Female Trouble - John Waters

Seen for the first time in November 2012.

I cannot say that I was a fan of “Female Trouble.” It’s noticably weaker than both “Desperate Living,” and “Pink Flamingos.” I don’t think it’s a matter of the same schtick wearing thin upon retread. I think it’s a matter of too much Divine, who admittedly has the best performance, but from whom nonetheless the viewer could use a breather. There’s more of a traditional plot here than “Pink Flamingos,” but it still seems somehow more haphazard and made up as they went along. That was probably a strength in “Pink Flamingos,” which also had stronger set-ups for gross-out and revulsion, but is a weakness here.

I also think there is less joie de vivre in this film than in the films that preceeded and followed it. This is more just a matter of unadulterated bad-actors loudly chewing the scenery. The offensiveness of the other movies is hilarious, but also pointed and commenting. It’s campy, but it achieves the level of artistic. The offensiveness in “Female Trouble” on the other hand is just loud. I feel like anyone could do it. And truth be told, it doesn’t feel like it’s that far off from a lot of forgettable grindhouse of the era, just more self-conscious maybe. Grade C-.

Pink Flamingos - John Waters

Seen for the first time in October 2012.

For a long time I never watched this movie because I had assumed that I had already seen it, recalling it as sort of mid-period glossier John Waters, in the vein of “Hairspray” or “Cry Baby” which were the sort of films I watched with my parents growing up. But no this is much different. It’s great, and at times appalling, but nonetheless always engaging.

Essentially this movie is a mix of a parody of sensationalism (both artistic and media driven), a mockery of bourgeoise outrage, and with unrelenting gratuitous grossness. There are at least three scenes in this movie in which something is depicted which I would honestly prefer that I had never seen: that anus trick, Divine explicitly going down on that dude, and that coda for which this film is so infamous.

Nevertheless I loved it. I can understand why this is regarded as John Waters’s masterpiece, though I still prefer “Desperate Living.” They have the same energy and the same sensibility, but “Desperate Living” lacks the disgustingness, though is just as committed to the same assault on bourgeoise attitudes, and with the same vivid dialogue.

An important point to make about Waters in general, and Pink Flamingos, in particular; what sets him apart is not the shocking and offensive material in and of itself, but the fact that it is not delivered with the grim seriousness of his contemporaries and so many others who have made movies in bad taste over the years. John Waters makes these films with an impish glee that somehow makes being disgusted almost delightful. It’s like Kurt Vonnegut drawing a picture of his own asshole with childish glee, but Waters shows you a real asshole and then he makes it do things you would never want to watch someone’s asshole do. Not as bad as goatse.cx but still. The dialogue, by the way, is amazing. Grade A.

Serial Mom - John Waters

Seen for the first time in September 2012.

This is John Waters at his finest, and John Waters at his finest, see “Desperate Living,” is a brilliant film maker. Kathleen Turner is hilarious in this. The concept of making the traditional June Cleaver mom into an insane serial killer was brilliant. There’s a sensibility here that I don’t remember having been developed at this point in the early 90’s. Stereotypical sitcom mom’s were being questioned by shows like Roseanne and Married with Children, but I don’t recall effective parody of the sitcom style. I think John Waters was the first to do this. It’s more commonplace now.

The celebration of Serial Killers as celebrities is sort of less effective to me. That sort of social commentary is intrinsically off-putting to me, but Waters isn’t preachy or opinionated in any apparent way, and so the absurdity and the spectacle provide entertainment and off-kilter humor and it never irritates with didacticism.

Waters seems like too genuinely a warm person with a generous view toward people to get too serious to have fun. He laughs at the hangups of the straight-laced and revels in the weirdness of the truly weird, but it always seems to come from a place of genuine affection for humanity that I really admire, and wish I could share. I suppose this is as close to a horror movie that Waters will ever get, and I love that it’s so playful and funny. Grade A.