Cecil
B. Demented (2000, 87 min, US)
John Waters takes us on a trip through his obsessions in this
satiric attack on commercial Hollywood movies.
Cecil B. Demented (Dorff) is a director with a vision,
one of a world without movies like Gump Again and Patch
Adams…the Director's Cut! Cecil and his band of former porn
stars, drug addicts, satanists and social outcasts kidnap Honey
Whitlock (Griffith) an A-Star who makes crappy large-budget movies
to star in their new film, Raving Lunatic. The movie has a vague
plot attacking Hollywood movies and involves actual attacks on the
Hollywood system. The crew wear tatoos of Water's favorite
directors; Sam Fuller, Sam Peckinpah, RW Fassbinder, Kenneth Anger
and William Castle. Using the old theaters of Baltimore as stage
sets, pitting family movie fans against Kung-Fu fans, Waters has
neatly tucked his obsessions into another wonderful Midnight
Movie.
Stephen Dorff, Melanie Griffith, Patricia
Hearst, Mink Stole, Ricki Lake, Alicia Witt, Kevin Nealon, Adrian
Grenier.
Cry
Baby (1990, 85 min, US)
Johnny Depp is a hot-rodding, guitar-strumming
Baltimore juvenile delinquent whose swaggering style and
tear-making abilities capture the heart of prissy rich girl
Allison, a gal just iching to go bad. This campy, music-filled
peon to '60s teen flicks makes for great PG-13 fun.
Johnny Depp, Troy Donohue, Willem Dafoe, David
Nelson, Patricia Hearst, Traci Lords, Ricki Lake, Susan Tyrrell,
Joe Dallesandro.
Desperate
Living (1977, 90 min, US)
Visit Grizelda, Queen Carlotta, Princess Coo-Coo
and the denizens of "Mortville" in this white-trash
fairy tale from John Waters. Waters' most blatently queer film --
featuring a transvestite cop, leather-clad biker boys and a bevy
of tough-talking dykes accompanied by their buxemly kittenish
girlfriends. Warped, nauseating, disgusting and appalling -- why,
it's almost criminal!
Mink Stole, Edith Massey.
The
Diane Linkletter Story (1970, 15
min, US)
Extemporaneously filmed after hearing reports of
Art Linkletter's daughter's suicide, Waters and his cohorts have
produced a quirky semi-scandalous and hilarious "what might
Diane's last minutes have been like?" scenario. Divine (in
slight need of a shave) plays the young hippie Diane who just
wants "to do my own thing!" with her new young lover
Bob. But parental interference by David Lochery and Mary Vivian
Pierce and instructions to "go to your room" end in
tragedy for all concerned. Let this be a lesson to all
over-protective parents and fast-living teens.
Divine, David Lochery
Female
Trouble (1974, 95 min, US)
A delightfuly shocking comedy which follows the
trials and tribulations of Dawn Davenport (Divine): from cha-cha
heels obsessed teen to rape victim to murderess to electric chair
victim. A classic of the period before Waters became more
respectable. Also featuring Mink Stole as Dawn's fucked-up
daughter, Edith Massey as a skin-tight leather-clad dominatrix and
fag-hag. Incidentally, the only film in which a rape is
perpetrated by the victim!
Divine, Edith Massey, Mink Stole.
Hairspray
(1988, 94 min. US)
Waters, the Prince of Puke and sleazemaster
extraordinaire, put aside his odious ways to make this glorious
sendup of the "teen scene" movies of the late '50s and
early '60s. Set in Baltimore (where else?), the story follows
Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake), a heavyset teen whose life ambition
of appearing on the local TV dance program is thwarted when her
black friends are banned from attending. Waters proves up to the
task of tackling this topic by going with his strength --
outrageous comedy. Masterful casting includes Debbie Harry, Pia
Zadora, Ric Ocasek, Sonny Bono and, in his final role, the
incomparable Divine.
Divine, Ricki Lake, Sonny Bono, Pia Zadora,
Debbie Harry, Rick Ocasek
The
John Waters Archives
A must-have for serious collectors of cinematic
sleaze! Four of John Waters' greatest -- all in one box set: The
digitally re-mastered Pink Flamingos, Desperate Living,
Hairspray, & Polyester.
Divine, Mink Stole, Edith Massey, David Lochary,
Ricki Lake, Sonny Bono, Pia Zadora, Debbie Harry, Rick Ocasek
Mondo
Trasho (1965, 95 min. US)
This celluloid atrocity by America's Father of
Filth, Waters, is visual assault and battery, laying waste an
already crumbling civilization. Explore a world oozing with sex,
violence and overwhelming seaminess. It's just another day in the
life of a 300-pound transvestite. Divine, in skin-tight, gold lamé
Capri pants, runs over Mary Vivian Pearce in a 1959 Cadillac and
commits other acts of mayhem. There's also sightings of the Virgin
Mary, drug-addicted doctors, nasty 1950s rock tunes, nods to The
Wizard of Oz and Freaks, and dismemberment of feet and
hands that would make Boxing Helena gasp. Currently out of
print on video.
Divine, Mary Vivian Pearce.
Multiple
Maniacs (1971, 94 min. US)
The film director Waters claimed "flushed
religion out of my system" is about a traveling carnival
called "Lady Divine's Cavalcade of Perversions," which
lands in Baltimore and disrupts the lives of the creeps living
there. We're treated to a junkie shooting up on a church altar,
bearded transvestites, the semi-classic scene of Divine being
raped by a 15-foot lobster, Mink Stole's rosary beads,
cannibalism, Kate Smith's rendition of "God Bless
America" and, perhaps most disturbing of all, shots of
downtown Baltimore.
Divine, Mink Stole.
Pecker
(1998, 86 min. US)
Writer-director Waters returns to his subversive
comedic grabbag for Pecker, a restrained though amusing
comedy which combines the director's penchant for shock comedy and
a more accessible filmmaking style he honed after Hairspray.
Set in Baltimore (where else?), the story follows the rise of
young Pecker (Furlong), a fledgling photographer whose pictures of
his slightly dysfunctional family and working-class neighborhood
capture the attention of the New York art scene. It's trash vs.
flash when these worlds collide, and Waters milks some good laughs
at the expense of one and all involved. As the complaisant hero,
Furlong has an agreeable comic air about him, though it's up to
everyone else around him to offer the titillating laughs. These
include Plimpton as Pecker's fag-hag older sister, Hulsey as his
sugar-addicted younger sister, and Schertler as his grandmother
with a talking Virgin Mary statue. The comedy in Pecker may
not always shoot from the hip; but, then, that's not from where
Waters is aiming with this omnisexual spoof -- we've seen John
down and dirtier, but then he's in an awfully good mood.
Edward Furlong, Christina Ricci, Bess Armstrong,
Mary Kay Place, Martha Plimpton, Brendan Sexton III, Mink Stole,
Lili Taylor, Lauren Hulsey, Jean Schertler, Patricia Hearst.
Pink
Flamingos (1972, 95 min. US)
This adventure in total sleaze is still one of
the most disgusting and perversely funny films ever made. Zaftig
matriarch Babs Johnson (Divine) and her family of egg-adoring mom
(Edith Massey) and chicken-loving son (Danny Mils) battle the
repugnant Connie and Raymond Marble (Mink Stole and David Lochary)
for the title of "filthiest person alive." A classic of
the genre. Restored version with additional footage.
Divine, Edith Massey, Danny Mils, Mink Stole,
David Lochary.
Polyester
(1981, 86 min. US)
In this odorized ode to suburban decay, Divine
is a campy delight as Baltimore housewife Francine Fishpaw, who
experiences her own private hell when hubby-with-a-bad-toupee has
an affair, her daughter turns out to be a slut, and her revered
son is cited as the notorious foot-stomper. Then, Golden Boy Tab
Tomorrow (Tab Hunter) comes into her life. Waters tones down the
crudeness to win new fans and succeeds. Waters' gimmick of
offering Odorama cards to cinema patrons (number two on the
scratch-and-sniff card is a doozy) works wonderfully, but sadly,
unless you kept yours from 1981, they are not available for the
video. But don't let that stop you from enjoying this campy comedy
Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, Mink Stole.
Serial
Mom (1994, 95 min. US)
John Waters has created his most accessible film
-- a terrifically executed satire on suburbia, sex and violence,
and our obsession with celebrity criminals. Kathleen Turner is
delicious as a June Cleaver-ish housewife. She cooks, cleans,
listens to Barry Manilow, and even recycles. And she's a serial
killer, too. But only to protect family and hearth. As husband and
kids begin to realize the truth and the police close in, Waters
lets loose a series of comic salvos which both tantalize and
underscore his topical burlesque. Waters' twisted and defiantly
hilarious comedy hits a bull's-eye.
Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake, Mink
Stole, Traci Lords, Patricia Hearst, Matthew Lillard.
