Review: A Dirty Shame (*** 1/2)

A DIRTY SHAME
A film review by Steve Rhodes

Copyright 2004 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****): *** 1/2


With breasts literally the size of watermelons, Selma Blair plays Caprice
Stickles, a.k.a. Ursula Udders. With Caprice having been convicted three
times for indecent exposure, her Norman Rockwell-like parents, Sylvia
(Tracey Ullman) and Vaughn (Chris Isaak), keep her in a padlocked room.
There are no padlocks or limits on the freewheeling and side-splittingly
funny A DIRTY SHAME, the latest irreverent comedy by John Waters, the
director of SERIAL MOM and CECIL B. DEMENTED, among other wonderfully
off-beat movies. Waters is in his finest form this time with humor so
outrageously funny that audiences may injure themselves while laughing. The
film is being released NC-17, mainly just for language. There are more
terms for sex than I bet you've ever heard of, including, "funch," "sneezing
in the cabbage," "pearl diving" and "whistling in the dark." Figuring out
the terms without benefit of a glossary just adds to the fun.



The story, which plays like a sexual twist on THE INVASION OF THE BODY
SNATCHERS, has the inhabitants of the heretofore peaceful Harford Road in a
war with the Neuters on one side and the Sex Addicts on the other. The Sex
Addicts, who go to AA-like meeting to try to deal with their addictions, are
led by the charismatic Ray-Ray (Johnny Knoxville), a tow-truck driver.
After Sylvia is hit on the head, which is the action which causes people to
go over to the dark side, she is recruited by Ray-Ray to be their twelfth
disciple -- religious connotations abound. "One day, we're going to
discover a sex act that's never been performed before, and we hope you're
going to be with us on that day of carnal rapture," Ray-Ray explains to her
soon after she joins his band.



Leading the decency forces is Big Ethel (Suzanne Shepherd), Sylvia's mother.
"Only you can prevent fornication," is Sylvia's slogan for the Neuters.
Initially, Big Ethel doesn't believe that her daughter could be involved
with the Sex Addicts, bragging to a friend, "My daughter is a good girl.
She hates sex."



Among the other delights of the picture are a few dream sequences consisting
of vintage footage from the 1950s and earlier of nudist camps and other such
early and very, very soft porn. It is quite tame now but was certainly
scandalous in its time.



As the story moves toward the "resursection," the laughs keep rolling along.
It is a movie that knows to quit when it's ahead, without letting its
outlandish brand of comedy overstay its welcome. I haven't laughed so hard
or enjoyed myself so much at a comedy like this since the first time I saw
JAY AND SILENT BOB STRIKE BACK.



A DIRTY SHAME runs a fast 1:29. It is rated NC-17 for graphic language and
would be acceptable for older teenagers.



The film opens nationwide in the United States on Friday, September 24,
2004. In the Silicon Valley, it will be showing at the Camera Cinemas.



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