John Waters (Director)

Reviews of movies from director John Waters

Looking for reviews of films directed by John Waters? Cinafilm has a total of 3,636 reviews across 12 movies directed by John Waters.

Movies from this director have generally received positive reviews and hold an average rating of 65%.

Female Trouble is John Waters's highest rated movie, with a score of 75% based on 312 reviews.

The lowest rated film from John Waters is A Dirty Shame, with a score of 53% based on 432 reviews.

Director Biography

Growing up in Baltimore in the 1950s, John Waters was not like other children; he was obsessed by violence and gore, both real and on the screen. With his weird counter-culture friends as his cast, he began making silent 8mm and 16mm films in the mid-'60s; he screened these in rented Baltimore church halls to underground audiences drawn by word of mouth and street leafleting campaigns. As his filmmaking grew more polished and his subject matter more shocking, his audiences grew bigger, and his write-ups in the Baltimore papers more outraged. By the early 1970s he was making features, which he managed to get shown in midnight screenings in art cinemas by sheer perseverance. Success came when Pink Flamingos (1972) - a deliberate exercise in ultra-bad taste - took off in 1973, helped no doubt by lead actor Divine's infamous dog-crap eating scene. Waters continued to make low-budget shocking movies with his Dreamland repertory company until Hollywood crossover success came with Hairspray (1988), and although his movies nowadays might now appear cleaned up and professional, they retain Waters' playfulness, and reflect his lifelong obsessions.

John Waters has directed films starring Mary Vivian Pearce, Mink Stole, Susan Lowe and George Figgs.