My Review of A Dirty Shame (2004)

Written And Directed by John Waters 

Ray-Ray: "Let's go sexing."

For the last few weeks, I've delved into the delightfully depraved mind of John Waters and now I'm at an end (of sorts) with that journey. I mean there's still some of his short movies to watch at a later date but in terms of feature films, here's where I depart.

Waters might have started with writing for characters in poor backgrounds and revelling in their filthy sides but he also proved that those in the suburbs can be just as filthy. The residents of Harford Road proved that in spades.

You've got a residence with two very divided groups. There was the Neuters, aka the most sex negative people you'd ever encounter in your life. Their most prominent being women such as Big Ethel (Suzanne Shepherd) and Marge (Mink Stole). Oh boy, did they hate sex or what?

On the other end of the scale, Ethel's daughter in law, Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman) started off as a Neuter until a bump to the head brought out her inner sex addict. Sylvia had a nice put upon husband named Vaughn (Chris Isaak) and a big breasted daughter named Caprice (Selma Blair). The latter used to be known as Ursula Udders, a former exoric dancer and was now under house arrest.

Anyways, Sylvia's sudden love of sex put her in the cross hairs of Ray-Ray Perkins (Johnny Knoxville). He's a sex guru of sorts and along with the rest of the sex addicted residents, Ray-Ray needed Sylvia in order to complete an orgasm on a rather grandiose level.

The rest of the movie became long battle between the Neuters and the sex addicted to see which group would seize control of the town. Naturally, it got ridiculous in certain parts, but only one group could ultimately win. It wasn't a surprise which one did.

- This was John Waters last feature film. His other credits included a child reading of Pink Flamingos and a short movie.

- Various fetishes were looked into. This included adult babies, bears and cubs, dirt eating and sploshing to name a few. Ricki Lake and David Hasselhoff had cameos.

- Standout music: David Raksin Orchestra's Sylvia.

- Chronology: Harford Road was set in Baltimore.

A Dirty Shame is anything but sexy and not all of the jokes land as they should've done. For the most part, there's some fun to be had among the utter depravity that's on display.  It's not John Waters on all cylinders but it's decent enough.

Rating: 6 out of 10