Once again Baltimore. Once again the “nice” suburbia, where Sylvia and her husband Vaughn have locked their shameful daughter and ex-porn star Caprice. Until a little accident and the encounter with the sexual healer Ray Ray turn everything into a fine mess. What could happen if a repressed and conservative woman suddenly discovers the freedom and happiness of sex? Nothing good if you live in a white, middle-class neighborhood…
Directed in 2004, A Dirty Shame is a cult-movie where John Waters uses the narrative of zombie-horrors to create something that we can find in basically all his best works: the clash between bigot citizens and a new “horde” of joyful perverts. The director of Pink Flamingos (1972) and Polyesters (1981) leaves nothing unattempt in a visual crescendo worth of his best movies. To help him in this absolutely outrageous ride are the immense comedian Tracey Ullman (Small Time Crooks, 2000, Bullets Over Broadway, 1994) and the supporting contributes of Johnny Knoxville (The Dukes of Hazzard, 2005), Selma Blair (Cruel Intentions, 1999) and Chris Isaak (Little Buddha, 1993). From the very beginning, A Dirty Shame is one of most radical and provocative John Waters’ movies, based on a plot which avoids any possible logic in order to let the author freely insert everything he wants. The result is a sequence of visual jokes that push the audience to the limits of Waters’ cinema. Once again, the viewer can only love or hate this film. The only thing he can’t do is ignore it.
