DESPERATE LIVING (1977)

                                                  "I hate the supreme court!"

 Known in Italy as PUNK STORY this is probably my favorite of all of John Water's films. The weird thing about that is that this one doesn't star Divine and he appears in all the other great Water's epics made before he dropped dead. In his place I find Mink Stole does an amazing job of being a maniacal woman barely in control. There's also the enormous black maid, Jean Hill, who commits homicide by sitting on Stole's husband and who blesses us by getting totally naked and having some hideously obese lesbian sex. Liz Renay, the star of a bunch of old b-movies including stuff like THE THRILL KILLERS, is also featured in a not-so classy lesbian role and the great Edith Massey is our queen! Every character from the background punk/biker-types to the bad-ass bull-dyke is perfect. The other great thing about this scummy classic is that it gets right to heart of what makes Water's classic movies so great. It's an ode to the disgusting aspects of humanity and bad taste in general. It's also told like some demented fairy-tale for degenerates and weirdos. It's also proven to be pretty clairvoyant in it's ability to predict how far society will devolve and it's, on top of everything else, pretty fucking hilarious. Castration, puke, murder, cannibalism, snot, bathroom perverts, a panty-snatching cop, boobs, female wresting, messy trans-gender-operations and a whole laundry list of disgusting antics and bodily fluids make this one a great all-time lowlife ode to the sickness of society.