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Norman Douglass,
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John Waters,
John Waters
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: Passport International, New Line Home Video
: Classics, Comedies, Classic Comedy, Dysfunctional Families
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Comedy Legend: Buster Keaton Collection (2005)
A Dirty Shame (2004)
America's leading titan of bad taste, John Waters, returns to X-rated territory (well, actually NC-17-rated territory, but you get the idea) for this wildly over-the-top comedy. Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman) is a wife and mother living in Baltimore who, along with her husband Vaughn (Chris Isaak) and mother Big Ethel (Suzanne Shepherd), operates a local convenience store. One day, Sylvia receives a sharp blow to the head, which leaves her with a concussion. However, the concussion comes with an unexpected side effect -- Sylvia has suddenly become a sex addict, and is soon attended to by the perverse and lascivious sexual evangelist Ray-Ray (Johnny Knoxville). When it becomes evident that Vaughn can't keep up with her sensual appetites, Sylvia throws herself into the strange netherworld of Baltimore's community of erotic overachievers, which includes her daughter Caprice (Selma Blair), who is living a double life as über-buxom exotic entertainer Ursula Udders. A Dirty Shame also features supporting performances from Waters regulars Patricia Hearst, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce, Channing Wilroy, and Jean Hill. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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| Comedy Legend: Buster Keaton Collection (2005) |
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| Yuk (and yuck) filled Romp...
by heidijane
January 7, 2007 - 8:06 AM PST
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Ah, Mr. Waters, thank you for another campy hoot of a movie. Although much of the same tropes and troops return from previous Water's films, you get everything you expect from one of his features.
I felt like "A Dirty Shame" was a reworking of "Cecil B. Demented" but in a way that is much easier to follow for those of us who are not hardcore film buffs. Now, if you want to argue that we're hardcore perverts, well obviously....we ARE John Waters fans after all. GRRRR! |
| The king of kitsch goes soft on us
by Chiend
February 10, 2006 - 6:07 PM PST
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| I didn?t think it was possible, but famed cult director John Waters has laid an egg. His latest work, A DIRTY SHAME, comes off as though it were an idea he had on the back burner for many years as a backup plan for when he ran out of workable story ideas and decided to go with it out of desperation. This tale of sexual perversions brought on by head injuries in a Baltimore suburb has all the designs of Waters? trademark interest in the seamier side of society, but suffers from a leering, juvenile, puerile script more suitable to the Farrelly brothers crowd. The result is a film that isn?t funny or clever at all. It's sprinkled with perversion gags so blatant they tend to bore rather than entertain. Even Waters? commentary, which is always as entertaining as his films I might add, is a waste. The overlying theme for this movie was explored more successfully (and with greater humor!) by David Cronenberg in THEY CAME FROM WITHIN. Early Waters perversion efforts like PINK FLAMINGOS and FEMALE TROUBLE worked well because they were so far over the top (even by today?s standards) that they shocked the audience into laughter while offering a dash of social commentary to offset the bad taste they left in the mouth. A DIRTY SHAME, however, would rather pull its punches than take any payoffs to the extreme, preferring instead to satisfy a more modest, mainstream sensibility. That?s more than just a major disappointment; that?s a crying shame. |
| Yup. It's a Shame.
by talltale
June 13, 2005 - 8:40 PM PDT
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5 out of 7 members found this review helpful
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Tracey Ullman is certainly game in John Waters' A DIRTY SHAME. She goes all out--and then some. The rest of the cast does its best, too, but Tracey's the one with the most screen time and gets to throw herself into things, body and, hmmm.... body. By the end, Waters and his sex god Johnny Knoxville have built up quite a head of steam (well, that's not exactly what it's made of) but to no real effect.
Waters has never been the kind of moviemaker who can coordinate comedy. It's always slapdash at best, which works when the undertaking is goofy and laid-back. Here, it's anything but. The movie goes over-the-top from the first scene and pretty much stays there. You'd need a real comic director to manage this kind of thing, plus Busby Berkley to choreograph it. But it's just not enough to use a filmmaker who's somewhat talented and likes--most of all--to shock his viewers. |
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