Not Coming to a Theater Near You
What do you think she meant when she said “a huge black monster with giant claws”?
What do you think she meant when she said “a huge black monster with giant claws”?
Five minutes shorter than Waters’ original NC-17 cut and mutilated by an unbearable amount of pixilation and dubbed dialogue, it nonetheless remains faithful to the director’s reputation as a craftsman of the crude and bizarre. Tracy Ullman as Sylvia Stickles, a petulant suburbanite transformed into an over-sexed “apostle” by an accidental knock on the head, radiates with the explicit sickness known only to Waters’ most willing and devoted fans. Other new additions to the director’s usual cast—Patricia Hearst and Mink Stole are both present and deliciously perverse—are singer Chris Isaak as Sylvia’s oblivious husband, Selma Blair as Sylvia’s monstrously-busted daughter Caprice, and Suzanne Shepherd as Sylvia’s mother Big Ethel. And while A Dirty Shame lacks any of the shit-eating self-molestation that made Waters famous (and infamous), it’s mischievousness for the twenty-first century: Sylvia gyrating erotically to the “Hokey Pokey,” Johnny Knoxville’s Ray-Ray extolling the virtues of the sexually liberated, a grown man defecating into a purse. And, in true Waters form, there’s an overly blatant message about the importance of diversity and acceptance. But, then again, no one really watches John Waters’ films for their collective social implicitness, do they.
by Adam Balz | Source: New Line DVD
15 Jan 2007 2:02 PM | Submit Comment
