Divine Trash
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Movie Reviews of Divine Trash
Movie Review: Behind the Greatest Movie Ever Made
Summary: 5 Stars
If your mind withstood "Pink Flamingoes", this is the movie for you. More than you ever wanted to know about John Waters and Divine (Peace Be Unto Him/Her).Movie Review: very, very good--as far as it goes, that is...
Summary: 4 Stars
I first found out about John Waters when I was a high school student and a buddy of mine told me that his mother had taken him and his brother to see the movie "Polyester." We rented it one time and although I was somewhat startled, I was also interested enough to make a mental note of this man's name and I tried hard to track down a copy of "Polyester" for my own video collection. I didn't know much about John Waters' past but I thought he had a hit with "Polyester." I was also wondering if he had had more success with other films.
Flash forward several years. I was really happy to add "Polyester" to my DVD collection; and I loved `Hairspray" and "Cry-Baby" in particular. I knew more about John Waters than before and to learn even more about him I got this DVD and watched it.
This movie does an excellent job of telling the story of John Waters; the interview footage with his family members, friends and colleagues is all extremely interesting. We get both recent and archival footage with Waters himself being interviewed as well. There's even footage of the last censor in Maryland, an elderly woman who is the only one interviewed in this film who dislikes John's work! We learn that he encouraged a whole subculture of would-be movie-makers to be confident about their abilities and make the movies that they really wanted to make. I can truly say I learned a lot about John Waters by watching this movie. There's also great, great footage with actors who worked with John and who starred in his films; I liked the interviews with Mink Stole, David Lochary and Edith Massey. The interview footage of the late actor Divine and footage of Divine's acting both onscreen and onstage is the film's tender tribute to this character actor.
Unfortunately, however, although this was released in 1998 the film stops shortly after John's movie "Pink Flamingos" hit the theaters. I've seen "Pink Flamingos" and it is worthy of discussion; but I don't think that they should have gone into it in such detail here. I'm also left wondering why there's no mention of "Hairspray," which was a huge, huge coup for Waters and his stars--why this isn't given any time at all remains a mystery to me! It would have shown just how far John Waters as an unconventional, creative artist, always thinking outside of the box, became quite famous and probably wealthy. Wouldn't this have encouraged budding film-makers and artists even more?
The extras are slight but they're informative. We get three sets of filmographies and awards for John Waters, Divine and Steve Yeager who produced this documentary in addition to doing some acting in a few films including "Pink Flamingos" and "Polyester."
Overall, Divine Trash does an excellent job of telling John Water's unique and remarkable story; it's quite engaging, too. However, the film inexplicably stops with Pink Flamingos which was released in 1972 and I don't know why a documentary that was done in 1998 stops with John Waters' history in 1972. John was still living and he was experiencing greater success than ever before by 1998. Nevertheless, what we do get is excellent; and I do recommend this for John Waters' fans although it's not as complete a documentary as it really should be. In addition, people who like the stars in John's films will enjoy this.
Movie Review: Interesting, but a bit self-aggrandizing
Summary: 3 Stars
I've seen only three of Waters' movies, which is plenty, and I enjoyed this documentary, but five stars? C'mon! It consists of clips from his movies, plus "talking head" interviews with a lot of unimportant (and self-important) people. Waters comes across as an intelligent and surprisingly normal guy, and it's interesting to learn how his moviemaking style evolved, but the constant references (by others) to his important role in moviemaking history is mostly bunk. The guy made crudely-produced gross-out movies. Nothing wrong with that, if that's what you wanna watch, but Fellini he ain't. Definitely worthwhile for hardcore Waters fans; of marginal interest to everyone else.
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