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Jan 26, 2023 · All 12 John Waters Movies Ranked From Worst To Best. Baltimore native John Waters made both “Pink Flamingos,” one of the most censored and shocking films ever, and the beloved family-friendly film with a positive message, “Hairspray.”. Dubbed by the press, critics, fellow filmmakers, and fans: “The Prince of Puke,” “The Pope of ...
- 12 A Dirty Shame
- 11 Mondo Trasho
- 10 Cry-Baby
- 9 Pecker
- 8 Serial Mom
- 7 Cecil B. Demented
- 6 Hairspray
- 5 Polyester
- 4 Desperate Living
- 3 Multiple Maniacs
A raunchy black satire
John Waters' satirical black comedy A Dirty Shame follows the sexual awakening of the convenience store manager Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman) after she's hit on the head in an accident. Like John Waters' Hairspray and his other films, A Dirty Shameis set in Baltimore. Sometimes excessively, this film bluntly highlights the classism and repression present in isolated conservative communities, but it doesn't always hit the right notes in its argument towards the appeal of sexual revolution. T...
Waters' first feature-length film
While Mondo Trasho falls into the trappings debut films often do, it shows John Waters' honed talents in their infancy. Mondo Trasho is his first feature-length film and showcases a young Divine in two roles, which he achieves again with more finesse in his later work. Its low budget is fairly apparent, but the camerawork gives it a vintage found footage style like Blair Witch. Waters himself has mentioned his distaste for Mondo Trasho and claims it should've been a short film, which may be w...
Johnny Depp's cult classic musical film
At first glance, Cry-Baby doesn't fit into the John Waters formula, but it does actually emulate his darkest and most depraved humor, despite its cheery style. A star-studded cast elevates this dark musical from feeling overwrought. Johnny Depp also excels in the starring role alongside a surprise performance from renowned actor Willem Dafoe, which makes the film a memorable spectacle. Though John Waters relies heavily on the soundtrack's nostalgia rather than tying necessary plot points toge...
The rise and fall of a provocative photographer
Pecker shows the most distinct shift in Waters' filmmaking style. His taboo humor was beginning to coincide with Hollywood's burgeoning interest in offensive, provocative, and shocking comedy. Pecker follows a photographer who finds fame by taking pictures of his dysfunctional family but decides he doesn't fit in with society's elites. Films of the '90s, such as American Pie or Richard Linklater's Dazed and Confused, started testing the waters with risky comedy. That phenomenon takes away fro...
A black comedy about a killer mother
Serial Mom centers around a seemingly typical suburban family, with Beverly Stuphin (Kathleen Turner), a "typical" mother, but Beverly's devotion to her family reveals a dangerous mindset that starts to rack up a body count in her family's neighborhood. While the film strikes a perfect balance between silly and scary, the most glaring issue of the film is its treatment of mental illness. In critic Roger Ebert'sreview, he pointed out that Turner's often overly realistic acting makes it hard fo...
A semi-historical kidnapping movie
Based on the kidnapping of actress Patricia Hearst, Cecil B. Demented centers around a destructive filmmaking cult that kidnaps the actress Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith). They force her to be in their films and along the way, she develops a liking for their destructive practices. Much of Waters' '70s-'80s charm remains vibrant in this 2000 black comedy, but there's a modern angle to this film that holds up. Roger Ebertclaimed the film felt more like a home movie, which is painfully true i...
The most family-friendly Waters' film
John Waters wrote and directed Hairspray in 1988, not knowing that this film would inspire a legacy. Hairspray's 2007 musical adaptation with John Travolta may be more remembered by some, but the original has an underrated charm that the remake sorely misses. Being from Baltimore, Waters crafts a smoother narrative about classism, racism, and the effects of bigotry in a small Baltimore-based community. Divine's history with drag also made the iconic character of Edna Turnblad sensible compare...
A women's picture and suburban satire
A wonderfully satirical spoof on romance dramas, Polyester, parodies melodramas marketed towards women, mostly 1950s classics directed by the acclaimed Douglas Sirk. Sirk's work can be modernly compared to drama films like Marriage Story. Polyesterrevolves around the strained life of housewife Francine Fishpaw (Divine) who becomes increasingly frustrated with her family's disarray. After meeting Tab Hunter's character, theater owner Todd Tomorrow, she falls in love but soon realizes his bad i...
The third film in Waters' "Trash Trilogy"
Mink Stole plays distraught housewife Peggy in Desperate Living who kills her husband and runs away with her nurse Grizelda to a shantytown overruled by Queen Carlotta. Carlotta is a woman obsessed with rabies played by another John Waters regular, Edith Massey. Though it has been more criticized for its questionable LGBTQ+ representation, mainly with its lesbian characters, it remains as sexually free as any of Waters' other counterculture films and is an upside of the melodramatic narrative...
A circus sideshow filled with terrible people
Multiple Maniacs expands the spectrum of Divine's character acting to perhaps his most stand-out role, traveling sideshow leader Lady Divine. Similar to the popular series American Horror Story: Freak Show, the plot follows a sideshow troupe rife with murderous tendencies. Though most of Waters' films subvert various concepts of genres, themes, and clichés,Multiple Maniacsextraordinarily excels in subversion. Instead of redeeming the marginalized groups Waters features in Lady Divine's sidesh...
- Zachary Moser
Pillga Pete & Clarrie The Cocky by John Waters. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.
Waters has released a number of CDs including The Story of Pilliga Pete and Clarrie the Cocky (2010), a family story and music CD written and narrated by Waters, Brel (2010) a live album sung in French and a tribute to the Belgian singer-songwriter Jacques Brel, the double live album, John Waters Looking Through A Glass Onion (2011) and his ...
Nov 9, 2022 · The Guide to Getting Into John Waters, the ‘Pope of Trash’. After nearly 20 years, the cult figure is returning to the director’s chair for new film, “Liarmouth”. Here’s everything you ...
- Gina Tonic
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May 7, 2024 · What movies are worth watching and what can be skipped? We’ve ranked the Godfather of Filth’s filmography to help you figure that out — here are the best John Waters movies, ranked. 12....
