Divine

  • Polyester (1981)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, July 2022) As I keep going deeper and older into John Walters’s filmography, I keep waiting for the one film that will make me think, “OK, that’s it—too much.”  After all, I began at the end of his career, with his friendlier, most mainstream films. But so far, so good—and it’s not Polyester that will have me screaming to the exits. A wild parody of 1950s Sirk-style “women’s melodrama” adapted to the early 1980s, this is a film that presents an ideal nuclear family and then does its damnedest to pervert it. The only halfway decent character is the housewife played by Divine—but the more the film goes on, the more the façade of idyllic suburban living shatters and vaporizes. The husband is a philanderer, the son is a serial foot stomper (you read that right), the daughter gets pregnant from her no-good husband and things go downhill from there. A momentary upturn in her fortunes leads to an even wilder conclusion and that’s the film for you. There are a few levels of comedy here—and you can argue that the more absurd moments (such as the dog committing suicide, leaving a note) end up working at odds with the attempted straight-face satire. But really, it means that Polyester plays on several comic registers at once, from the conceptual to the obvious. It’s not that funny, but it’s corrosive enough in its sarcasm to be worth a look—and wonder why such films aren’t being made anymore. There are plenty of oddities here, but Walters’s goal in lampooning middle-class America remains focused. Tab Hunter turns up in a small role that takes advantage of his movie-star good looks. Polyester’s other claim to fame upon release was its use of “odorama” scratch-and-sniff cards. Amazingly enough, thanks to the long-ago benevolence of Paul Riddell, I have one such card in my unlikely possession… and used it for its intended purpose even when it wasn’t a good idea. Having done that, there’s only one more thing to say: bring on more Walters, the loopier the better.

  • Female Trouble (1974)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, June 2022) I started watching Female Trouble with a troubling question– while I really liked the John Waters’ films that I had seen, those (Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, Cecil B. Demented) were toward the bigger-budgeted, mainstream end of his career rather than the earlier, most transgressive era: What would I think of such fare as Pink Flamingos and Polyester? Well, if Female Trouble is any indication, I’m in for a few more great viewing experiences. Female Trouble is as camp as camp can be, deliberately heightening the ridiculousness of its execution, the extreme nature of its plotting and the melodrama of its ill-fitting actors. Some of it depends on having drag queen character actor Divine in the lead role, but not as much as you’d think – the particular nature of the character just becomes one more thing in an entire film built on self-conscious ridiculousness. I don’t think every viewer will be a good audience for this kind of material – but if you can make it past a particular point early in the film in which what’s essentially the worst thing in the world is shown in a way that makes you laugh, then you’re good to go for the rest of the film’s descent into pure lunacy and a final act of filicide that just caps it all off. Female Trouble is quite something, and rarely less than engrossing despite the bargain-basement budget and actors playing decades younger or older than their age. It has aged very well – but of course, what was transgressive back in 1974 is almost mainstream these days, and I’m not sure that the more-or-less-exact same film made today would be as remarkable. No matter – Waters’ iconoclastic sense of demented humour serves him well here, and I’m feeling upbeat about seeing the rest of his filmography.

  • Lust in the Dust (1984)

    Lust in the Dust (1984)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, December 2021) As far as western comedies go, Lust in the Dust hits a very specific and rather sweet spot of camp flamboyance, ribald naughtiness and over-the-top absurdity. Divine stars as a rotund dancehall girl lost in the desert, where she encounters a taciturn cowboy (Tab Hunter, no less) and goes treasure hunting with the help of strategically tattooed maps. As comedies go, this one combines a dumb premise with weird characters, unusual situations and good one-liners even if the rhythm is uneven throughout. Still, Divine does well as the unravishable heroine (and the cross-dressing aspect hasn’t aged as badly as you’d think), while Lainie Kazan and Gina Gallego provide much of the nudity and raunch that make the film even funnier. By the time the film works itself off to a mutual stand-off above a treasure, well, we’re satisfied. Director Paul Bartel’s filmography is all over the place when it comes to comedy (Everything from Cannonball to Eating Raoul) and Lust in the Dust doesn’t clarify anything about his approach. While the result can’t be called a great comedy, it’s watchable and funny enough to be worth a look.