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| All photos courtesy of Magnolia Pictures |
The quietest films can often be the most moving since they present their characters and plots in the most unadorned ways. Not relying on soaring orchestral scores or painfully overwrought confrontations can let a character’s genuine emotions and humanity shine through.
Swan Song (2021) achieves this quiet sincerity by telling a simple story about a real person receiving another chance to do what made them famous in small, Ohio town. Pat Pitsenbarger was a hairdresser in Sandusky, OH, where director Todd Stephens grew up. Stephens, in promotional interviews, talked of collecting an oral history of Pitsenbarger from people in town to create the script for this film. The result is a quietly hilarious, moving portrait of Pitsenbarger that avoids becoming sappy.
The film begins with Pitsenbarger (Udo Kier in an amazing turn) being a rebellious nursing home resident who spends his days folding hundreds of napkins, smoking contraband cigarettes, and doing the hair of near-unresponsive residents. The plot begins when a lawyer for one of Pat’s former clients, a rich, Republican woman who has died, visits, informing Pat that she has requested him to do her hair for the funeral.
Having been handed the obituary of the client that includes a picture of her, Kier delivers his character’s quiet sass to the lawyer with aplomb: ‘Split ends and all?’
Kier, openly gay for his entire life, shines as an old queen who begins a literal journey to do the hair of someone who makes him feel extremely conflicted. His subtly and honesty make Pat so very real as he sneaks out of the nursing home and walks back into Sandusky. Along the way, more about Pat’s life is revealed as so much of what he knew in town has changed.
Younger residents, including the bartender at the town’s gay bar, Fruit and Nuts, are a reminder of what’s different and the portion of town residents who don’t know who he is. Older residents, however, reveal more of his poignant backstory and provide the viewer the basis for Pat being dubbed ‘The Liberace of Sandusky’. One such character is another hairdresser named Dee Dee Dale, played by Jennifer Coolidge in one of the most grounded roles for her in recent times.
Pat’s journey through town becomes reflective of not only his story but also of the changing nature of queerness and of queer people aging. Gay men who reach Pat’s age have entire lifetimes of history and experience that are unknown to younger queer people. In the film, Pat is able to shine again and also reap the benefits of being unabashedly himself and kind to townspeople. The film’s quiet tone delivers Pat’s story in such a poignant way that when it ends, it’s anything but sappy.
Swan Song is currently streaming on Hulu.
—Eric Beach