John Waters' commentary on the "typical" American family? Of course in Waters-land that includes a 300-pound cross-dressing man(Divine) as the mom, a filthy, flatulent, porn-theater owning dad who's also sleeping with his secretary(Mink Stole), a glue-snorting foot-fetishist(and foot-stomping) son and a constantly go-go dancing daughter who's dating Dead Boys lead-singer Stiv Bators who plays a greasy punk with the awesome name of Bo-Bo Belsinger. In addition to these insane characters you also get the always wonderful Edith Massey as 70-something year old obese "debutante", who can always see the silver-lining in any cloud no matter how big or small from alcoholism to murder. Divine's sadistic mother and 50's idol Tab Hunter as a romantic Romeo. Hunter even gets to make out with Divine which is something I'm sure he never envisioned in his wildest dreams doing when he started back in the 50's. Jean Hill also shows up for a bit where she proceeds to hijack a bus, chomp on a tire and smack Bators around. If you like insanity, no one touches Waters as the king of off-the-wall antics. The man pretty much embodies what is the punk-rock aesthetic and amazingly did so before punk rock really even existed.
I got a chance to experience this the way it was originally released in full Odorama last night with scratch and sniff cards as big as your face and a full crowd which totally added to the enjoyment of the film.
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