Day 33: Fetch Me My Diet Pills, Would You?

HAIRSPRAY (1988)

Directed by John Waters

Starring (in alphabetical order): Sonny Bono, Ruth Brown, Divine, Debbie Harry, Ricki Lake, Jerry Stiller

I’ve always wanted to see a John Waters movie.  I’ve heard whispers of his 70’s exercises in extremely bad taste Pink Flamingos and Female Trouble, but my local library doesn’t carry them.  So until I get my Netflix account back up and running (and actually work up the nerve to sit through one or both of them), I’ll have to start with something else.

And I’ve started with his tamest film, Hairspray.  A nostalgic romp through the early 60’s, it’s the story of Tracy Turnblad (Lake) a local teen who lives out her dream of dancing on the Corny Collins Show, where all the latest and greatest R&B records are played.  Despite the fact that she’s a bit on the chunky side, she still wows the crowd by her energetic dancing and winning personality.  Even her parents (Divine and Jerry Stiller), though reluctant at first, embrace Tracy’s newfound fame.  But she dethrones the current dancing beauty, who along with her parents (Bono and Harry) vows revenge.  They get their chance when Tracy urges the local TV station owner (also Divine, in a hilarious duel role) to let her black friends dance on the show.  But the station’s idea of forward thinking is to have “Negro Day” on the last Thursday of each month, hosted by Motormouth Maybelle (Brown), and featuring all black dancers.  Tracy and her friends become champions of integration, while her white-bread enemies plot their revenge.

This is an interesting film for a lot of reasons.  First of all, it’s the infamous John Waters in “PG” mode.  He said once of Hairspray that he “accidentally made a family film.”  Well, it may not be for all families, as there are a few gross out gags, twisted jokes and an especially demented psychiatrist (Waters himself) and bit of naughty language.  But there’s also plenty of great early rock and R&B and a good amount of heart along with it.  Ricki Lake is wonderful as Tracy.  She’s got just the right amount of effervescence to keep her hefty character light.  And she’s not a bad dancer, either.  Divine is a typically off-center choice as Edna Turnblad (and as the Station Manager), and steals every scene s/he’s in.* Also of note are Pia Zadora and Ric Ocasek as a couple of far-out beatniks

However, there is such an emphasis on the music that, if you look a bit closer, this is actually a pretty sloppily made film.  It’s not really told from any one character’s point of view and has a bit of a “fly on the wall” feel to it.  Also, the dance sequences are directed without much flair or style.  The whole film is made in a very straightforward way, which seems out of place for such a bubbly musical.  But you may be so busy dancing to the amazing repertoire of R&B standards and long-buried treasures that you won’t really care about the film’s flaws.  And for that, I can’t really blame anyone.

*Choose whichever pronoun you feel is appropriate.