Baltimore City Paper home page.

LOG IN | Not a user? Create Account

film Home > Movie Reviews

Film Clips

Polyester


Polyester

Rated:None
Director:John Waters
Cast:Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, Mink Stole, Stiv Bators, Mary Garlington, David Samson
Release Date:1981
Genre:Black Comedy, Satire

At the Creative Alliance at the Patterson April 6 at 8 p.m.

By Eric Allen Hatch | Posted 4/6/2005

John Waters’ 1981 satire remains one of his best-made and most enjoyable films, the tantalizing evolutionary link between the shit-eating years of Pink Flamingos and the more polished, Hollywood-friendly Hairspray. Depressed, alcoholic Baltimore housewife Francine Fishpaw (Divine) finds her life collapsing amid an adulterous husband who runs a porno theater, a crazed son with a violent foot-stomping fetish, a daughter growing infamous for her slutty behavior, and police and reporters invading her privacy. For solace, Francine turns to best friend Cuddles (Edith Massey), a former maid turned snooty lottery millionaire, and mysterious, coke-snorting stranger Todd Tomorrow (’50s matinée heartthrob Tab Hunter, a genius bit of casting). Good old-fashioned, meanspirited humor abounds, the music’s fantastic, and as a bonus, the whole thing was filmed in “Odorama,” Waters’ homage to William Castle’s filmmaker-as-showman gimmickry: a scratch-and-sniff card distributed to audience members, who are told, when numerals flash on screen, to take a whiff off the corresponding digit on their cards. We’ll leave it to you to guess what No. 2 smells like.

Leave a comment

Comment on this article

If you are a Citypaper.com member, please enter your username and password.
If you don't want to join our site right now, click the GUESTS tab.

User:

Password:

 

Don't have an account? Sign up now.
Already have an account? Log in now.

Choose a display name

Your email address:

 

Events

Restaurants

Bars+Clubs

Local Music

RADIO ADVERTISING POSITION: WZBA The Bay

EDDIE'S OF ROLAND PARK: Where taste meets tradition.

TECH EXPO CAREER FAIR: Tues., Feb. 9th

TESST COLLEGE OF TECHNOLOGY: Train for a career!

View all TOP JOB ads

CHARLES VILLAGE-21218 : The Baltimorean Apartments

FELLS POINT: APT. 4 RENT

View all TOP RENTAL ads

> PLACE CLASSIFIED AD

 

 

Privacy Statement