Cry-Baby

This is a film that John Waters created as a loving send up of 1950's teen and juvenile delinquent films. It tells the story of Cry-Baby (Depp) a teenage orphan with the ability to make women swoon by shedding a single tear. It's a good natured, never mean musical based in a world where a song can make jail prisoners dance and riot or make someone fall in love with you despite being from different worlds.

A cast that includes Iggy Pop, Traci Lords, Waters regular Rikki Lake and a few other pleasant treats and cameos. The actors appear to be having as much fun with the subject matter as the film is. Borrowing for value from films such as Grease, Jail-house Rock, High School Hellcats, Rebel without a cause and a zillion others from the genre this film is a self-aware campy comedy that is very well crafted.

Clean and ridiculous warmhearted fun with more than a hint of trash. As of the date I re-watched this film (April 2004 10 years later) this film is still out of print. The reason for that is inexplicable to me as it's one of Johnny Depp's funniest performances and one of the better musicals that comes to mind. Oh yeah, don't blink or you'll miss Willem Defoe as the prison guard. "God bless Dwight D. Eisenhower, God bless Roy Cohn..."

Come for the comedy, stay for the great songs.

I first saw this movie on TV and then just HAD to get it on video. It's a brilliant send-up of the Grease story and Johnny Depp is perfectly cast in the James Dean-type role as a juvinile dilinquent who falls for a square. It's very funny and all the songs are great! Turn up the volume especially on 'Cry Baby'!

Having gone from underground schlock cinema to mainstream success, John Waters has been revered and lauded for his daring tackling of cinema as much as his dismantling of good taste. Perhaps one of his more commercially appealing works would have to be Cry-Baby, set and shot in Ellicott City, Maryland. Despite failing at the box office on its original spring 1990 release, the film has become a cult classic enough to spawn a Tony award winning Broadway musical spinoff. Detailing the lives of delinquent teenagers interacting with each other in 1950s Baltimore, the film could be a time capsule in its own right.

The film centers around two teens named "Cry-Baby" Walker (Johnny Depp), and Allison Vernon-Williams (Amy Locane), who disturb Baltimore society by breaking the subculture taboos, while also having to overcome their affectionate love and how their actions affect the town. From the start, the basis of the film's social commentary is the difference in classes, with Walker's group being labeled as drapes and Allison's group being labeled as squares. In depicting the squares as social elites and the drapes as white trash rednecks, the film could have easily gone in a sourly dark direction. Thankfully, Waters knows how to execute the fun out of a concept like this and turn it into a full blown campy musical. By exaggerating the stereotypes of '50s rock culture, the film subverts specific tropes, such as Cry Baby being the tough motorcyclist with a heart of gold and Allison's square boyfriend Baldwin being a monster disguised as a charming gentleman. Of course, the chemistry between Cry Baby and Allison is cute in its own right, but the sexual tension between them is what brings audiences back for more.

However, what arguably makes the movie a lot more engaging are the supporting characters. Although mostly derived from their basic traits, Cry Baby's gang/family give out the best laughs in the whole movie. Thanks to an all star cast like Ricki Lake as Cry Baby's boisterous pregnant sister Pepper, Susan Tyrell as Cry Baby's eccentric grandmother Ramona Rickettes, Iggy Pop as Cry Baby's hysterical uncle Belvedere, Traci Lords as the fed up hot Wanda Woodward, Kim McGuire as the ugly clown Mona "Hatchet Face" Malnorowski, etc, the characters serve the story enough with some heavily sprinkled cartoony gags to boot. Even for a film like this, it allows for the occasional piece of drama to spew out with a dynamic split between the drapes and squares without going too far in the pathos department. The pacing is very fast paced, almost never stopping to take a breath, which is exactly what a movie as nutty as this needs. While it doesn't delve into the prejudice happening in Baltimore of the past as deeply as the likes of Hairspray, it's one heck of a comedic thrill ride.

As for the musical highlights, the soundtrack consists of already existing rock hip hop songs from the 50s and songs intended for the movie alone. Since the film barely lets two minutes go by without a musical number, it practically tells the story through the soundtrack, emphasizing the camp punk culture of yesteryear still beloved by Baltimorians today. The choreography alone is incredible, paying tribute to early rock cinema and the outlandishly bold musical numbers they would boast to move the story along. Some of the songs are so poignant that even a single entitled Teardrops Are Falling emphasize why our titular character is called Cry Baby from the start On top of that, the production design and specific editing choices recreate the look of a comically silly 50s feature brought into the early 1990s (most likely why the movie wasn't a hit at the time). Perhaps in bringing his influences in campy rock & roll cinema into the mainstream three decades after the fact was more of a curse on Waters' part, but looking back now, this film delivers on that for all to cherish from that time period alone.

So even if its outlandishly cartoony tone won't please everyone in the world, Cry Baby remains a delightfully infectious musical ode to the teen rebel genre. As both a tribute and a lampoon of the types of films that inspired it, there's a lot to recommend to audiences who are yet to check it out. If you're discovering the later mainstream works of John Waters, this might be a really good place to start, at least before Hairspray and Serial Mom. Lastly, regardless of what you think of Johnny Depp and Amy Locane nowadays, this film will forever remain a cult classic in spite of them more so because of them.

John Waters' movies are perhaps acquired taste (read: first class TRASH!), but "Cry-Baby" is a fairly accessible and comical romp, complete with great music, very likable performances and a moody 50's atmosphere. Obviously mocking "Grease", the story is set in a Baltimore high school where teen idol Johnny Depp leads the "Drapes" thug gang versus the chic and fancy "Squares". The hormones work at maximum power and Depp's character inevitably falls for the most popular square-girl in school. Arguments like these can only be settled with rough fights and…dance contests! Johnny Depp and Amy Locane are both great in their lead roles, but it's the supportive cast that impresses the most. More particularly ex-porn star Traci Lords, Kim McGuire as Hatchet-Face (you can't but stare at her grimaces), Iggy Pop and Ricky Lake (as Depp's wild sister in a constant state of pregnancy). The gags are more tasteful than usual but all John Waters' trademarks are still present. "Cry-Baby" is a strangely sexy film that'll definitely bring a smile on your face. Recommended!

If you're a fan of the rockabilly fashion of the 50's and of John Waters, you will like this movie. Personally, I was a big fan of it. It's one of my favorite movies.

This movie involves two groups: the "squares" and the "greasers". While most teen movies set in the 50's involve typical preppy high school students, this one was on the side of the greasers. This is what I found fun and interesting. The world in which the greasers live is fun and colorful. The characters are all social outcasts or "delinquents" as they call them in the movie. This is what is so particular. Maybe this isn't what life in the 50's was really about, but it gives the illusions that you're seeing an aspect of life during that time that you normally don't see.

It was a pleasant and fun to watch movie. It was also very cartoony, which is something I like in a movie very much. The imagery is very pleasant. However, it's not a movie for everyone. It can easily be seen as cheesy. And if you're expecting a typical 50's musical like Grease, there's a good chance you won't like this one, since it makes you root so much for the social outcasts. This movie doesn't show the typical "clean" 50's that people enjoy so much.

This movie also makes fun of the typical "bad boy" image of the 50's. But doesn't it also poke fun at the image that Johnny Depp had at the time? In several interviews done after the release of this movie, Depp mentioned that he enjoyed playing that role because it was a satire of the image he had and that he also disliked very much.

I think this is the type of movie that can easily become someone's favorite but that can be hated by a lot of viewers. Maybe the dancing and the singing isn't as good as in Grease. But you have to remember that this is a light and fun movie that doesn't take itself seriously. It can also be seen as a satire of typical musicals. I would definitely recommend it.