A Dirty Shame
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| A Dirty Shame | |
|---|---|
 US release poster |
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| Directed by | John Waters |
| Produced by | Pat Moran |
| Written by | John Waters |
| Starring | Tracey Ullman Johnny Knoxville Selma Blair |
| Music by | George S. Clinton |
| Cinematography | Steve Gainer |
| Editing by | Jeffrey Wolf |
| Distributed by | New Line Cinema |
| Release date(s) | September 24, 2004 |
| Running time | NC-17-rated cut 88 min. R-rated cut 84 min. |
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $15 million |
| Gross revenue | $1,339,668 |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
A Dirty Shame is a 2004 satire by John Waters starring Tracey Ullman, Selma Blair, Johnny Knoxville, Chris Isaak, Mink Stole, Patricia Hearst. It was filmed on-location in Baltimore on Harford Road, which is prominently featured in the movie.
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[edit] Plot
Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman), a suburban housewife in Baltimore, is stressed, uptight, and uninterested in sex with her husband, Vaughn (Chris Isaak). Her daughter, Caprice (Selma Blair) — who had previously been a topless go-go dancer using the stage name Ursula Udders due to her enormous cosmetically enhanced breasts — is under house arrest following a series of convictions for exhibitionism.
On her way to work at the convenience store run by the Stickles family, Sylvia is struck in the head by a lawnmower protruding from the back of a passing truck. The resulting concussion triggers a radical change in her personality. Ray-Ray Perkins (Johnny Knoxville), a mechanic and "sexual healer", arrives on the scene and realizes that Sylvia is to be his "twelfth apostle". He performs oral sex on her, informing her she is now a sex addict.
A changed woman, Sylvia goes to work, where she meets her mother, Big Ethel (Suzanne Shepherd), who complains that the neighborhood is being taken over by sexual deviants. Many patrons of the store, including the mailman and a police officer, exhibit signs of sexual addiction and fetishism; one of the employees seems to be sexually aroused by anything unsanitary. Ethel's friend Marge (Mink Stole) stops by, and she too is disgusted by the growing contingent of sexually liberated people in the neighborhood. They decide to organize a "decency rally" for like-minded people in the neighborhood, who become labeled "neuters" because of their ultra-conservative views of sex and decency.
Meanwhile, Sylvia begins to hallucinate that everyone around her is obsessed with sex. She convinces Vaughn to leave the store with her for "funch" — fucking after lunch. They park on the side of the road, and Sylvia talks Vaughn into performing oral sex on her, or "yodeling in the canyon". Afterwards, they visit Vaughn's mother in a nursing home, where the elderly residents are dancing the Hokey Pokey. Sylvia and Vaughn join in the dance, but Sylvia begins to hallucinate that the nursing home attendants are encouraging her to dance in an increasingly suggestive manner, so she picks up a bottle of water with her crotch. The residents flee in horror; in the confusion Sylvia leaves too, separating from Vaughn.
Night falls, and Sylvia changes into sexy clothing she finds in a dumpster and high-heeled shoes she steals from a store. She then proceeds to Ray-Ray's garage, where Ray-Ray introduces her to the other "apostles", all of whom have suffered head injuries and become sex addicts as a result. Each has a different fetish; for example, the policeman seen earlier is revealed to be someone who becomes sexually aroused dressing in diapers and acting like an infant. Ray-Ray introduces Sylvia to the "Bears", three men who are "husky, hairy, homosexual, and out of the second closet". The remaining apostles engage in activities such as eroticizing dirt and "sploshing" (smearing their private parts with food). Fat Fuck Frank (Wes Johnson), Caprice's biggest fan, is also an "apostle", and he urges Sylvia to free her daughter, who is one as well. Ray-Ray reveals that as the twelfth apostle, Sylvia, whose fetish is cunnilingus, is predestined to discover a new sex act that has never been performed before.
Sylvia returns home to Caprice, and they reveal their sex addiction to each other and reconcile their differences. After deciding to go to a biker bar, the Holiday House, and "fuck the whole bar", they run giddily down the street and Caprice's ankle monitor sets off an alarm. Caprice is greeted joyously by the bikers, including Fat Fuck Frank. As Caprice dances topless to her signature song — revealing her gigantic breasts — Sylvia coerces one of the bikers to perform oral sex on her. Vaughn and Big Ethel arrive at the bar. Big Ethel snares Caprice in a net that had been hanging from the ceiling, causing a riot to break out. Sylvia is hit in the head with a bottle, reversing the effects of her earlier head injury.
The next day, Sylvia and Caprice are visited by a doctor who informs Sylvia that she has suffered the effects of a concussion. The doctor forcibly administers Prozac to Caprice, who is handcuffed to a chair. Caprice throws a TV remote at Sylvia, hitting her in the head, but to no avail, as Sylvia reminds Caprice that "it has to be an accident". Two fornicating squirrels in the attic cause the ceiling above Caprice to crack; a piece of it falls on her head and reverses her concussion (suffered in a childhood "maypole accident"). Caprice looks down at her huge breasts and is horrified. The family attends a 12-step program for sex addiction, which is infiltrated by Ray-Ray and the "apostles". Ray-Ray begins to "heal" the sex addicts one by one, bringing back their hypersexuality. The Stickles clan resist, and Caprice slips some Prozac into Ray-Ray's coffee.
As the Stickles attempt to flee, Sylvia runs head first into the wall and reverts to her sex-addicted state. Ray-Ray incites the "apostles" to enact a home invasion; one of them, a woman dressed in a sexy police uniform, bursts into an unsuspecting family's house as they are watching TV and asks, "Who wants to fuck me?" (to which the teenage son replies "I do, I do!"). After Ray-Ray collapses from the effects of Prozac, his "apostles" take him to the garage and feed him sexual stimulants. As they recite a long list of fetishes, trying to discover what the new, previously undiscovered sex act might be (the list includes "tromboning", "plate jobs", and "blossoms"), Ray-Ray becomes inspired.
Meanwhile, the Stickles family (minus Sylvia) returns to the convenience store, where another decency rally is taking place. The rally becomes infiltrated by sex addicts, including Fat Fuck Frank, who pleads with Caprice to come to her senses. She initially objects, but in the ensuing chaos she gets hit in the head again, and is soon dancing on the roof of the store in her underwear. One by one, dozens of people join in a sexual fetish party, with many of the "neuters" receiving head injuries and becoming sex addicts.
Meanwhile, in the sky above, a passenger (David Hasselhoff) on an airplane has a bowel movement and flushes the toilet. The holding tank on the bottom of the plane bursts, releasing feces into the air. It freezes as it descends through the atmosphere, hitting Vaughn on the head and turning him into a sex addict. Big Ethel suffers a fatal heart attack. Vaughn proposes oral sex to Sylvia, but she says that she has moved beyond that. Ray-Ray realizes that Sylvia now knows what the new sex act will be: she headbutts Vaughn, creating a sexual euphoria in both of them. He then reciprocates, and soon everyone in the surrounding crowd of sex addicts is headbutting one another into ecstasy.
A hearse arrives to pick up Big Ethel, but Ray-Ray revives her. When she sits up, she hits her forehead against the driver's, turning her into a sex addict and introducing her to the delights of headbutting. As the sex addicts continue butting heads, a sexually electrified Ray-Ray levitates into the air. He shouts the film's rallying slogan, "Let's go sexin'!", and gallons of semen burst from the top of his head.
[edit] Cast
- Tracey Ullman as Sylvia Stickles
- Johnny Knoxville as Ray-Ray Perkins
- Selma Blair as Caprice Stickles
- Chris Isaak as Vaughn Stickles
- Suzanne Shepherd as Big Ethel
- Mink Stole as Marge the Neuter
- Patricia Hearst as Paige
- Jackie Hoffman as Dora
- Wes Johnson as Fat Fuck Frank
[edit] Cameos
- David Hasselhoff as Himself
[edit] Critical reception
A Dirty Shame received mixed critical reception. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film is listed as having a 52% critical approval rating, with 53% among the 'cream of the crop.'[1]
One of the more positive reviews came from Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times, who wrote:
"A gross-out pioneer, Waters has always had more on his mind than delirious, sex-crazed silliness. By allowing people to speak freely about their sexual urges and practices with a bluntness that is jaw-droppingly hilarious, Waters has drawn deeply upon comedy's liberating power. The more the sex addicts talk about their hang-ups the more comically harmless they seem, and thus it's all the more absurd for the puritanical to try to punish them for their various pursuits of pleasure. Waters has always harnessed poor taste to lampoon attempts to limit freedom of expression. This raucously gritty and high-spirited film could scarcely be bluer in terms of the language, but from Waters it comes as a gust of fresh air."[2]
Also enthusiastic was Peter Travers of Rolling Stone:
"A Dirty Shame is Waters unleashed, and wicked, kinky fun for anyone except the twits who rated it NC-17...You may even shed a tear when Sylvia bonds with her daughter by confessing, "I'm a cunnilingus bottom." OK, the jokes are hit-and-miss and the plot is nonexistent, but the Waters spirit stays consistently and sweetly twisted. When the cast takes to the streets singing, "Let's go sexin'," you want to cheer them on."[3]
On the other end of the spectrum was Roger Ebert, who gave the film one star out of a possible four:
"There is in show biz something known as "a bad laugh." That's the laugh you don't want to get, because it indicates not amusement but incredulity, nervousness or disapproval. John Waters' A Dirty Shame is the only comedy I can think of that gets more bad laughs than good ones...We go to a Waters film expecting bad taste, but we also expect to laugh, and A Dirty Shame is monotonous, repetitive and sometimes wildly wrong in what it hopes is funny."[4]
[edit] Box office
A Dirty Shame opened on September 17, 2004 on one Baltimore screen to $29,384. The next weekend, it expanded to 133 venues, where it grossed $448,914 ($3,375 per screen). It ended its North American run with $1,339,668.
Overseas, the film earned an additional $529,584, making its global total $1,869,252.
[edit] External links
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