Joao Pedro Rodrigues’ 2008 melodrama To Die Like a Man introduces one of the most tragic drag queens ever caught on film: Tonia, a veteran performer who is growing too old for her job and is being poisoned by leaking breast implants. Compounding her problems are her druggie boyfriend, who pushes for her to get a sex-change operation even though her Catholicism prevents her, and her son, who reappears in her life after he kills another soldier. The film, which screens tonight as part of the 2009 Milwaukee LGBT Film/Video Festival, is never as crushingly somber as it sounds on paper, though, thanks to flashes of comedy and magical realism.
To Die Like a Man
Tonight @ UWM Union Theatre, 7 p.m.
