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Polyester | Year: 1981 Classification: Comedy Directed: - John Waters Starts out great, but goes downhill fast John Waters' first really mainstream, clean film is a disappointment for his long-time fans. Divine is excellent, but more whiny than in her previous films and gets on your nerves after a while. Divine's best performance will always be in Female Trouble. A whole new cast of Dreamlanders (who soon after disappeared) take the places of the regular and better ones. The only survivors with major parts are Edith Massey and Divine. Other classic Waters performers, such as Mary Vivian Pearce, Jean Hill, Susan Lowe, and Cookie Mueller are wasted in small roles, ranging from a crazy nun to a victim of the Foot Stomper. The movie is excellent until the appearance of Tab Hunter, in a role only written for star advertising. His singing of the title song is fabulous, but his performance is putrid. Liz Renay is one of the few stars who could fit in considerably well with the Dreamland cast. Odorama is not needed to view this film, but it is nice to get. Search on eBay for a few that were released by the Independent Film Channel before buying this! If you're a serious Waters fan, be prepared for disappointment. it's all good... not john waters' best but certainly one of his more quirky pictures (after cry-baby, of course.) perhaps the most interesting thing about this waters' film is the approach that he took when creating the whole atmosphere of the movie. the set decoration is superb, recreating the average formica, plastic, and polyester household of the late 70's and early 80's. the lighting is interesting, ranging from a radiantly lit dining room for the paradoxical fishpaw "family" breakfast, to awkward overhead lighting placed at varying angles in the fishpaw living room making it look like a window display at woolworth's. john waters' had to sacrifice much of his humorously depraved eccentricity of his earlier films but makes up with the kitschy atmosphere that is best embodied by the title polyester. the performances are classic waters. divine is hilarious as the neurotic harried housewife, francine. edith massey is her child-like best friend who does what she can to cheer up her buddy. all in all, this is one of waters' more (for lack of a better word) accessible films. not the best but certainly one of the most memorable. (*odorama cards REALLY help the polyester viewing experience.) John Waters and friends go mainstream... sort of. John Waters' first mainstream film is tamer compared to the likes of PINK FLAMINGOS and DESPERATE LIVING, but it's still bound to offend someone out there. <BR>The movie stars Waters regulars Divine, Edith Massey (Both of whom mercifully remain fully clothed in this. Thank God!) & Mink Stole.<BR>Written, Produced and Directed by Waters & Exec-Produced by Robert Shaye (who would later go on to produce the ELM STREET series) and once again set in the film maker's beloved Baltimore; POLYESTER centers around Francine Fishpaw (Divine) an unhappy 300lb housewife, whose philandering husband Elmer is a porn peddler. This makes the Fishpaw residence a perfect target for anti-porn/violence protestors (One of whom looks freakishly like Patricia Bartlett) who want Elmer to show G rated family movies (presumably) like the psychologically damaging ANNIE; because they feel X rated movies encourage sex offenders (Just like the Bible left Jim Jones & David Koresh with heads full of bad wiring- can you see the hypocrisy here? Waters certainly can).<BR>But love comes into Francine's life in the guise of Todd Tomorrow (Tab Hunter) the owner of an adult drive-in theater also picketed by the Chastity Belt Crusaders. (NB: I just made that up).<BR>POLYESTER is; in actuality, a suburban satire in which Francine attempts to deal with her dysfunctional family consisting of her pothead son Dexter, who has a foot fetish which is causing him to attack women in the street and steal their shoes, to say nothing of her skanky daughter Lulu who to her mother's horror is dating Bobo, a greasy, glue-sniffing punk (played by Stiv Bators from the band Dead Boys).<BR>Though personally I prefer Waters' underground movies to this, POLYESTER still has enough bad taste & sick humor to please his devotees and is a good introduction to his work for novices.<BR>As with all Waters films (with the exception of HAIRSPRAY) POLYESTER will offend the heck out of prudes; which is always a good thing: People whose idea of a wild night is watching a PG movie in the dark and drinking two lite beers. <BR>I've nearly forgotten the most important detail: This is the movie where on its original theatrical release; Waters introduced the gimmick of a Scratch & Sniff card where when numbers 1-10 flash at the bottom of the screen the viewer would scratch the corresponding square for the aroma. Today it just looks odd with the numbers flashing onscreen. I pity the fools who actually scratched the numbers for the flatulence & glue bits. Good idea though. The title song was written by Debbie Harry of Blondie & is sung by Hunter. Buy Polyester at Amazon.com Buy posters at Allposters.com Jamster - the latest ringtones for your phone!  Search with Walhello on the Internet on Polyester Search with the Priority Search Engine on Polyester This page in other languages: Suomeksi | Nederlands | Deutsch
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