A Dirty Shame

A few months ago John Waters spoke at UWM as a part of their Distinguished Lecturers series. He told some great stories about Divine, who starred in many of his films, among other things. It was very interesting. Unfortunately, the same can not be said for his new movie, A Dirty Shame. It’s a bore.

The film’s plot: Uptight people accidentally get hit in the head real hard, they then turn into a sex addicts. When they’re hit a second time, it reverses the effect.

Plot-Shmot, the film consists of a series of scenes that attempt to be more shocking and outrageous than the previous one. Tracey Ullman picks up a water bottle with her vagina while dancing “The Hokey Pokey” at a retirement home. It may sound funny, but not so much. Johnny Knoxville humping a tree. Yawn.

To be fair, there are a few funny moments (the prudes’ ridiculous grocery store meeting), but not enough of them to warrant suffering through the film. This is a lame imitation of Waters’ better films like Polyester and Pink Flamingos. Skip this, rent those.

Posted by chuck at October 6, 2004 2:57 PM