"You stand convicted of Assholism!" -- in praise of John Waters

The real question in re: John Waters is a very rockist question: was the early stuff better, much better, or is that whole question bullshit? Everybody went nuts over Polyester which was good but lacked the "these people are truly insane" appeal of earlier films. Every JW movie since then has some embarassingly ham-handed moments, even the GREAT Cecil B. Demented (the scene where they sit around singing "Demented Forever" as they get branded made me cringe, it was so corny). At the same time, his eye for satire gets sharper as his audience widens. BUT AT THE VERY SAME TIME DONT'TCHA KNOW the jokes come less rapid-fire, seem more self-conscious, etc. Knowing that one has an audience & feeling obligated to same, Classic or Dud?

And his recollections live are pretty much like a standup comedy act. Very funny man in person.

Anyway, Divine's performance in Polyester, the crackup descent into booze and pills, is surely one of the greatest film performances EVER EVER EVER. The commitment and detail in it blows nearly all other movie "acting" out of the fucking pond.

"No single bullet can destroy the beauty of fascism"

Not only do I like "Female Troubles," I am also keen to "Polyesters," and "Hairsprays."

Same here. You can't top the unspeakably bizarre sensibility of the early films, but Hairspray, the greatest film of 1988, manages to keep the weirdness but add in his essentially, uh..., em,...er...sweet-- personality too. Ricki Lake was brilliant, Divine of course.

No, Homer. Ultrasuede is a miracle. This was just good timing. Or something like that.

Yeah, well agreed. And yes the movie overall is quite great!

i like how all his movies take place in baltimore.

What is the trick of being an adorable asshole?

watched this at bma, didn't disappoint
http://www.nytimes.com/video/t-magazine/100000003435098/teaser-john-waters-kiddie-flamingos.html

Found a complete version of Desperate Living on YouTube last night and it fucking killed me again. So many totally insane characters and scenes. I never really noticed it b4 but its definitely his lesbian/dyke film. Of course, there are other um "avenues" explored but that one is most prominent. The low budget sets are fantastic! The buildings in Mortville are near psychedelic in their coloring. Just beautiful. And also of note, was the absence of Divine, fortunately the other Dreamlanders rise to the occasion. Definitely his darkest film by a considerable margin. I fucking love it!

"SEIZE her and FUCK her!"

LOL! Yeah, there are so many great lines in DL."look at that pelt", "every word I utter is to be taken as a direct, royal proclamation", the aforementioned white man/tampax line. It just goes on and on. The scene wherein Mo emasculates herself, tosses it and some random dog grabs it up. It's truly remarkable how successful it is even without The Divine Miss Divine. And its definitely a film whose appeal to me would never be explainable to my parents ala Warhols Trash and many other favorites.

For some reason, I can't get my library to stock the Criterion of Multiple Maniacs.

TELL HER this isn't some communist daycare center!!!

can't tell you how many times i've thought about the title of this thread re: current administration and basically every single news day about it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9P_sxaaMJE

this is pretty priceless btw; the two tone collar is dope and waters is sharp as a tack.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KEzk1DqTaaQ

amazed no one goes to waters these days with an open checkbook, seems like it would be printing money... has he said he's just not making anything anymore?

I remembered a funny John Waters anecdote yesterday that I told to friends

I saw him speak on my college campus, probably fifteen years ago, and he was joking about how after he'd mentioned poppers a number of times, one of the manufacturers had gifted him a "lifetime supply"

I saw him again a couple years ago, and the topic came up. He said he'd nearly run out! Either they underestimated him or he's lived longer than expected

It’s a good thing I’m not relying on making movies. That’s the only one of the careers I have today that isn’t going so great. In the independent film world now, they want you to make it for $2 million and I don’t want to go backwards. I don’t want to be a faux anarchist underground filmmaker at 71 years old. People say, ‘Well, why don’t you raise money on Kickstarter?’ I own three homes. I’m not panhandling. So that’s fine because I have different ways to tell stories.

Do you miss filmmaking?

No. I mean, I do. I miss it, but not completely. I would make another movie in a minute, but I don’t know when I would make it. I am scheduled for the next year already! I made a lot of movies. It’s not like they’re hard to see. I know I would miss it if I didn’t write. I would miss it if I didn’t do spoken word. I would miss it if I didn’t have a photography career. I’d be happy to make one, but if I don’t make another one, I’m fine with that too.

https://www.fastcompany.com/40480667/john-waters-is-done-being-a-faux-anarchist-underground-filmmaker

I own three homes. I’m not panhandling.

God bless him.

Odorama cards this Fri night in NYC

https://www.moma.org/calendar/events/6341

I still have my card from when I saw it in the 80s. Haven't sniffed it recently, wonder if it's still got the aromas.

A hero has passed.

https://www.baltimoresun.com/obituaries/bs-md-ob-david-gluck-20200619-tgunh2dcazbl5pvymnvho2ecvy-story.html

Also rewatched Female Trouble the other day having finally gotten the Criterion Blu-ray and man, that thing's more crazily prescient than ever.

But of course

John Waters bequeaths his art collection to Baltimore Museum of Art, whose bathrooms will be named in his honor https://t.co/BqVZPKx74z

— Ben Jacobs (@Bencjacobs) November 12, 2020

perfect

my house appeared in pecker for two seconds and i am trying to remember if the house at the end of my street was pecker's house or if i made that up, either way i feel part of this

Lovely new feature

https://www.townandcountrymag.com/leisure/arts-and-culture/a37460247/john-waters-cover-story-interview-2021/

Just saw the first date of this year’s Christmas tour here in SF, great as ever. Some news:

*4K of Cry-baby on Kino Lorber next year

* Possible Criterion of Pink Flamingos in the works.

* First novel next year! Liarmouth — about a woman who steals luggage from airports.

Seeing the Xmas show tonight

And it's happening

https://www.criterion.com/films/31320-pink-flamingos

Pink Flamingos is one of the films, like Texas Chainsaw Massacre, that I saw numerous times when I was younger, and agree is culturally or historically significant (!) yet have no desire to watch again.

I have Pink Flamingos on a VHS videotape somewhere and honestly watching it on a 4K Blu-Ray seems like an example of comically missing the point.

Luckily it's just a normal BR.

New book, new interview etc.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/scaachikoul/john-waters-book-liarmouth

Great read! Thanks Ned!

omg omg omg

John Waters to make first film in 20 years with Aubrey Plaza set to star

Here's hoping!

Wow, can't believe it's been that long. By a weird coincidence I am currently reading Liarmouth and it very much feels like one of his films.

JW does an Amoeba "what's in my bag?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AOk8cSrZAY

man with a midas touch

HAIRSPRAY

(coming on Criterion along with Female Trouble, why has nobody bumped that thread)

Desperate Living, not FT, but also exciting news!

FT was already released by Criterion so yay that too.

oh right sorry, mixed 'em up in my breathless excitement

Turning EIGHTY tomorrow??

Happy 80th, John! See you at Mosswood Meltdown

This came out late last year, so maybe not the freshest news, but I was excited to see his cameo in the intro to Sarah Squirm's HBO special.

Mosswood Meltdown

this sounds so fun

It's a treat of a festival, attended the past few years now. (Had to miss last year but definitely in for it again this time out.) He introduces literally each act and does so with poetic glee. That and our own Chaki regularly handles the backstage streaming stuff.

yeah I was out of town last year but should be around this summer

For a few years, we just set up blankets right outside the paid area, bottles of wine and picnic stuff... you can people-watch the folks going in, more or less hear the bands, and sit in the shade with cheap beer. (I'm also usually pretty good at just walking right in like I own the place lol)

“Some call it “The Warped Woodstock’ or ‘An Asshole-free Altamont’ while others holler ‘Coachella, Go-To Hella’. We’re Mosswood Meltdown and we’re going to lose our musical marbles again this year with a line up of lunatic acts that will make even the angriest punk- rocker pogo their way to paradise with a twisted smile on their dirty little faces.”

— John Waters

Pavement?!?!

https://mosswoodmeltdown.com/

Yeah, slightly separate show this time as normally it's just Saturday and Sunday. I'm sure people will have a good time, but as I've already seen Wednesday I'm skipping that part.

the festival was actually started by the defunct and disgraced Burger Records but has been it's own thing for the last few

And it streams on twitch and youtube (most acts).

This came out late last year, so maybe not the freshest news, but I was excited to see his cameo in the intro to Sarah Squirm's HBO special.

― peace, man, Wednesday, April 22, 2026 2:56 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

And of course she had shared the clip on her instagram yesterday.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DXcLp_jA8lG/

Heard from a friend who experienced it that his Camp John Waters in Connecticut is a total blast and will leave you loving the guy even more. This is apparently the last year they're doing it, in September.