Review of Multiple Maniacs (1970) by Stephen M — 05 Feb 2011

I watched this a couple of months or so ago, decided to chew it over before reviewing and now I come to do so I can't remember a great deal about it, which possibly tells you all you need to know about the quality of the movie.

Poking fun at, among other things, the Roman Catholic church and the victims of the Manson Family, Multiple Maniacs certainly goes for the jugular in terms of tastelessness; the problem is, it's just not funny enough.

John Waters is quite capable of writing amusing dialogue but there's precious little on display here. Instead, the movie is littered with tedious, over-talkative scenes that take an eternity to go nowhere, and even the two most infamous sequences - the "rosary job" administered on Divine by Mink Stole and the surreal appearance of "Lobstora" - outstay their welcome by several minutes.

Curiously, Multiple Maniacs works best in its quieter moments, when it's not desperately trying to be offensive. For example, as I've said, the "rosary job" goes on forever and isn't all that funny, but the build up, with Divine's voiceover telling us one thing and the visuals exactly the opposite, is highly amusing.

I also enjoyed David Lochary and Mary Vivian Pearce's star-crossed lovers routine.