A Dirty Shame (2004)
I love John Waters. I really do.
I own several of his films on DVD. I've been fortunate
enough to see him speak twice and to even talk to
him for a brief moment at a party where he signed
a couple of his books for me. He's a funny, witty,
smart and clever guy. Sadly, you'd never know this
from watching his latest film, "A Dirty Shame;" it's
an absolute mess and undoubtedly his worst film ever.
Granted, Waters has gotten consistently
less and less interesting since the decline of the
cult movie/midnight movie genre in America in the
early 80's. He was able to shift gears during that
decade and provide us oddball musicals that helped
to establish him to a more mainstream audience but
since "Serial Mom," his work has been pretty irrelevant
to say the least. A film like "Pecker" was really
a for-fans-only sort of film, since it was also somewhat
autobiographical, and that helped to keep his career
going. But films like this one and "Cecil B. Demented"
work much better as zany one-sentence synopses than
they do as films.
Listen to this set-up: A somewhat
frigid and frumpy woman gets hit on the head and has
a mild concussion which turns her into a bit of a
nymphomaniac. This is based on an actual but rare
medical condition. This sounds like a perfect idea
for a John Waters film. Imagine the delightfully and
quirky turns it might take. It's a great idea. Sadly,
with "A Dirty Shame" being such a horrible mess, we
wish Todd Solondz had gotten hold of the idea first.
Waters can't resist turning the film into a circus
of perversion (something he did to much greater effect
in his earlier films) and the supposed chaos that
ensues is rarely amusing and ultimately utterly pointless.
Waters seems like he might be the
perfect writer/director to skewer sex in post-AIDS,
post-Internet, post-millennium America, and given
an NC-17 rating, we expect the film to be quite edgy,
but it never once fulfills our desires. Waters drifts
into so many subcultures here including adult infantilism,
gay "bears," food fetishes, attraction to dirt, oversized
breasts, masturbation, scat, felching, rosebuds and
other perverse sexual proclivities that the clinical
trauma- induced nymphomania of his characters seems
quite boring and normal. A better title for this film
might be "Every Pointless Sexual Act but Cumming in
the Kitchen Sink."
Of course, as is his wont, in order
to provide some sort of dramatic tension, Waters again
resorts to an "Us vs. Them" mentality of our hypocritical,
moralistic modern society and here, in addition to
the numerous "sexual addicts" and sexual deviants
that he has running around in the film, the "us,"
we are forced to watch is a horde of old hags. It's
supposed to be funny when they run about shouting
how they are proud to be "neuters." It's pretty unpleasant.
And what the hell is up with the
words that flash on the screen at ridiculous random
moments in the film? All of a sudden the word "Whore"
appears flashing over Tracey Ullman early in the film
and we can't believe how degrading it is to the actress.
Sure, it's a Waters film and Tracey is playing a sexual
deviant, but that seems like a pretty crude thing
to do in the film. Later other words appear like "Erection,"
"Harlot," and the like and we finally realize it's
some sort of stylistic choice Waters had made. It
makes absolutely no sense whatsoever though. I can
only assume that Waters wanted to do it subliminally,
flashing these dirty words for one frame here and
there throughout the film and there must be some sort
of MPAA ordinance against it or something. Whatever
the case, it's a silly device that Waters should have
realized didn't work and deleted.
And speaking of odd effects, don't
even get me started on the CGI squirrels. What the
hell is that all about? I think Waters' might be getting
a bit old for all of this. It's starting to look like
senility is setting in during this CGI moments. They
are ridiculous.
Anyway, for what it's worth, the
filmmaker's casting only has one inspired moment:
The placement of Johnny Knoxville as Ray-Ray, the
leader of the sexual addicts, is quite a wonderful
idea. Knoxville is sexy hot and Waters uses him to
his full advantage (Waters once called Knoxville's
"Jackass" "the gayest show on television"). But the
rest of his cast is so miscast that it irritates.
Waters could never get a real female box office star
to play his protagonist Sylvia Stickles. He needs
a Julia Roberts or a Meg Ryan here but he can't get
one with a ridiculously bad script like this. So he
settles for Tracey Ullman, a woman known for being
quite edgy and adult at times on her TV show and the
significance of the character is massively diluted
because of this. Likewise with Selma Blair as Caprice,
the Wendy Watermelon-like character with huge breast
implants here. Blair has proved herself a daring actress
willing to take on unique and dark roles in the past.
What we want here is someone like Mandy Moore or Hillary
Duff in the role. Even Kate Hudson would have been
a good choice. But with Blair used here, the character
is again diluted. And what the hell is Chris Isaaks
doing here? He's so horribly miscast it isn't even
funny.
At least Waters tries to pay homage
to his own career and has lots of appearances from
his featured players over the years including Mink
Stole, who gets a pretty decent role albeit her usual
one of indignant woman freed by sexual release, while
Jean Hill (of "Desperate Living") and Jean Schertler
(the grandma in "Pecker") have cameos.
There are some funny moments in
this film but overall what has happened to John Waters
cinematic career is the biggest dirty shame of all.
Waters needs to look more closely at the independent
film world around him and figure out how to become
a part of it. In this age of Todd Haynes, Todd Solondz,
Guy Madden and the like, Waters needs to be more coherent,
more witty and more clever. Sex should be a lot more
fun than this.
Note:
Also with Suzanne Shepherd, Patty
Hearst and James Ransone. David Hasselhoff and Ricki
Lake appear as themselves.
Also with many others of Waters
usual cast members including Alan J. Wendl and Mary
Vivian Pearce.
Ted Hope, Christine Vachon and Pat
Moran are all credited as producers here. Vince Peranio
does the art design.
Many sequences here use old sexploitation
film clips in montages that suggest the characters
sexual addiction in the wake of trauma. These montages
were designed with the aid of Frank Hellenlotter and
the footage provided by the folks at Something Weird
Video.
Set and filmed in Baltimore like
all of Waters' films.
With many quirky offbeat songs in
the soundtrack as is Waters' wont including dirty
ditties like "The Pussycat Song."
Viewed in October 2004 at the Arbor
in Austin
