revered. It just did not work in the way the film want me to like it. Its just a film I wished took more liberties to build up characters than just have random moments of unearned praises. It is still interesting though.

Not recommended.