Review of Pink Flamingos (1976) by Bob V — 13 Dec 2010

This self-proclaimed "exercise in poor taste" defeats categorization as good or bad. No one can claim this is indeed anything but a succession of distasteful images. Yet, the fact that it became one of the (if not thà (C)) cultfilms of all time, and that it is still widely known and popular today, indicates that there must be something a little more to it than that. After all, the seventies produced a whole gamma of shock-trash movies which are now only remembered by aficionados of the genre.

Whether you like it or not, this movie put John Waters and his Dreamlanders on the map, leading to the original Hairspray, which culminated in John Travolta in drag, leading to Cry Baby, without which Tim Burton would never have cast a young man named Johnny Depp as a certain Scissorhands, and leading to a small, independent zero of a studio surviving the tough early years, eventually making New Line Cinema a household name.