1) Pink Flamingos Review: John Waters’ unique individualistic style can attach an adjective like ‘cool’ to a noun like ‘rubbish’ to form ‘big rubbish’. That is an achievement.
Pink Flamingos – The Movie is a rare bird that not only makes trash nice, but makes a good movie too. Just a clip from the trashy reality shows Jerry Springer or The Maury Show on YouTube and what we witness is a non-stop display of vulgarity, sleaze, and uncontrollable behavior. On the other hand, we have a plethora of terrible movies like The Room, the entire Friday the Thirteenth series, Caligula, etc. that are unintentionally funny but generally impossible to see. Pink Flamingos is a sure-fire voyeur’s delight of violence, sex, deviance, rudeness, and trash, though it’s made with an astonishing experience. John Walters is the small-scale Quentin Tarantino who can conjure unique and quirky characters and turn them into cult figures; We are not bothered by the bad actions of the characters and usually we end up encouraging them to commit another misdeed.
The story here is told in an androgynous way, probably by a burning gay man or transsexual, which brings us to the pink, tacky and shabby trailer of Divine (who lives as Babs Johnson to evade the attention of the police). ) and his family, his Cotton, the pretty and lustful blonde travel companion who has the looks of a star of yesteryear, his longhaired biscuit and chicken lover son, Crackers, and his egg-obsessed mother, Edie. Divine has long stood as the undisputed ‘filthiest person on the planet’, undefeated, undisputed by anyone and is a petty cult figure who makes it into shoddy newspapers. She’s settled now and does no harm to others other than warming the meat between her legs to save money. Your child seems more fickle at first, but only in sex (chickens seem to be his favorite partners). Cotton exhibits only voyeuristic tendencies and likes to hang posters of burly men next to her bed, but that seems acceptable. And sweet Edie just thinks and talks about the eggs, their shape, size and color, Humpty Dumpty’s lullaby, what if all the chickens disappear, when will the egg-man arrive, etc.? No one seems to be trespassing on modesty illegally, except perhaps Crackers. But all of this changes when the team is challenged by Raymond and Bonnie Marble, a husband and wife team competing to steal Divine’s esteemed title (at least according to them). Raymond exposes himself to unsuspecting souls, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg: The couple quietly orders their gay servant Channing to impregnate the abducted women, so the newborn can be sold to happy lesbian couples. The pitiful kidnapped woman with ragged clothes and messy hair punishes Channing every time he enters the basement; he has not even seen the true authors of his misery. When this terrible couple take on Divine and her flamingos, it’s WAR!
I think the degree of crime committed by Connie and Raymond automatically makes them antagonists; While most of Divine’s victims are simply killed without much introduction, we are constantly updated on the sufferings of Connie’s victims. Even the effect of the disturbing chicken scene with Crackers and the spy Cookie is mitigated by the previous scene in which we are told of Cookie’s deception. Divine and her gang shoot, cut, and eat their victims in one scene, but it’s just too hilarious. the top to be offensive. Sexuality, on the other hand, is something that is sure to disgust or annoy certain audiences, with the idea of incest itself it can be puzzling to many, but again, who finds Divine as a role model or even a woman? , with her androgynous appearance and ridiculous makeup (real name: Harris Glenn; yes, a man!).
The entire setup looks like shots from a sleazy reality show, the movie’s budget is so tight that the entire product was the master copy. We see choppy editing, shadows often trailing in the background, cameras shaking furiously as they approach a person, and passersby gawking at Divine’s appearance as if unaware of the movie. However, it is this low quality that makes the action seem more authentic, as if Divine is a real C-grade celebrity who has made a name for herself through evil. The songs, a mix of rock and roll and country, make the scenes more lively and enjoyable, and also mitigate the actual violent acts that occur when the music is played.
Watch Pink Flamingos if you want to see a shoddy exploitation movie. It’s hilarious at times (the ‘judgment’ scene) and delightfully (in a slightly gross way), wicked and divinely entertaining.
My Rating: 7.4 out of 10
2) Multiple Maniacs Review: The misleading title should have been named ‘We don’t have enough money to make pink flamingos, but we’ll give you this shit until then!
The reason Pink Flamingos has been recognized as John Waters’ flagship film of the ‘exploitation’ genre is the simple script for the sole purpose of exciting with acts of depravity. It is a film that impacts, although without making particular reference to any fact of the time in which these films were made. Almost everyone who watches Pink Flamingos would have heard of transsexualism, cannibalism, foot fetishism, voyeurism, zoophilia, coprophilia, etc. and therefore the movie can be enjoyed by a person who was not born in the seventies. The script has been written with devilish insight, incorporating exaggerated sequences and cheesy humor to tone down some of the objectionable content. The movie was shot in color and could therefore highlight some of the outrageous palette that John Waters used for Divine’s home and wardrobe. All of these reasons give Pink Flamingos its noteworthy status in the garbage world, not just the singular dung moment.
Multiple Maniacs was released about two years before Pink Flamingos and was made on a low budget (despite the latter being a low-budget movie) of around $ 5,000. Therefore, an actor takes on multiple roles and we must believe that a different hairstyle implies a different character (by the way, read an intriguing explanation from a critic who delves into the religious connotation of the films. It sounds credible at first, but I prefer to adhere to the general belief that Jesus and his followers did not represent Divine and her vagabonds. Edith, who plays the owner of a bar and the Virgin Mary, was not part of the parade, otherwise the critic’s explanation would have been more credit) movie is shot entirely in 16mm black and white and the camera shakes horribly at times and is so overexposed at times that you can barely see the bodies of the actors. The hideous white circle (indicating reel change) flashes brightly like an alien sign. Honestly, this movie is gruesome and pretty introductory to John Waters’ Pink Flamingos, a hugely polished endeavor compared to this trashy trash.
When I read the plot, my mind was swirling with images of a colorful circus with Divine and her team treating the audience with their acts only to kill them in the end. This happens at the beginning of the movie, but it veers off into a completely different act that puts a massive focus on ‘Divine’, contradicting the title of the movie itself. What happened to the vomit-eating boy or the foot fetish girl or the gays remains unknown, and the focus suddenly shifts to Divine, her promiscuous daughter, her boyfriend David, her brief lesbian flinger Mink, and a nemesis Bonnie. In fact, while Divine and Mary Vivian Pierce (who plays Bonnie) took on the duo of David Lochary and Mink Stole in Pink Flamingos, the characters are simply switched here. This makes the film look like a preliminary version of PF, rather than continuing the circus act to increase the impact value.
The movie also makes references to Sharon Tate’s mother and a Weatherman Underground organization, but they flew over my head since I wasn’t born then (I’m also not from the US). At the time, such a funny approach to incidents like these would have caused a storm (I read about the Ms Tate incident later and found the movie version of the event to be offensive), but now they seem irrelevant. The blasphemous religious sequence here would have made Lady Gaga blush (at least Gaga puts the rosary in her mouth). The last fifteen minutes are just nonsense and nonsense.
If the movie had been developed along the lines of Freaks (a 1932 classic), but more daring, crass, vulgar and cheesy, it could have worked. Instead, it succumbs as Rob Zombie’s first attempt at ‘House of 1000 Corpses’, which was completely overshadowed by the evil ‘The Devil’s Rejects.’
My rating: 0.8 out of 10
3) Mondo Trasho Review: 95 minutes and we still can’t figure out if the movie wants to entertain or surprise. Very useless watch
John Waters’ first offering is not intended to serve any purpose, unlike his third effort Pink Flamingos, which sublimated the effect of shock and disgust to laughter. Multiple Maniacs, his sad second film only offended with its objectionable religious references, but at least elicited some response from viewers. Mondo Trasho looks like an empty void that generates absolutely no definite response. How should we react to the public? Should we laugh at the characters’ situation or turn our heads away in disgust? How the hell should we feel?
The plot is obsessed with Mary Vivian Pierce’s feet, and it begins quite interestingly with her character Bombshell getting licked by a foot fetishist. Not forgetting the opening sequence that highlights John Waters’ emotion for animal cruelty. When Bombshell begins to moan and gasp, she envisions herself as Cinderella being rescued by her Prince Charming (played by the foot fetishist). The explicit Cinderella sequence is a nice allusion and Waters could have progressed with an erotic romance angle that revolved around Bombshell’s pursuit of the foot fetishist. Rather, John Waters brings in his trademark lady Divine, who surprisingly looks feminine unlike her androgynous appearance in later films. The bad girl is glaring at a naked hitchhiker when her car collides with a missing Bombshell that is badly injured. Divine helps her by visiting a discount house, stealing a dress from there, and then going into a laundromat, where she changes Bombshell’s bloody clothes. Miraculously Bombshell is still unconscious like those Shakespearean characters in Midsummer Night’s Dream who manage to fall asleep in no time, and the blood on his face disappears. There are sporadic appearances of Mother Mary and her ‘apprentice’ who-can-say purging Divine of her sins. In addition, a rather strange visit to the madhouse where we meet again that foot fetishist, but this time he murders a fellow prisoner, and a sadistic hospital that operates patients with knives and saws.
The only surprising aspect of the movie is Divine’s caring nature, as we’ve never seen Divine help someone by risking her own life. But everything else is inexplicable, even the resolution inspired by the Wizard of Oz. The camera is less shaky than on Multiple Maniacs and the sex is less raunchy. The choice of music, a variety of rock and roll and classical, managed to keep my attention on otherwise useless sequences. If the movie had worked on having a plot, it would have gained a better reputation today.
My Rating: I will not rate this work as you don’t even know what kind of response you are looking for from your audiences.
