Mubi Monday: Cry-Baby (1990)

Johnny Depp plays Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker, a young, rocking rebel who tries to do something that will make him shed one tear a day in memory of his dead parents. He's the leader of a gang of delinquent youths, although they aren't really too bad once you get to know them, and things get all shook up when he falls in live with a "square" named Allison (Amy Locane). This sets in motion a chain of events that will lead to fights, character smears, and even prison. All set to a fantastic soundtrack of classic songs and new toe-tappers in the style of the era it is set (1950s).

Coming along immediately after Hairspray, Cry-Baby has a similar formula, but perhaps didn't work so well with audiences because of the much less significant subject matter. Whereas the former movie lightheartedly depicted teens helping to fight against racism in their world, this film just shows that being a square isn't the best way to live your life.

Waters unsurprisingly sides with those that society views with wariness, and often disdain, and he provides the usual entertaining selection. Alongside Depp you get Rikki Lake as a horny teen (two kids already, one on the way), Traci Lords, Darren E. Burrows, and Kim McGuire as "Hatchet-Face".

What is more surprising, although it shouldn't be to those familiar with Hairspray, is the absolutely perfect way in which the song and dance numbers feel authentic to the period. I already enjoyed the tunes that I was familiar with ("SH-Boom" and "Mr. Sandman") but also immediately loved all of the new songs, even with their added cheese and over the top outpouring of emotions.

Depp is superb in his role, playing it just in the sweet spot between melodrama and ridiculous. The script is as hilarious as you would expect, made all the better by Depp and co. playing it all quite straight. Locane also does well as the lady who captures his heart, and as a wild spirit trapped in the form of a square. Lake, Lords, Burrows, and McGuire are all a lot of fun, especially the first and the last, and you get more fun turns from Susan Tyrrell and Iggy Pop (as the family of Depp and Lake's character), Polly Bergen is the protective relative of Locane's character, and Stephen Mailer is hilarious as the main square, also in love with the leading lady (of course).

Perhaps not quite as funny as his best work, and perhaps just hewing so close to the form that he's emulating that it's only an inch away from being a straightforward '50s drama transplanted to the cinema screens of the 1990s, Cry-Baby holds up as well today as almost every other film that Waters has bestowed upon us over the past few decades. It's not quite up there with Hairspray and Serial Mom but few films are.

8/10

You can see some tears being shed here.
Americans can cry over the movie here.

Hairspray (2007)

Hairspray (1988) was my mild cinematic introduction to the wonderful world of John Waters. I had heard of him before then, having seen an episode of The Incredibly Strange Film Show that had host Jonathan Ross interviewing the great man, but it would be some time before I started to delve deeper into his filmography. To be honest, I still need to see a LOT of his pre-Hairspray films, often forgetting that I haven't seen them because of already being familiar with some of his more (in)famous moments.

Despite Hairspray being quite possibly the tamest film that Waters has ever done, I was still surprised when it was turned into a stage musical. And when that musical version was adapted into a film I was more than just surprised, I was ever-so-slightly outraged. This was also before I was more at ease with the internet. I had less spaces to verbalise my anger and metaphorically stamp my feet about the whole thing. Thank goodness.

Because Hairspray is a lot of fun. Directed by Adam Shankman, it's a film that retains the simple, and wonderful, plot of the original film, adds a selection of decent tunes, and allows a number of stars to have a great time playing larger than life characters.

Nikki Blonsky is Tracy Turnblad, a young girl who dreams about a chance to dance on her favourite local TV dance show, hosted by Corny Collins (James Marsden). That chance comes to her at last, unbelievably, and she starts to do well on the show, which makes her an enemy of Velma Von Tussle (Michelle Pfeiffer), who has been doing her best to ensure that her daughter (Brittany Snow) is the star dancer on the show. Tracy also finds herself in trouble when she becomes active in the growing movement to end racial segregation.

With a tweaked screenplay by Leslie Dixon, and the play by Mark O'Connell and Thomas Meehan to work from, Hairspray works so well because it translates the (I assume) upbeat and fun sense of the live show to the screen with canny casting and vibrant production design throughout that provides 1960s Baltimore as the setting for the proceedings, as well as populating the city with plenty of colourful characters.

And what a cast of characters we get. Blonsky is a sweet lead, and does well with the singing and dancing. Her parents are played by John Travolta (Edna) and Christopher Walken (Wilbur), and both of them have a lot of fun with their characters. Marsden is also having a whale of a time, playing Corny Collins as a sweet and cheesy host with the most, while Snow and Pfeiffer attack their "baddie" roles with great relish. Amanda Bynes, Elija Kelley, Zac Efron, Queen Latifah, and Allison Janney fill out the cast, with all of them given enough good moments to make them worth spending time with.

As unexpected as the origin of this movie is, just be thankful it got made. I still prefer the original, it's a bit sharper and more twisted, but this is a brilliant reworking of the material to appeal to a potentially much wider audience (who might also eventually check out the 1988 film).

8/10

You can buy it here.
Or, in the ol' US of A, buy it here.

Scalarama 2015

Did you know that September is the unofficial month of cinema? Scalarama 2015 is the fifth year of a fine tradition that encourages people to broaden their cinematic horizons, revisit some sorely neglected classics, and generally have as much fun as it's possible to have in a cinema without trying to re-enact that Diner trick.

The website, with plenty of further details, is here. Check it out.

Highlights include a John Waters retrospective, screenings of Eyes Without A Face, The Dance Of Reality, Roar, and a 16mm print of The Begotten, as well as a look at some interesting films from female directors, including The Watermelon Woman and Girlfriends (1978). There's a Shirley Clarke retrospective, and much more.

I'll be hoping to check out a few of these films myself in the coming weeks, so a few reviews will certainly end up here on the blog. I hope that other folks out there will check their local cinema listings and perhaps buy a ticket for a cinema experience a little different from the usual blockbuster fare.

April Fools: Cecil B. DeMented (2000)

John Waters is a fun guy. His career spans decades and he remains defiantly subversive and independent. In fact, Waters himself might agree that the fact that he HAS such a lengthy career defies the odds. He doesn't make movies for the mainstream, but instead aims squarely for the awkward, the odd, the unbalanced, the outsiders, and the fiercely individual. AKA the cool people. Bizarrely, the mainstream sometimes picks up what he lays down. I'm thinking mainly of the stage show and movie remake that stemmed from Hairspray. There was also no small amount of love shown for Serial Mom when it came out, but maybe I was just finding more friends who appreciated Waters at that point.

Anyway, I should really start talking about Cecil B. DeMented. It's a film that, in some ways, seems perfectly designed to appeal to the mainstream, hence my opening ramble, but in every other way it's quintessentially Waters (who has Hollywood squarely in his sights).

Stephen Dorff is Cecil, a young artist frustrated with the entertainment world around him. Blockbusters rub shoulders with lame remakes and lame sequels, and that needs to change. Which is why he kidnaps the famous Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith). Forcing her to act in his movie, Cecil explains his aim and Honey eventually starts to come around to his way of thinking. But will anyone else, aside from his small group of loyal followers?

With a lot of great, albeit easy, gags and a cast that mixes a couple of well-known names with some relative "unknowns" such as Jack Noseworthy, Adrian Grenier, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Michael Shannon, Cecil B. DeMented is unlikely to be anyone's favourite John Waters movie, but it's one that I can happily revisit and never tire of. The slim runtime helps - it barely edges over the 80 minute mark - and the rest of the cast, including Alicia Witt and Lawrence Gilliard Jr, also do their bit, with plenty of enthusiasm making up for any failings in actual acting expertise. Dorff is great in the lead role, but Griffith also deserves some credit for putting herself in the midst of such madness.

Despite the thin layer of polish on everything, this is still a biting, anarchic, and interesting work from a writer-director who rarely, if ever, lets me down. The fact that he's only given us one more movie since this one in the last fifteen years is a great shame, and I hope that he's not finished warping our minds just yet.

8/10

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Cecil-Demented-DVD-Melanie-Griffith/dp/B006C0TX8M/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1397077920&sr=8-1&keywords=cecil+b+demented