Torch Song Trilogy (1988) review

"Female impersonator" Arnold Beckoff (Harvey Fierstein) leads a busy and messy life (over the course of several years): he starts dating bisexual Ed (Brian Kerwin), who wants to marry Laurel (Karen Young) and can't commit to an exclusively gay lifestyle, then he has a relationship with male model Alan (Matthew Broderick) that ends tragically, and finally he adopts wayward teenager David (Eddie Castrodad), but his nagging mother (Anne Bancroft) pays him a visit.  Fierstein adapted this from his own play and tried to trim it down to feature film length (the original runs close to four hours) and while it does feel a little rushed through, it's a clear-eyed view of what it's like to be an outsider in "heterosexual America": Arnold frets about disappointing his family (even though they "mostly" accept him), regards himself as a failure and, despite being overly confident in drag and layers of makeup, shows genuine vulnerability - and a desperate need for love - when not on stage.  A true sign of its streetwise wisdom is how relevant it is multiple decades later and, as expected, Harvey writes himself the best lines (my favorite: "At thirteen I knew everything. Senility set in sometime after that.").  Considering the extreme homophobia of the 1980's, I can't imagine many non-theatre folks watched this ... but he really is trying to not only instruct but entertain his audience: see, we humans - regardless of sexual orientation - have similar problems.  Also, I'm detecting a strong anti-bisexual slant ... so I'll leave it the LGBTQ+ community to calmly and rationally debate that issue.