Cry-Baby (Waters, 1990)IMDB LinkI’m going to come and say this, and fuck the cool, hip points I’m going to lose. I don’t like John Waters. His “Pink Flamingos” is overrated (ohh, eww, the transvestite eats poo, how shocking, therefore trendy), and I did not think either “Cecil B. DeMented” or “Serial Mom” is worth an assrape. Yeah, I might have missed a few movies in his filmography, but any director whose work consists of people continuously asking, “Did Devine REALLY eat the dog shit?”, is not on my ‘Director’s To Watch’ list.
“Crybaby” is another confused mess from Waters. He has made his own unique kind of 50’s teen romance spoof, and if any mental hospital warden will tell you, unique does not equal worthwhile. The jokes in the movie are atrocious. And I do not care how many piles of dog shit Waters has made his actresses eat in his older movies, but anyone who makes a movie where jokes consist of a fight starting and two small kids hitting the “bad” guy with a rubber pistol is not cool. The movie is filled with these kinds of stupid, sitcom jokes (like an proper, old woman dancing in a “funny” way), and I would have turned the movie off, if the music numbers were not so outrageously fun to watch.
And this is where the movie succeeds. I don’t know if Waters was responsible for the song-writing and the choreography, because it is a blast to watch. The songs and the dances are self-aware and slightly exaggerated, but they capture the fun and essence of the 50s songs and styles. And Johnny Depp as the James Dean look-alike (but dancing and singing like Elvis Presley) Cry-Baby, is a lot of fun to watch. This was Depp in his “21 Jump Street” teen-idol days, and he took on the role to pock fun at his own teen idol cult status. And Depp is as fun to watch in 1990, as he will be for the next two decade.
If you like 50’s music, then watch it for the music. If you are a girl, then watch it for Depp. If you like Waters, then film yourself eating dog shit.
3/5
