‘There was a lot of addiction and trauma in my family’: why Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon plays a perfect Judy Garland

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As she takes on the icon in musical drama End of the Rainbow, Monsoon recalls a childhood spent watching Wizard of Oz on repeat – and explains why audiences are ready for trans performers in non-trans roles If these are strange times in America, they are particularly strange for Jinkx Monsoon, the 38-year-old actor, singer and drag artist who, since winning RuPaul’s Drag Race in 2013 and Drag Race All Stars in 2022, has become a huge breakout star. Monsoon, who has the white-lead-and-vinegar glamour of a 1930s movie star, has appeared on Broadway, at Carnegie Hall and in countless viral clips from Drag Race – and in other words is widely well known. And yet, she says, when she walks down the street in certain American cities, it is in a state of “not knowing if someone’s going to recognise me and be excited to see me, or recognise something about me and be hostile. It’s a really interesting dichotomy.” She lets out a huge laugh. “But it also keeps me humble, I gotta say.” We are back...
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In Broad Daylight review – Hong Kong newsroom drama shines light on care home scandal

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Lawrence Kwan’s film makes some insightful points about journalism while letting in a few cliches too

Here’s a solid newsroom drama inspired by a string of real-life scandals involving abuse at care homes for elderly and vulnerable people in Hong Kong. It’s a film with a fair few clunking journalism cliches, and it never quite builds momentum. But the performances are uniformly intelligent and committed, and it has some real insights too; there’s the moral outrage a reporter feels as the penny drops, and she realises that people in positions of power already know about cruelty and neglect in homes. They just haven’t had an incentive to care.

Jennifer Yu is Kay, the star investigative reporter of a Hong Kong newspaper, semi-disillusioned by the job. After a tip off, Kay goes undercover at an understaffed, overcrowded care home, pretending to be the granddaughter of an elderly resident with dementia (she fakes concern when he doesn’t recognise her). The home is a dumping ground for people with a mix of needs: elderly and young people with physical and learning disabilities, all crammed in together. Kay watches a nurse slapping residents while the home’s manager (Bowie Lam) puts on the veneer of a kind man worn down by heavy responsibilities. But you don’t have to be a star reporter to view with suspicion the way he hands out ice creams to a pair of giggling teenage girls with severe learning difficulties.

In Broad Daylight is released on 19 January in UK cinemas.

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