Multiple Maniacs

John Waters' movies ("Pink Flamingos", "Desperate Living") are definitely not for everyone, but I've seen enough of John Waters' films to know he is for me. There are plenty of people who will hate this film, and I wouldn't blame them. This movie is crass, ridiculous, disgusting, horribly shot, purposefully offensive, and outrageously acted, but it's also absolutely hysterical and it has a message that it succeeds in getting across. I would say that while "Multiple Maniacs" contains the scene that has most offended me in any of John Waters' film, it also has one of the strongest messages. I personally really enjoy this film (it's sitting amongst my collection), but I understand where the sheer amount of objectionable content could completely overshadow its voice and message.

The films of John Waters aren't to all tastes, but if you like, say Pink Flamingos, then you'll love Multiple Maniacs.

Waters' film-making career can be divided roughly into four categories:

• unseen first works (Roman Candles, Hag in a Black Leather Jacket, Eat Your Makeup)

• early filthy works (Multiple Maniacs, Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble)

• more mainstream works (Polyester, Hairspray, Crybaby)

• later missing-the-mark works (Serial Mom, Pecker, Cecil B. Demented)

In my opinion, there's no question that his early filthy works are the best and that Multiple Maniacs is perhaps the best of the three (or at least tying with Pink Flamingos).

Some of the reviewers here criticize the film for being badly acted or low budget. That's missing the point. Waters' films were never meant to couple the acting of Olivier with Industrial Light and Magic special effects. These are low budget gems that deliver equal amounts of shock and laughter.

Multiple Maniacs is one of Waters most perfect films in terms of the dialogue. The continual arguing between Lady Divine and Mr. David (the wonderful and elegant David Lochary) is almost operatic. The rest of the characters (most from John Waters early ensemble, the Dreamlanders) is absolutely outstanding. Mink Stole and Mary Vivian Pearce are pin-point perfect and Edith Massey is a gem in her screen debut. The late, great and much-missed Cookie Mueller gives the best performance of her career as the free wheeling daughter of Divine.

A black and white treasure from John Waters early career. Brilliant dialogue, hilarious scenes and a bravura climax make Multiple Maniacs a cinematic masterpiece.

This is what the conventional world looks like to me, so John Waters seems to say: Hollywood performances that are all pretty fake if you think about it (so who cares if the poor acting here just takes that to the next level), Suzy Homemaker housewives who revile in disgust over those they consider freaks, and hypocritical followers of Christ, whose type probably brawled over the food created by his miracles.

Conversely, this is what we (different, marginalized people) must appear like to you: deviants who eat their own vomit, sacrilegious heathen who turn rosary beads into anal beads in a church, and rampaging murderers who need to be put down before they harm to 'normal' people.

In several ways it's a pretty awful film; the plot is padded with lengthy scenes of silly dialogue, and Waters sometimes seeming to go for shock rather than having a point (the lobster rape, really? But his fans would probably say the shock is the point, you dolt). Regardless, in the subversive way that he shakes things up, gleefully upending all of our expectations, and in its final moments, to the tune of "God Bless America," he triumphs.

I love the grainy, inky black and white look of this movie, the bad cuts and scratches and even all the jumps in sound. It's just so gorgeous and couldn't be duplicated today...just a strange feeling is captured here, amplified because it's populated with so many hedonistic weirdos and perverts. Of course, these perks only exist because Waters and his crew were completely inept in the technical ways of cinema, but hey, I'll take what I can get.

Content wise...this has at least a flash or two of brilliance, which is impressive for a film that cost around "5000" bucks. The opening at the Cavalcade of Perversions is great ("She is an auto-erotica copraphrasiac and a gerontophiliac!"), but modern audiences might not know what to make out of all the dated cultural references (too much Manson/Tate stuff)...then there's an incredibly tedious and overlong delusion with Divine narrating her version of Christ. Even more time is padded with endless scenes of characters sitting and/or lying in bed talking (and often forgetting their lines), plus topless jitterbugging from Cookie Mueller, people riding around in cars and Mink Stole ("the religious whore") and Divine walking down the street.

Despite all that, the closing sequences (starting with Lobstra) make up for it and are just priceless. Best use of the song "God Bless America" right here folks! And the film is still completely unique and original 30+ years later, so you really have to admire it on that front as well.

Lady Divine is the star attraction and the leader of a traveling freak show. As a finale, she robs the square patrons but this time around, she starts killing and taking hostages. In the chaos, she escapes to her daughter Cookie and her new Weather Underground boyfriend Steve. She gets raped. She's led by a child king to a religious figure.

This is true outsider art from John Waters. I love his outrageous attacks on the conventional. That's why I love the opening freak show. It's rather short, too short in fact. The plot turns into a muddle. I get dizzy with Waters panning back and forth in every conversation. He keeps zooming in and out. He's never been a great camera operator. He's trying too hard and not good at it. On the other hand, the movie never stops being fascinating. His wild characterization never allows the movie to be bland. It is a bloody mess. I'm not quite sure who the other characters are sometimes. This is simply weird. It is wondrously weird.