Critic's Grade: D-

The kind of movie that garners as many followers as it does opposers, "Pink Flamingos" was John Waters' second feature film, made with the intention of jolting the world of cinema into taking notice of his career. And jolt us he does: billed as an "exercise in poor taste," the film's skeletal-thin storyline is structured as a battle for "The Filthiest Person Alive." Vying for the title is Divine, alias Babs Johnson, who lives in a mobile home with her enormous, egg-eating, loopy mother (Edith Massey), her son Crackers (Danny Mills), who picks up women by tying a sausage to his manhood, and his voyeuristic lover Cotton (Mary Vivian Pearce). Together they must battle the Marbles, Raymond and Connie (David Lochary, Mink Stole), a married couple jealous of Divine's title who kidnap women, imprison them, impregnate them, and then give their babies to lesbian couples. That, and their heroin operation that involves selling narcotics to children.

In this world of trailer-park trash hoe-downs and barf-till-you-drop visual stunts, nothing is sacred: no stone left unturned, no taboo too irksome for Waters' utterly jaw-dropping display of acts whose shock value have yet to lose their effectiveness, even in the passage of three decades. Be it bestiality, mother/son incest between Divine and Crackers that features some rather graphic oral sex, close-ups of everything from a man's anus to a castration, or the film's final shocking scene, this one sets an all-time low for distaste. It's one of the most disgusting films I've ever seen, and yet, I cannot bring myself to fully denounce the film with a "No Star" rating: it just doesn't seem right. Waters obviously knew what he was doing when he set out to complete his project, and the results, however vile and putrid they are, do serve their purpose. Bad acting abounds here from everyone, which is probably the intention, and the film's documentary style and poor film stock make it low-budget fare at its most depraved. Whether you relish its every moment or revile it unconditionally, "Pink Flamingos" is one movie that you won't have the option of forgetting.

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