PINK FLAMINGOS

the most provocative and graphic of all waters-movie, at times silly, funny, irritating or disgusting
but never boring. true underground. divine at her best. nice dvd which makes the best of the
almost 40-year-old material and including some deleted scenes which are introduced by the
director himself.
if you're even remotely interrested in movies far away from the hollywood-mainstream,
you can't go wrong with this one.

The film revs into view with the swagger of a scorching track from the legendary Link Wray. The rest of the film knots together with the links of the 50's greats; Juvenile Delinquent with Frankie Lymon, Cell Block No 9 by the Robins, Surfin Bird by the Trashmen and many, many, many more. Whilst reviewers decry music as cheese, I offer the correct end of the telescope to bring it together as gold dust.

John gives us the big gassss 50's guzzling cars in an era they were decried. He draws us to the curves, chrome and polished gleaming paint topped with red blinkers protruding like upturned phalli locked into the curves of a Monroe behind.

Finally there are the performers; various geeks, freaks and beaks all draped in a superstar leopardskin of an outre world. The characters traverse the outer lines of the socially fragmented, assembling together to deliver a resounding "no" verdict to the triumph of good over eville puerile mainstream taste. The bland bonhomie rivers of social etiquette are finally dammed. Instead of parading their wares on the catwalks, private colleges, board rooms and offices these images are jerked off the set. Waters elevates the trailer trash as a beautific inverse, the ones who hold the secrets of life in their surreal well worn and lived lives.

Mamma lives on a diet of eggs, her son performs for his sister. Mamma performs on her son, an orifice sins along to Surfin Bird, Divine stops traffic with a saunter, the baddies keep girls for sex in cellars. Authorities are corrupt, people are needy grasping and willing to do anything for status. This is the ultimate in a pastiche of cynicism. A film made after the love ins of the 60's were washed into the horizon and the reality kept at bay. Wilfull ignorance broke into the daydream with a gun in its hand. Rape, incest, bizzare sex, imprisonment, lesbians couple, chicken sex, estranged bizarre families playing sexual games; John Waters got there first before Jerry, Oprah, Trisha and Kyle. He unscrewed the lid and showed what had been gently cast away by the mainstream and then held up the skid marks as art for everyone to stare at.

This film operates on many levels and the main thrust is taboo busting. John walks through them like paper walls. It is excruciating but also transfixing as he has assembled a cast who operate on an Ed Woods level of acting capability who also happen to transcend the material and deliver something unwieldy and unearthly. At the same time this is a stunning portrayal of dysfunction.

This marks the boundaries of an unsane world so far in celluloid. However back in real time it has been noted some real families are even more peverse than this depiction. At least these have an ironic eye on the garlands of opprobiation. Real families sometimes believe they are equivalent of Stepford Wives whilst being even more debased. Just ask all the girls who have escaped from the basements of hell. John in his perversity arrived there before everyone else, placed his flag upon the moon and then people called him perverted whilst he was only holding a mirror.

That takes real guts!

this film is insane it takes bad taste to the extreme but is so funny it gets away with it.john water's films are always good fun and if your not easily offended its a must buy.just dont watch in front of the kids or your parents!