Flawless (1999)

Walt Koontz (Robert De Niro) is an abrasive, ultra-conservative and homophobic retired security guard who once heroically saved the lives of several people during a hold-up some years ago. He now lives in a seedy Beaux Arts apartment building on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

Walt ends up semi-paralysed and severely speech-impaired following a debilitating stroke he suffers while trying to prevent the murder of a fellow tenant who had stolen a substantial amount of money from scary, neighbourhood drug dealer, Mr Z (Luis Saguar),

His therapy includes singing lessons from Rusty (Philip Seymour Hoffman), his gay, cross-dressing neighbour who is a singer and female impersonator.

The two can’t stand each other, and both are equally prejudiced: Walt against non-heterosexuals and Rusty – who’s in the pre-op stages of transsexual surgery – against closed-minded straight people.

Beneath their wildly different exteriors, Walt and Rusty, at heart, have more in common than either initially would like to acknowledge.

Both are loners longing for love, and both possess much strength of character, and they are slowly brought together in an unlikely friendship.

Meanwhile, Mr Z and his formulaic henchmen are still searching for the missing money, which is hidden in one of the building’s apartments, and their frustration only heightens their savagery – though this subplot is an intrusive and creaky distraction from Walt and Rusty’s growing relationship and the superlative performances from De Niro and Hoffman.

The film has a wealth of memorable characters, including professional female impersonators Scott Allen Cooper and Nashom Benjamin and Rent Tony Award-winning actor Wilson Jermaine Heredia as Rusty’s drag queen friends; Skipp Sudduth as Walt’s blue-collar ex-cop buddy Tommy; Tony Award-winning actor Barry Miller as the apartment block’s cowardly and delusional manager; Rory Cochrane as a terminally-depressed would-be rock star named Pogo; and Rent actress Daphne Rubin-Vega as the young Hispanic woman Walt thinks is a whore, but is really his only hope for love.

Walt Koontz
Robert De Niro
Rusty Zimmerman
Philip Seymour Hoffman
Leonard Wilcox
Barry Miller
Jacko
Chris Bauer
Tommy
Skipp Sudduth
Cha-Cha
Wilson Jermaine Heredia
Amazing Grace
Nashom Benjamin
Ivana
Scott Allen Cooper
Pogo
Rory Cochrane
Tia
Daphne Rubin-Vega
Raymond Camacho
Vincent Laresca
Amber
Karina Arroyave
Sonny 
John Enos
Detective Noonan
Jude Ciccolella
Mrs Spivak
Mina Bern
Karen
Wanda De Jesus
Dr Nirmala
Madhur Jaffrey
Vinnie
Mark Margolis
Vance
Shiek Mahmud-Bey
Mr Z
Luis Saguar
LeShaun
Kyle Rivers
Mr Pim
Sammy Rhee
Mrs Pim
Hyunsoo Lee
Carmine
Richie LaMontagne
Cristal
Penny Balfour
Tasha
Winter B. Uhlarik
Notorious F.A.G.
Raven O
Stormy
Joey Arias
Gypsy
Jackie Beat
Paulie
Craig Braun
Mr Terzola
John Doumanian

Director
Joel Schumacher