TIFF Report: A Dirty Shame
Ah, John Waters, the reigning king of raunch. My festival experience thus far had been composed of fairly highbrow fare and underground genre film. It was time for a change of pace and the world premiere of John Waters' A Dirty Shame was just the ticket. Advance word was that this film marked Waters' return to full on sexual sleaze - featuring Selma Blair's ridiculously oversized prosthetic breasts front and center on the poster was more than enough to get that particular word out - and the word was not wrong.
Set in suburban Baltimore - a virtual given for a Waters film - A Dirty Shame is the story of a clash of cultures, the sexually repressed neuters against a cabal of sex addicts, led by Johnny Knoxville, who are on a mission to spread sexual freedom and hopefully discover a new sex act in the process. Tracy Ullman stars as the repressed Sylvia Stickles, mother of Candice (Selma Blair). Candice is an aspiring stripper with wildly oversized prosthetic breasts who has been ordered into house arrest for repeated public nudity and who wants nothing more than to head down to the local biker bar to entertain the boys. When Sylvia receives a blow to the head in an accident she is transformed into a raving sex addict and discovered by sex-addict-messiah Ray Ray (Johnny Knoxville) who believes her to be the chosen one, his twelfth apostle who will discover the new sex act and bring about the sexual revolution.
What? Sexual armageddon brought on by a blow to the head? Oh, yes. In Waters' world a good concussion is all it takes to transform anyone from tightly wound prude to full on drooling ball of lust. And we're not talking about a subtle change here, we're talking the sexual equivalent of the Reefer Madness pot-rage, only here it is actually supposed to be funny and it is. Very. There are ridiculous sight gags everywhere, Ullman is in full effect, and the supporting cast - especially Knoxville, who is a perfect addition to Waters' world - is uniformly strong. The film leaps out of the gate and had the entire audience howling with laughter.
What elevates A Dirty Shame beyond the level of so-called sex comedies of the American Pie ilk is purely and simply John Waters himself. The man is completely fearless, has a wildly absurd sense of humor, and is apparently a complete innocent. If there is a malicious bone in Waters' body it is certainly not on display here. While you can certainly call this an exploitation film - though I wouldn't myself - there is no way you can call it degrading. Sexual humor is often cruel, predicated on embarassment and shame, but with Waters it is more than anything else a giddy celebration. This is a man who loves sex while being keenly aware both of how ridiculous the act is itself and how ridiculous our own reactions to it can be. Waters is not about mockery, he's about revelling in absurdity and there's plenty of it to be found.
The down side to the film is that it starts out of the gate so quickly and with such a narrow focus that it is essentially a single joke movie. It's a good joke and Waters rides it for all it's worth but it inevitably begins to run out of steam once you get past the half way point. It's hard to be shockingly funny once you've already laid all your cards down and the audience knows what to expect. The laughs start to come a little slower and quieter than they did at the beginning, though they never die out entirely. You're definitely ready for the joke to end by the time the film wraps up, but thankfully Waters manages to avoid overstaying his welcome. It's not his best work and the subtext is a good bit lighter than I think he intended but A Dirty Shame is a worthy entry into the Waters canon and certainly worth a viewing.
