Review of Polyester (1981) by Robert H — 16 Jun 2014

POLYESTER, while representing an improvement in filmmaking technique from previous John Waters' movies, is still noticeably lacking in the narrative department. I suppose that maybe his style isn't the best fit for me, but the biggest problem with this movie is that the story is rather disjointed and lopsided.

A lot of time is spent building on Divine's character's frustration and torment, but the payoff of is rather short-lived and weak. Part of the reason it's like this may have something to do with the type of movie that POLYESTER is making fun of, and the satire is pretty dead-on at times, but it succumbs to a lot of the goofiness and clichés as well.

As far as acting is concerned, Divine was never really the greatest actor, but she managed to put together a decent performance here, at least more so than she did in previous John Waters films. Here, she played an entirely sympathetic character.

Also starring was Tab Hunter, who was a heartthrob from the 50's and was in a bunch of movies I've never seen. Obviously, it would have helped if I'd seen or heard of him before seeing this, but I can only imagine he was poking fun at his previous image and he did look like he was having a good time onscreen.

Overall, POLYESTER isn't John Waters' best movie nor his worst. It's an average story with improved production values. It's also more tame than previous Waters movies, so newbies to his style wouldn't be as put-off by this as something like PINK FLAMINGOS or FEMALE TROUBLE.