Baltimore provocateur John
Waters got closer to perfecting his signature style with Multiple Maniacs, an extremely low-budget comedy starring the
director’s longtime muse, overweight transvestite Divine. Whereas Waters’ best
pictures have a strong element of sociopolitical satire, usually by means of
presenting criminals and degenerates as outlaw heroes, Multiple Maniacs has a more scattershot approach. The playful
notion of transforming perverts into romantic rebels is one element, but the
movie also gets into rape, religion, and revenge. At the risk of giving away
one of the more outlandish gags, the fact that the picture’s climax involves a
giant lobster indicates that Waters wasn’t aspiring to artistic legitimacy when
he made Multiple Maniacs; more than
any of his other ’70s features, this one feels like a lark that Waters made
with his pals for kicks.
Divine plays Lady Divine, the proprietor of a freak
show called “The Cavalcade of Perversions.” Occupying a series of tents in a
suburban neighborhood, the show features people who are odd (the woman who
fellates a shoe), repulsive (the self-explanatory “Puke Eater”), and socially
marginalized (the amorous dudes billed as “actual queers”). Lady Divine uses
the show as a means of luring normal people into the tents so she and her
accomplices can rob them, but one day she decides to kill spectators instead.
This transforms Lady Divine into a fugitive, so Lady Divine and her boyfriend,
Mr. David (David Lochary), take separate escape routes.
Waters spends a lot of
time cutting between Lady Divine’s misadventures and Mr. David’s entanglement
with a new lover. In Lady Divine’s scenes, the heroine endures two rapes, one
of which leads to a religious conversation, complete with visions of Jesus.
Eventually, she finds her way back to Mr. David and she learns he’s been
unfaithful. Cue the “hell hath no fury” bit. Most of Waters’ beloved tropes are
here, including comically upbeat dialogue, gleeful excess, and hopelessly inept
actors. Yet poor cinematography, editing, and sound make it difficult for
Waters to cast his special camp/trash spell, especially since the story
frequently devolves into nonsense. (Remember the lobster?)
Multiple Maniacs: FUNKY
No comments:
Post a Comment