Review of Cry-Baby (1990) by Mike H — 14 Feb 2010

I finally watched a John Waters movie. Now that I have, I'd have to say, it feels a lot like the first time I watched Mulholland Drive. There are not words to properly define how f(*)&$(*^#%(*#&%_%)(#*@#$)_*(@#ing weird this movie is.

But John Waters is no David Lynch (though they hail from the same era, and actually, were acquaintances whose movies played at the same midnight theaters during the same time). There's no question that Waters can direct actors (or at least send the actors in a direction). But he doesn't quite know how to say what he wants to say.

Cry Baby is an overly stereotyped response to sheltered suburban upbringing in a remake-of-Grease-from-Hell package. But none of the characters are really relatable, so we have to rely on a self-aware directing technique to derive any sense of purpose from the movie. In this way, Waters is like Lynch. But unlike Lynch, his mastery of film technique doesn't extend beyond directing actors to be incomparably annoying. Sure, Lynch is pretentious, but his movies are majestically good looking, so the weirdness becomes a device that aids in putting you into a trance. With Waters, weird is all you get. It's anti-establishment, anti-rules, but... then what? Why this storyline, why this musical? The movie is purposely unfunny and unrelatable, but, on its surface, the entire point of the movie is to be funny and relatable. Is anti-art automatically art? Is John Waters a genius because people pause and say, "What the hell fuck was the point of that?".

Sidebar: This movie contains a two-shot with Johnny Depp and Ricki Lake.

Sidebar: This movie contains a two-shot with Johnny Depp and Iggy Pop.

Sidebar: This movie contains a two-shot with Johnny Depp and Willem Dafoe.