DEMENTED IN PHILADELPHIA

This Saturday, February 10th, John Waters will be making an appearance at TLA Video located at 517 South 4th Street. Baltimore’s own “Pope of Bad Taste” will be promoting the video and DVD release of

This Saturday, February 10th, John Waters will be making an appearance at TLA Video located at 517 South 4th Street.
Baltimore’s own “Pope of Bad Taste” will be promoting the video and DVD release of his latest film, Cecil B. DeMented. Waters will be there from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., and promises to sign just about anything (as long as it is in BAD taste). There will be prizes and giveaways with each purchase of DeMented, and TLA will be handing out posters from the movie.

Waters, who is probably most loved (and loathed) for his film Pink Flamingos, has made a career out of bad taste.
While most fans will agree that he’s toned down the gross-out aspect of his films considerably (like the dog-shit scene in Flamingos), his films are just as fun and “campy” as they always were.

Over the years, Waters has grown into something of a respectable filmmaker (although true fans have respected his work for years), toning down the gross and turning up the satire.

His early films, however, remain cult classics – and will not be forgotten easily. It is recommended that the faint of heart and those with weak stomachs shy away from his earlier films, and perhaps stick to his later films (i.e. Hairspray, Cry Baby, Serial Mom, etc…)

DeMented, which was released last year, took a full-length feature swing at the movie industry. The film concerns a group of renegade filmmakers (and a porn queen), led by Cecil B. DeMented (Stephen Dorff). When the group kidnaps aging Hollywood starlet Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith), crazy comic hijinks ensue. The most memorable scene is when Fidget (one of the members) calls his mother (played by Patty Hearst). She wants to know when the kidnappers are going to let him go. The boy was obviously not kidnapped, but the scene is reminiscent of Hearst’s earlier troubles (hint: involving a kidnapping).

Whatever your opinion of Waters is, he is most assuredly a film pioneer. His films have stood the test of time, and still shock and delight viewers now as they did over twenty years ago. He has pushed the envelope since the beginning, and deserves credit for the work that he’s done (gross or not).

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