Review of Polyester (1981) by Max K — 12 Jan 2011

'Polyester' may look cleaner than earlier works 'Pink Flamingoes' and 'Female Trouble', and there is a noticeable lack of dog poop and grimy penises, yet it's still just as depraved as anything Waters has produced before or since (except maybe 'Hairspray').

Waters throws his ol' reliable heroine/muse Devine into a more domestic setting as long suffering housewife Francine Fishpaw (gotta love his quirky alliterative names), who cries and cries and cries some more over her cheating toupeed pornographer husband, her sexually wreckless daughter (it's Mink Stole bonking rat-faced Stiv Bators - how can you blame her?), and her paint huffing footwear-fetishist/masochist son.

To top it all off, she's a bleating alcoholic. All of her dreams seem to come true when she meets Todd Tommorow, but paradise may not seem so true. Funny stuff, if you like Water's typical brand of peachy keen, cyanide-soaked humor.

I didn't enjoy it as much as his other films, but if you like John Waters and slightly biting commentary on domesticity, alcoholism, abortion, and illicit drug use, hey! Polyester is your oyster.