One of my favorite directors ever is John Waters.
This glorious motherfucker right here.
You might of known him from his appearance on The Simpsons from the episode 'Homers Phobia' (I'm only including this little retrospective because thats all I can find online); or you remember that song by The Lonely Island called "The Creep", which was an homage to his looks and featured him in the beginning and end of the song.
His best films starred the late, great Divine. A Drag Queen who was Waters best friend since childhood. He pretty much steals the show from all the movies he is in.
John Waters is responsible for the most infamous cult films of the last 40 years, including (not including all of them because it will be a case of TL;DR):
Anyways, have any of you people seen his movies? Did you like them? Did you want to bleach your eyes out after watching them or did you have a good time?
UPDATE: the poll is now allowing for 3 films
This glorious motherfucker right here.
His best films starred the late, great Divine. A Drag Queen who was Waters best friend since childhood. He pretty much steals the show from all the movies he is in.
John Waters is responsible for the most infamous cult films of the last 40 years, including (not including all of them because it will be a case of TL;DR):
- Pink Flamingos: a movie about two families (the head of the main one is played by Divine) trying to out filth each other. Includes scenes of Chicken fucking, incest blowjob, trans man whipping out its dick in public, dog shit eating, a turd being sent through the mail, and furniture that goes all Evil Dead 2. A bit harder to find now that Warner Bros owns New Line and they haven't re-released the film since 2004, so I don't know if it's out of print or not.
- Female Trouble: A Dark comedy about the life of Dawn Davenport (also played by Divine) and how she went from being a juvenile delinquent to a full fledged criminal. A very ahead of its time film about how criminals usually commit crimes because of how the media gives them attention, and how that attention is enough for them. Not as explicit as Pink Flamingos, but there's still hardcore stuff in there. My personal favorite John Waters movie and currently has a Criterion Collection restoration from earlier this year.
- Desperate Living: As Red Letter Media put it, this is what happens when you make a John Waters movie without Divine, but it's still a fun movie.
- Hairspray: The one most of you probably know because of the Broadway show and the 2007 movie version of the musical. The film stars Ricki Lake as Tracy Turnblad, a huge fan of a show called The Corny Collins Show, and she likes big hairstyles which require the hairspray to stay in place, which the adults look down upon. One of the old dancers in the Corny Collins show has to leave due to a pregnancy, so an audition is held for a new dancer, and she gets the spot. The last film with Divine due to her/him dying of an enlarged heart.
- Interesting to note, this is John Waters only family friendly film, and loads of families tried renting Waters other work hoping it was similar to this film. One family accidently rented Pink Flamingos and was so shocked by the content, she actually called the police over the obscenity of it all.
- Serial Mom: another satirical dark comedy, but this time it stars Kathleen Turner as a stay at home mom named Beverly Sutphin. She seems sweet but she's really a serial killer who murders anyone that offends her values. The media gets a hold of this and Bev becoms the target of attention by heading into trail. It's pretty much a spiritual sequel to Female Trouble, and it's a damn funny movie.
- A Dirty Shame: John Waters final film about a neighborhood called Harford road, it's filled with two types of people: Prudes and Sex addicts. A sexually repressed woman (Tracy Ulman) meets a mechanic named Ray Ray Perkins (Johnny Knoxville), who, after getting hit in the by the back of his truck, starts to become a nymphomaniac. Also stars Selma Blair as a woman with fucking huge tits and Chris Isaak as Silvia's husband. One of the characters, Fat Fuck Frank, is what I named my account after.
- The reason this became Waters final film is because of how the MPAA handled the film. They gave it an NC-17 not so much because there is sexually explicit stuff shown on screen (this came out the same year Jackass 2 came out, where one of the guys actually drank horse cum, and a few years back American Beauty showed Kevin Spacey whacking off in the shower), but because of how weird the sexual content was. It was supposed to be an R-rated movie, and in fact, they tried to keep it rated R (it was apart of the agreement he had with New Line Cinema to make the movie) until the MPAA said "It's impossible to give this movie a cut that could give it an R rating" (which, they later on DID make an R-rated cut for the movie, which is the heavily edited TV Cut you can find on LOGO, or at a walmart entitled: The Neuter Cut). So it was released with an NC-17, given no promotion, and shown at about 100 across the US, only making $1.9 million on a $15 million budget.
- This more or less killed his filmmaking career and now John spends his days touring the world and showcasing his movies, doing talks that are more or less stand up specials, and having an occasional cameo here and there in a film.
Anyways, have any of you people seen his movies? Did you like them? Did you want to bleach your eyes out after watching them or did you have a good time?
UPDATE: the poll is now allowing for 3 films
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