A Dirty Shame

September 26, 2004

Yodeling in the canyon…heard that one before. Whistling in the dark…haven’t heard that one, but I could see it. [Is THAT what the TMBG song is about?] But sneezing in the cabbage? Where the fuck did that come from?

There’s no shortage of euphemisms for cunnilingus in A Dirty Shame. Or any other sexual fetish, as a matter of fact. A Dirty Shame is almost an encyclopedia of freaks…the Encyclopedia Pervertica, if you will…It’s almost as if the denizens of Hartford Road are the descendants of Multiple Maniac‘s ‘Cavalcade of Perversion’, except of course for the fact that they want to assimilate the rest of the town, not rob and murder them.

Tracey Ullman plays Sylvia Stickles, who becomes a cunnilingus addict after suffering a concussion. Her “axis of evil” is awakened by Ray-Ray, who is searching for the twelfth apostle to add to his group of sexually deviant disciples. Ray-Ray is played by Johnny Knoxville, more of an actor these days than a ‘jackass.’ Chris Isaak is Sylvia’s spurned husband Vaughn – he’s come a long way since Chet Desmond. Selma Blair rounds out (and I mean that literally, as well as figuratively) as Sylvia’s daughter, Caprice, who gives Chesty Morgan a run for her money. I’ve got to admit, Selma Blair is growing on me. I can’t hold Cruel Intentions against her if she’s married to a Zappa.

I was glad to see Mink Stole in more of a leading roles than in the last few Waters film. Mink plays Marge the Neuter, which is pretty self explanatory. Her dreams of hymen reconstruction surgery are even scarier than the sex crazed residents of Hartford Road.

The one disconcerting factor about this film was the sheer amount of CGI that was used. Even though CGI is probably the only way to get squirrels to fuck on cue, it still seems a bit out of place in John Waters’ Baltimore. I guess I just need to get used to the fact that CGI is everywhere.

Oh yeah – David Hasselhoff‘s turd – what the fuck?