A Dirty Shame

Last updated

A Dirty Shame
A dirty shame poster.jpg
Theatrical release poster
Directed by John Waters
Written byJohn Waters
Produced by
Starring
Cinematography Steve Gainer
Edited byJeffrey Wolf
Music by George S. Clinton
Production
companies
Distributed by Fine Line Features
Release dates
  • September 12, 2004 (2004-09-12)(TIFF)
  • September 17, 2004 (2004-09-17)(Baltimore)
Running time
89 minutes [1]
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$15 million[ citation needed ]
Box office$1.9 million [2]

A Dirty Shame is a 2004 American satirical sex comedy film written and directed by John Waters and starring Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville, Selma Blair, and Chris Isaak. It follows a community in suburban Baltimore divided between people with highly conservative attitudes towards sexuality, and those who have been turned into sex addicts after experiencing concussions.

Contents

After premiering at the 2004 Toronto International Film Festival, A Dirty Shame was released in the United States on September 17, 2004. The film received mixed reviews from critics. Due to its sexual themes and content, it received an NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, which limited the scope of its release and marketing, and it grossed $1.5 million domestically. Due to its poor box office performance, the film stood as Waters' last directorial effort [3] for nearly two decades. [4]

Plot

The people of Harford Road are firmly divided into two camps: the neuters, the puritanical residents who despise anything even remotely carnal; and the perverts, a group of sex addicts whose unique fetishes have all been brought to the fore by accidental concussions. Repressed Sylvia Stickles finds herself firmly entrenched in the former camp.

Sylvia's promiscuous daughter Caprice, a go-go dancer at a local biker dive-bar, the Holiday House, under the stage name "Ursula Udders" because of her very large N-cup breast implants and has a penchant for indecent exposure.

One day, after leaving Caprice locked up over the garage, under house arrest "for her own good", Sylvia is smacked on the head by a passing car and meets Ray-Ray Perkins, a local mechanic and self-styled "sex saint" who opens her mind to a whole new world of sensual pleasure, as he and his followers search for the ultimate sex act.

Eventually, through a series of bizarre head knockings, everyone in the Harford Road area of Baltimore becomes a sex addict, as Ray-Ray shoots semen out of his head and becomes the messiah of "Let's Go Sexin'!"

Cast

Production

John Waters decided to make the film after discovering several sexual slang terms and branches existed on the internet, explaining the groups and terminology found in the film. [5] The film was shot entirely on-location in Baltimore on Harford Road which is prominently featured in the film. In a featurette on the DVD veteran stage actress Suzanne Shepherd recalled that when she was cast as Big Ethel, she was completely unfamiliar with Waters' work and she had no idea what to expect when she showed up for the first script review. Horrified by what she was reading, she became so distraught that she began to cry. She tried to quit the project but Waters and her cast mates managed to persuade her to stay. [6] Paul Giamatti was originally slated to play Vaughn Stickles, but dropped out before filming began. [7]

The film received an NC-17 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA). This caused the film's distribution to be severely limited, as most major theater chains don't show NC-17 rated films while media outlets are reluctant to carry advertising for these movies. [8] When Waters asked what he would need to cut for them to give his film an R rating, he was told that the ratings board "stopped taking notes." [9] After Waters unsuccessfully attempted to appeal the rating, the film was released with the NC-17 classification. [10]

Reception

A Dirty Shame received mixed reviews from critics, with its explicitness both lauded and lampooned. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 53% based on 117 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "John Waters casts his provocative eye towards libido in a sex satire that won't leave audiences feeling too Dirty, but this sophomoric farce doesn't strike a nerve like his best work – a real Shame." [11] On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [12]

One of the more positive reviews came from Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times , who wrote

A gross-out pioneer, Waters has always had more on his mind than delirious, sex-crazed silliness. By allowing people to speak freely about their sexual urges and practices with a bluntness that is jaw-droppingly hilarious, Waters has drawn deeply upon comedy's liberating power. The more the sex addicts talk about their hang-ups the more comically harmless they seem, and thus it's all the more absurd for the puritanical to try to punish them for their various pursuits of pleasure. Waters has always harnessed poor taste to lampoon attempts to limit freedom of expression. This raucously gritty and high-spirited film could scarcely be bluer in terms of the language, but from Waters it comes as a gust of fresh air. [13]

Also enthusiastic was Peter Travers of Rolling Stone , who wrote

A Dirty Shame is Waters unleashed, and wicked, kinky fun for anyone except the twits who rated it NC-17...You may even shed a tear when Sylvia bonds with her daughter by confessing, "I'm a cunnilingus bottom." OK, the jokes are hit-and-miss and the plot is nonexistent, but the Waters spirit stays consistently and sweetly twisted. When the cast takes to the streets singing, "Let's go sexin'", you want to cheer them on. [14]

On the other end of the spectrum was Roger Ebert, who gave the film one star out of a possible four, elaborating

There is in show biz something known as "a bad laugh". That's the laugh you don't want to get, because it indicates not amusement but incredulity, nervousness or disapproval. John Waters' A Dirty Shame is the only comedy I can think of that gets more bad laughs than good ones...We go to a Waters film expecting bad taste, but we also expect to laugh, and A Dirty Shame is monotonous, repetitive and sometimes wildly wrong in what it hopes is funny. [15]

Box office

A Dirty Shame opened on September 17, 2004 on one Baltimore screen and grossed $29,384 for the weekend. The next weekend, it expanded to 133 venues, where it grossed $448,914 ($3,375 per screen). It grossed a total of $1,339,668 in the United States and Canada. [2] Overseas, the film grossed an additional $574,498 (as of July 14, 2005), making its global box office total come to $1.9 million. [2]

Home media

The film was released on DVD on June 14, 2005. [16] It was issued in its original NC-17 version and in an edited, R-rated cut sold through Blockbuster, Wal-Mart and Best Buy as well as Target dubbed "The Neuter Version". The R-rated version is heavily censored and removes most of the profanities including altered dialogue such as "sex toy". Additionally, a scene in which two characters stand naked in their doorway is replaced by one in which the characters are clothed. In an interview, Waters stated that this version is "essentially for brainless people and 'really weird collectors'". [17]

Netflix claimed to stream the NC-17 version but for a time, it was the censored version. It has since replaced it with the uncensored cut. A heavily censored version aired on LOGO, a cable channel for gay interest. Despite several internet sites and even the spine of the DVD stating that it is "The Neuter Version", the Australian release of the film is the NC-17 version [18] with all profanity and nudity intact. It is rated R18+ for "sexual references and adult themes".

Related Research Articles

The Motion Picture Associationfilm rating system is used in the United States and its territories to rate a motion picture's suitability for certain audiences based on its content. The system and the ratings applied to individual motion pictures are the responsibility of the Motion Picture Association (MPA), previously known as the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) from 1945 to 2019. The MPA rating system is a voluntary scheme that is not enforced by law; films can be exhibited without a rating, although most theaters refuse to exhibit non-rated or NC-17 rated films. Non-members of the MPA may also submit films for rating. Other media, such as television programs, music and video games, are rated by other entities such as the TV Parental Guidelines, the RIAA and the ESRB, respectively.

<i>Showgirls</i> 1995 film by Paul Verhoeven

Showgirls is a 1995 erotic drama film directed by Paul Verhoeven from a script written by Joe Eszterhas and starring Elizabeth Berkley, Kyle MacLachlan, Gina Gershon, Glenn Plummer, Robert Davi, Alan Rachins, and Gina Ravera.

<i>Scary Movie</i> 2000 film by Keenen Ivory Wayans

Scary Movie is a 2000 American slasher parody film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans and written by Marlon and Shawn Wayans, alongside Buddy Johnson, Phil Beauman, Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer. Starring Jon Abrahams, Carmen Electra, Shannon Elizabeth, Anna Faris, Kurt Fuller, Regina Hall, Lochlyn Munro, Cheri Oteri, and Dave Sheridan, it follows a group of teenagers who accidentally hit a man with their car, dump his body in a lake, and swear to secrecy. A year later, someone wearing a Ghostface mask and robe begins hunting them one by one.

<i>Serial Mom</i> 1994 film directed by John Waters

Serial Mom is a 1994 American satirical black comedy crime film directed and written by John Waters and starring Kathleen Turner as the title character along with Sam Waterston as her husband, and Ricki Lake and Matthew Lillard as her children. Patty Hearst, Suzanne Somers, Joan Rivers, Traci Lords, and Brigid Berlin make cameo appearances in the film.

<i>Pink Flamingos</i> 1972 American film directed by John Waters

Pink Flamingos is a 1972 American black comedy film by John Waters. It is part of what Waters has labelled the "Trash Trilogy", which also includes Female Trouble (1974) and Desperate Living (1977). The film stars the countercultural drag queen Divine as a criminal living under the name of Babs Johnson, who is proud to be "the filthiest person alive". While living in a trailer with her mother Edie, son Crackers, and companion Cotton, Divine is confronted by the Marbles, a pair of criminals envious of her reputation who try to outdo her in filth. The characters engage in several grotesque, bizarre, and explicitly crude situations, and upon the film's re-release in 1997 it was rated NC-17 by the MPAA "for a wide range of perversions in explicit detail". It was filmed in the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland, where Waters and most of the cast and crew grew up.

<i>Orgazmo</i> 1997 film by Trey Parker

Orgazmo is a 1997 American superhero sex comedy film written, directed and edited by Trey Parker and produced by Matt Stone, Jason McHugh, and Fran Rubel Kuzui. It stars Parker, Stone, Dian Bachar, Robyn Lynne, and Michael Dean Jacobs. The plot follows Joe Young, a devout Mormon missionary who, to pay for his and his fiancée's dream wedding and home, acts in a pornographic film as the superhero Orgazmo with his side-kick Chota boy.

<i>The Dreamers</i> (2003 film) 2003 film by Bernardo Bertolucci

The Dreamers is a 2003 romantic drama film directed by Bernardo Bertolucci. The screenplay is by Gilbert Adair, based on his 1988 novel The Holy Innocents. An international co-production by companies from France, the United Kingdom, and Italy, the film tells the story of an American university student in Paris who, after meeting a peculiar brother and sister who are fellow film enthusiasts, becomes entangled in an erotic triangle. It is set against the backdrop of the 1968 Paris student riots. The film makes several references to various movies of classical and French New Wave cinema, incorporating clips from films that are often imitated by the actors in particular scenes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Waters</span> American filmmaker, actor, comedian, writer, and artist (born 1946)

John Samuel Waters Jr. is an American filmmaker, writer, actor, and artist. He rose to fame in the early 1970s for his transgressive cult films, including Multiple Maniacs (1970), Pink Flamingos (1972) and Female Trouble (1974). Waters wrote and directed the comedy film Hairspray (1988), which was later adapted into a hit Broadway musical and a 2007 musical film. Other films he has written and directed include Desperate Living (1977), Polyester (1981), Cry-Baby (1990), Serial Mom (1994), Pecker (1998), and Cecil B. Demented (2000). His films contain elements of post-modern comedy and surrealism.

<i>But Im a Cheerleader</i> 1999 film by Jamie Babbit

But I'm a Cheerleader is a 1999 American satirical teen romantic comedy film directed by Jamie Babbit in her feature directorial debut and written by Brian Wayne Peterson. Natasha Lyonne stars as Megan Bloomfield, a high school cheerleader whose parents send her to a residential in-patient conversion therapy camp to "cure" her lesbianism. At camp, Megan realizes that she is indeed a lesbian and, despite the "therapy", comes to embrace her sexuality. The supporting cast includes Clea DuVall, RuPaul, and Cathy Moriarty.

<i>Polyester</i> (film) 1981 film by John Waters

Polyester is a 1981 American comedy film directed, produced, and written by John Waters, and starring Divine, Tab Hunter, Edith Massey, and Mink Stole. It satirizes the melodramatic genre of women's pictures, particularly those directed by Douglas Sirk, whose work directly influenced this film. The film is also a satire of suburban life in the early 1980s, involving topics like divorce, abortion, adultery, alcoholism, racial stereotypes, foot fetishism, and the religious right.

Mary Vivian Pearce is an American actress. She has worked primarily in the films of John Waters.

<i>Wedding Crashers</i> 2005 film by David Dobkin

Wedding Crashers is a 2005 American romantic comedy film directed by David Dobkin, written by Steve Faber and Bob Fisher, starring Owen Wilson, Vince Vaughn and Christopher Walken with Rachel McAdams, Isla Fisher, Bradley Cooper and Jane Seymour in supporting roles. The film follows two divorce mediators who crash weddings in an attempt to meet and seduce women.

<i>This Film Is Not Yet Rated</i> 2006 documentary film by Kirby Dick

This Film Is Not Yet Rated is a 2006 American documentary film about the Motion Picture Association of America's rating system and its effect on American culture, directed by Kirby Dick and produced by Eddie Schmidt. It premiered at the 2006 Sundance Film Festival and received a limited theatrical release on September 1, 2006. IFC, the film's distributor, aired the film later that year.

<i>Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle</i> 1975 film by Picha, Boris Szulzinger

Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle is a 1975 French/Belgian adult animated comedy film. It is a parody of the 1932 film Tarzan the Ape Man directed by cartoonist Picha and Boris Szulzinger. The film was the first foreign-animated film to receive an X rating in the United States.

<i>My Bloody Valentine</i> (film) 1981 Canadian slasher film by George Mihalka

My Bloody Valentine is a 1981 Canadian slasher film directed by George Mihalka and written by John Beaird. It stars Paul Kelman, Lori Hallier, and Neil Affleck. The plot tells about a group of young adults who decide to throw a Valentine's Day party, only to incur the vengeful wrath of a maniac in mining gear who begins a killing spree.

<i>Lust, Caution</i> 2007 film

Lust, Caution is a 2007 erotic period espionage romantic mystery film directed by Ang Lee, based on the 1979 novella of the same name by Eileen Chang. Lust, Caution is set in Hong Kong in 1938 and in Shanghai in 1942, when the city was occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army and ruled by the puppet government led by Wang Jingwei. The film depicts a group of Chinese university students from The University of Hong Kong who plot to assassinate a high-ranking special agent and recruiter working for the puppet government by luring him into a honey trap. The film is generally accepted to be based on the historical event of Chinese spy Zheng Pingru's failed attempt to assassinate the Japanese collaborator Ding Mocun.

<i>Ma Mère</i> 2004 film by Christophe Honoré

Ma Mère is a 2004 erotic drama film written and directed by Christophe Honoré, based on the posthumous 1966 novel of the same name by French author Georges Bataille. The film follows the incestuous relationship between a 17-year-old boy and his attractive, promiscuous, 43-year-old mother. The film stars Isabelle Huppert, Louis Garrel, Emma de Caunes and Joana Preiss.

<i>Shame</i> (2011 film) 2011 film by Steve McQueen

Shame is a 2011 British erotic psychological drama film, set in New York, directed by Steve McQueen, co-written by McQueen and Abi Morgan, and starring Michael Fassbender and Carey Mulligan as grown siblings. It was co-produced by Film4 and See-Saw Films. The film's explicit scenes reflecting the protagonist's sexual addiction resulted in a rating of NC-17 in the United States. Shame was released in the United Kingdom on 13 January 2012. It received generally positive reviews, with praise for Fassbender's and Mulligan's performances, realistic depiction of sexual addiction, and direction.

<i>Dirty Grandpa</i> 2016 film by Dan Mazer

Dirty Grandpa is a 2016 American buddy sports romantic sex comedy film about a lawyer who drives his grandfather to Florida during spring break. The film was directed by Dan Mazer and written by John Phillips. It stars Robert De Niro and Zac Efron in the leading roles, with Aubrey Plaza, Zoey Deutch, Julianne Hough and Dermot Mulroney in supporting roles. It was filmed on location in Atlanta from January 19 to May 9, 2015.

References

  1. ↑ "A DIRTY SHAME (18)". British Board of Film Classification. September 15, 2004. Archived from the original on October 29, 2013. Retrieved October 25, 2013.
  2. 1 2 3 "A Dirty Shame (2004)". Box Office Mojo . Retrieved January 13, 2023.
  3. ↑ "John Waters: 'Doing the show is an effective anti-Alzheimer's exercise'". The Guardian . November 2, 2013. Retrieved January 28, 2015.
  4. ↑ Fleming Jr., Mike (October 6, 2022). "John Waters Back In Director's Chair For 'Liarmouth; Indie Icon Writing/Helming for Village Roadshow Entertainment". Deadline. Retrieved September 12, 2023.
  5. ↑ DVD Features
  6. ↑ "All the Dirt on A Dirty Shame," New Line Home Video, 2005.
  7. ↑ Rooney, David (September 18, 2003). "Waters, New Line get 'Dirty'". Variety . Retrieved August 24, 2020.
  8. ↑ "Fox Searchlight to release NC-17 film". Today . January 13, 2004. Retrieved April 24, 2020.
  9. ↑ John Waters (2006). This Film Is Not Yet Rated (Movie). Independent Film Channel (IFC).
  10. ↑ Waters, John (2019). Mr. Know-it-All: The Tarnished Wisdom of a Filth Elder. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux. pp. 115–116. ISBN   978-0-374-21496-8.
  11. ↑ "A Dirty Shame (2004)". Rotten Tomatoes . Retrieved January 4, 2021.
  12. ↑ "A Dirty Shame Reviews". Metacritic . Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  13. ↑ Thomas, Kevin (September 24, 2004). "John Waters returns to his 'Dirty' roots". Los Angeles Times . Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  14. ↑ Travers, Peter (September 14, 2004). "A Dirty Shame". Rolling Stone . Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  15. ↑ Ebert, Roger (September 24, 2004). "A Dirty Shame". RogerEbert.com . Retrieved March 13, 2018.
  16. ↑ Gruenwedel, Erik (April 5, 2005). "'Dirty Shame' A Parody of Uptight Culture". hive4media.com . Archived from the original on April 7, 2005. Retrieved September 28, 2019.
  17. ↑ See the documentary film, This Film Is Not Yet Rated , in which Waters discusses many aspects of the difficulties he had with the MPAA rating system.
  18. ↑ "Buy Dirty Shame, A on DVD-Video from EzyDVD.com.au". EzyDVD. Archived from the original on April 19, 2014. Retrieved April 17, 2014.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.