Female Trouble

This really isn't a movie for everyone, but over the years I have been introduced to John Waters movies and they re my guilty pleasure! Before John Waters became mainstream, he made a whole series of art-house movies like this using grotesque characters and ridiculous story lines, but somehow they worked. I guess you gotta be a little weird and twisted in the head to enjoy them!!!! He should not be dismissed as a Director who's out to shock you for the sake of it, he's showing you a slice of life that most of us have no real knowledge about. Of course, all the characters are larger than life (in more ways than one!!!). I enjoy his style of movie making - it may be quite amateur in his early days, but you can see that his skill improves with each movie. I'm not ashamed to say that I enjoy a lot of his work!! Mark my words, this movie is certainly NOT for everybody!!! Make sure you know what you are letting yourself in for before you watch it!!!! It's pretty gross in places!! It's so tasteless it's good!!!!

God bless John Waters. He's made some of the best, crudest feel-good movies, and this is one of his crowning achievements. It's amazing how his film, ugly-looking and full of lipstick-smeared freaks, can feel positive and upbeat; while he's mocking everything in sight, he doesn't stand back and protect himself with irony or winks -- he jumps right in there, and that involvement, that energy, is easy to see and feel. It's amazing that he can feature masturbation with needle-nose pliers, beating a child with a chair, a game of "car accident," and Divine literally screwing himself and not have it be off-putting.

The very idea that Waters uses a fat transvestite with a beehive hairdo to illustrate his scorn for school shows he's not so interested in subtlety. And Divine is awesome, as always, his prissy, gravely scream -- a freak you want on your side. This is one of Waters' best satirical attempts -- there are digs at hippies and Hare Krishnas, and two scenes in particular are very prophetic: the gay encouraging, and the killing for art. Waters even mocks his own shameless exhibitionism in the testimony of the Dashers. 9/10

Devine was certainly no stranger to trash films when John Waters assembled the cast of this Baltimore gem, and it shows. Devine is gregarious, derisive at times, a stunning fem fatale who nearly steals the show as both Dawn Davenport, and her alter-ego, Earl, who staggers and lurches his way into our hearts. This film is one of the few times Devine did male drag, and he pulls it off with astonishing effect. Mink Stole is priceless as Taffy, Dawn's long suffering daughter, and of course who could forget Edith Massey as the torturous Aunt Ida and Dawn's nemesis. Almost as brilliant are the performances of Mary-Vivian Pearce and David Lochary, the demented couple who, after interviewing her to become a client in their Le' Lipstick beauty salon, befriend Dawn and encourage her into a fetid and ribald modeling career. Yes, it's shameless, destined for ruin, utterly unbelievable, and I loved every minute of it. Water's dialog is vehement, abominable, and not to be equaled. It's a shame that he hasn't been able to find replacement versions of Devine and Massey. It was the unorthodoxy of his whole approach to film in the 1970s that endeared thousands and made Devine a gay household name. I hope one day he can return to his roots and get down to building more fine trash.

Although John Waters is best known for "Pink Flamingos", his two best films are "Female Trouble" and "Desperate Living". Why? Well, as far as "Female Trouble" is concerned, it is the film that invented Dawn Davenport (Divine), one of the trashiest white schoolgirl tramps ever to strut her stuff in a pair of cha-cha heels. Dawn's amazing life is documented in this film and it's a cracker from beginning to end. You will laugh, you will cry, you will vomit and you will die as you behold the deliciously disgraceful antics of the indefatigable queen of crime and sleaze.

All the delightful Waters regulars (the achingly gorgeous Edith Massey, the fantastically filthy David Lochary, the marvellous Mink Stole and the putrid Ms. Mary Vivian Pearce) are paraded about like proud circus exhibits as Waters' weaves a rags to bitches story of one woman's rise from the suburbs of Baltimore to her fall in a city without pity.

Certainly this was one of the first films to explore the issue of criminals becoming celebrities. Dawn Davenport's ascent to the ceiling of crime is hilarious and perceptive and Waters clearly knew where all this was going. For mine, Waters lost his zing after "Desperate Living" when his movies got softer and his characters started turning up on TV shows like "Wally George", "Jerry Springer" and the earlier "Oprah" eps. What was fresh when Waters started doing it felt redundant when he kept doing it into the eighties and nineties.

Divine is, was and always will be a legend, and I consider myself fortunate that I once spent half an hour chatting with the great man and actor. Vincent Peranio's production design is spectacularly obnoxious and Van Smith's costumes, as always, are knitted from the threads of trash heaven.

Waters does not put a foot wrong and ends proceedings on a surprisingly emotional note.

"Female Trouble" is one of John Water's best movies, probably the best of his pre-respectable (read: pre-"Hairspray") flicks. Posessing a much more strong (and bizarre) plotline than the also brilliant "Pink Flamingos", "Female Trouble" documents the exploits of Dawn Davenport, a horrible juvenial delinquent turned criminal played by the unbeatable Divine.

This was Water's last film to features his entire original ensemble of actors (Divine, David Lochary, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pierce, and Edith Massey) and each has a memorable and hilarious role. Stole steals the show as Dawn's "retarded" 14 year old daughter, but Edith Massey is also great as Aunt Ida, who constantly urges her nephew Gator to turn gay ("The world of the heterosexual is a sick and boring life!").

The scene where Dawn hits Ida on the head with a fish is worth the whole price of admission. Recommended!!!