Desperate Living

John Waters never apologizes for his movies- and this one is both funny and disgusting. Mink Stole as the hysteric and Miss Edie as the queen are both off the wall good. Waters doesn't shy away from nudity- both male and female-- but it all works to make this a hilarious spoof.

A film that embodies the youthful energy of a teenage class clown who just wants to shock the world with whatever over the top antics they can get away with. It's a relentless blitzkrieg of absurd obscenity. After awhile, you start to grow desensitized to the filth as you are bombarded with one insane scenario after another, but I guess that's kinda the point of it all. Later day John Waters does attempt to put some method to the madness, but this is him at his most unfiltered.

A lot of the world knows about John Waters who made the historic "Pink Flamingos". Probably most famous for it's dog-s*** eating scene, a scene where a man has sex with a chicken plus cannibilism, artificial insemination and mother-son blowjob. But this film is probably his most shocking film. Its "plot" is about Peggy Gravel(The hilarious Mink Stole), an ultra-neurotic woman who has just been released from the asylum. When she comes back home, she is under the impression that the neighborhood children are trying to kill her just because they accidently smash a footbal through a window. She is also under the impression that her five year old son raped his equally young sister just because they were playing doctor. Her husband tries to help her with no success after the 500 pound maid crushes him(The maid played by Jean Hill, but this role was NOT written for the absent Divine). Peggy and the maid, Grizelda then go on the run to Mortville, a small Baltimore town where criminals of Baltimore come out to hide. When there, Peggy and Grizelda meat up with Mole(Susan Lowe) and Muffy(Liz Renay, in a role originally intended for Divine) and ake refuge at a motel. The rest of the film is a blur of male and female nudity, vaginal gun shot wounds, ass-kissing and a DIY sex change. This truly is one of Waters most shocking films and something that even tops the likes of the blowjob scene in Pink Flamingos. It starts off with a rat getting served on a plate and in the middle we see a penis get cut off and at the end we see Edith Massey kissing Liz Renay's ugly pornographic ass. This is Waters last real gross out movie. After this movie, no more blowjobs or s*** eating. He went strictly mainstream. See this film as soon as you can.

Seven out of Ten

All of John Waters' early films, beyond being purposefully shocking and repulsive, have this really tangible dirty, raunchy quality to them. They're movies with bad hygiene, like the porno movies whose actors have dirt under their fingernails or pimples in all the wrong places. Waters has a special gift for compiling the most disgusting items and the most disgusting combinations of items (lesbian glory holes, marshmallows and Cheez-its, egg-addicted 250-lb women, bleeding gums and French kissing, 'Surfin' Bird' and anal lip-syncing) for maximum effect, filming everything in grainy, artless 16mm with alternately wooden and over-the-top line-readings not dissimilar to the acting in a porno flick.

If you've seen Waters on television, he has a certain sophisticated charm to his wit, and perhaps a dirtier director wouldn't have the right sensibility to make films as authentically dirty as this one, or the discretion enough to choose performers as dirty-looking as Turkey Joe and Kenny Orye. The fact that Waters does not show any contempt or opinion about his subjects is important. He has this open, accepting non-judgmental affection for everyone in his films that makes the films themselves OF the filth they are depicting rather than simply about that filth, and he embraces those of notoriety and dubious character such as Patty Hearst and Liz Renay. He's subversive not by philosophy or decision, but by nature. Subversiveness for Waters means a good time. What distinguishes his work as "underground" rather than "exploitation" is that he celebrates the depravity and freakishness of his performers rather than exploiting.

Every single character in 'Desperate Living' is a sociopath, as it takes place primarily in a fairy-tale town called Mortville, to which housewife Peggy Gravel (Mike Stole) and her 300-lb black maid Grizelda (Jean Hill) flee after the latter murders Stole's husband by sitting on his face. Everyone in Mortville is trashy and, well, desperate, and there's a vivid pre-punk vibe here amongst psycho-dyke Mole, played by Susan Lowe, and others, and in the garish, tacky colors of the town's decor, which Waters reports was constructed entirely out of garbage with only one exception.

While I find Waters' 'Pink Flamingos' boring once the shocks become familiar, 'Desperate Living' is a fascinating movie to watch. It's probably Waters' most depraved and outrageous movie, and the funniest of his pre-'Polyester' movies. You get to see the hefty Jean Hill naked, rolling around in bed with Mink Stole, and you get to see Waters regular Edith Massey in all her snaggletoothed wonder as the wicked Queen Carlotta, being pleasured by one of her many leather-clad man-servants. You'll see this and, if nothing else, probably want to catalogue these bits to friends or show them the film, just to get a rise out of them.

DESPERATE LIVING is something of a transitional film for director Waters. It is a departure from his earlier works because it was the first of his films not to be produced by his Dreamland company, but by a limited partnership called Charm City Productions. It was also the first feature he made without his usual star, Divine, and therefore represents a departure from his usual story lines (which had previously served as vehicles for Divine). In this sense, it is a film that is more Waters' vision. The story and the execution of the film is far too grim, however. Waters' films work because the characters seem to enjoy themselves very much. But DESPERATE LIVING presents us with characters that simply seem miserable, and nothing else. The opening scenes are quite funny, though. Jean Hill's performance is particularly funny. From a moviegoers' standpoint, I prefer FEMALE TROUBLE highly over this film. I am somewhat baffled at the statement that DESPERATE LIVING is Waters' best film. I can see that it is his most technically advanced up to the time it was made, but surely FEMALE TROUBLE contains the funniest dialogue and performances. All in all, DESPERATE LIVING represents a pre-mainstream John Waters which is always an interesting experience. However, I would not reccomend it as highly as I would some of his other works.