the audience applauded

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

I never watch or skip movies because of the director, but due to A Dirty Shame I think I should start. I knew nothing about John Waters before watching this movie, and it seems that's where I went wrong.A Dirty Shame is made in the 90's Disney style childs' comedy, but rated NC-17 and banned in Singapore. How could that ever work? I didn't smile, or even go "hm!" during the movie. I wasn't grossed out either. Needless to say, I surely didn't feel any arousement, while during most films (any genre) I do feel some. I love weird and black humor, but A Dirty Shame did nothing for me. To me it felt a lot worse than watching slapstick before it was hip again, a presentation that was as "out" of era as one can be. This could've been a worthwhile movie in the 80's, and might be again in 20 years when people watch old movies just so see how disturbed people used to be.I did see the "naughtier"(?) and "funnier"(?) NC-17 version.Although I might sound like it, I didn't take the movie seriously at all, and in real life I'm actually a lot closer to the sex addicted ones. While the movie is strictly a comedy, it bothers me that it gives totally wrong perceptions. Reading up on the director John Waters one should expect the hidden meanings to be all but biblical. However, I feel it's the opposite that happens.The movie: - Doesn't shed information or awareness on perversions, instead suggest you should laugh AT them. - Promotes cheating as normal behavior for sexual minorities. - Presents sexual minorities as rabid anarchists. - Promotes medication (Prozac) as (the only) way to heal from "sexuality". - Viagra only results in continuous uncontrollable sexual urge. - If you believe in God you can't have sex.It's the hidden meanings of A Dirty Shame that worry me. Usually the majority of the public in comedies are "normal", and the minority are thieves, crazy or abnormal people etc, and the hidden meaning or lesson is not to steal and be tolerant towards other people and to lose prejudice. But the public that takes the "normal" tag are über-christians in total denial of sex as a part of humanity, and the minority are anarchist, unfaithful, addictive people that have a sickness that can only be treated with Prozac. I know this sounds like I'm exaggerating, but that actually happened in the movie.The 12 guidelines presented when entering the biblical section of the movie were given way too much space. From there on I actually thought this is a very weird movie from some Christian director who wants to promote "God's way" of prohibiting sexuality, and in order to reach teenagers he decided to put the message hidden in a sexual comedy. There were several other "wtf are they trying to say here" moments as well.I don't think even 8 year olds joke like that on Viagra anymore. And a medicine mentioned in a 2004 movie, Prozac! When horny, wear leopard pattern and a slutty make-up! I see these as blatantly cheap way-outs that tells me the writer doesn't know anything on these subjects past stereotypes.If you want to get a better understanding on sex and sexual minorities, see a plot that has a goal, or be amused by sad acting or lacking characters, go watch a porn movie instead.

Over-the-top sex farce by John Waters is funny throughout the first half of the movie but loses the story and just uses sex pranks and disgusting stuff to fill up the last half. I expect to be offended when I see a Waters movie but the story has to be complete for any movie to be recommended by me and this one wasn't. The story is basically about a sexually repressed woman, played by Tracey Ullman, who gets an accidental concussion that turns her into a sex addict. She finds out that there are others and they are led by a character named Ray Ray(a sexual healer) played by Johnny Knoxville of Jackass fame. They lay in religious parallels like Ullman's character being the 12th apostle who's is supposed to bring them a new sex act to bring them to a glorious climax. Other religious stuff like putting down the 12 step program didn't set well with me. She gets knocked on the head again and brought back to her normal("neuter") self and this happens to other characters as well but then she gets brought back by another knock which is kind of strange. The group break up a sex addicts anonymous meeting and take over and this is where I kind of stopped liking the movie. They pretty much take over the area at this point and can't be stopped. Waters then throws in everything imaginable and it stops being funny. Definitely this is a revealing movie, but a little too over-the-top for my tastes. It's a dirty shame because if the story didn't fall apart it would have been a funny and worth-while movie experience despite it's many vulgarities.

A DIRTY SHAME is a good film but it certainly isn't for everyone. Of all the many films I have seen in my life, this one has (by far) the most pervasive sexuality of any movie--even more than in John Waters' early films. While there is not much nudity at all, I think only about 25 seconds of the film are not intended to be offensive by talking about perversions or showing them (at least in a sanitized manner). Like PINK FLAMINGOS, this film seems to be an experiment by John Waters to see how far he can go and get away with it. In this, case, he seems to be seeing how many sexual references and perversions he can include in a single film. However, given how much things have changed since the early 1970s, apparently you can go amazingly far! Of course, this could be because I saw the DVD version of the film (that is rated NC-17) and not the theatrical rated-R version.The story is sort of like a fairy tale (or anti-Biblical morality play) set in a Baltimore suburb. In it, strange things happen when people have accidental head injuries--they become sex maniacs with their own particular type of perversion. Most any fetish or weird sex act you could imagine has someone in the town who recently switched to it. I could only think of a few weird sexual hangups that were not in the film and IMDb would probably ban me for even mentioning them or the ones in the film! This town, oddly, has two types of people--pervs and neuters. The neuters think all sex is bad and the pervs are running amok having sex with everything (even trees) and everywhere, even the local quickie mart(!).When neuter Tracy Ullman receives her head injury, it's something special. The band of pervs leader announced that she is the chosen one--the one who will introduce some new form of perversion that has never been seen before. However, before she can find it, she is hit on the head again accidentally and becomes her old neuter self. It seems that accidental head trauma can make anyone switch back and forth--even Ullman's amazingly slutty daughter (who you just have to see to believe). Will Ullman regain her perversion and come up with the new sex act or will the revolution just fizzle out? Tune in and see.The film is very funny but very raunchy. If you can watch John Waters' early films (PINK FLAMINGOS, MONDO TRASHO, DESPERATE LIVING or FEMALE TROUBLE), then you are probably a good candidate for the movie. If not, then it's an iffy proposition--this film is offensive in practically every way. If all the smuttiness were to be cut out, this film would be the length of a TV commercial. Seriously.Oh, and by the way, for the fans of the old John Waters films, Mink Stole and Mary Vivian Pearce are both in this film--keep an eye out for them.

For the past decade, I have been fascinated with John Waters, upon having viewed his 1988 classic, Hairspray. I was later introduced to Cry Baby, but my Waters obsession did not begin until this year, when I viewed his "masterpieces," including my personal favorites, "Female Trouble" and Hairspray." I picked up the John Waters DVD box-set for a steal on Amazon, and popped in "A Dirty Shame," having never seen it before. I was dissatisfied with the results. Unlike Waters' previous forays into film, there is not one likable character to encounter. Nearly everyone grated my nerves throughout the film, and I did not laugh until well into the second half of the film-- a good forty-five minutes in. I found even Mink Stole to be dull and unsatisfactory, which was wholly unnerving to me. The phrase "Let's go sexin!" uttered throughout made my stomach turn whenever I heard it, because it became so God-awful annoying. Every single character is flawed and undeveloped, which is unheard of in any of Waters' other films. A few moments with Selma Blair-- Ursula Udders-- made me chuckle, but main players, Sylvia Sickles (Tracy Ullman) and Ray-Ray Perkins (Johnny Knoxville) were bland and nearly unwatchable in their roles. Although "Shame" garnered an NC-17 rating, it is tame at best-- a bad move on the Ratings Board, in my book. I've seen COUNTLESS "R-rated" films that are a million times worse. Shame on the MPAA in that regard. Although the purpose of this film was largely to recapture the essence of Waters' earlier films ("Pink Flamingos"), it lacks the dialogue and the characters that made those films fantastic to view. A weak film altogether, but I am definitely looking forward to Waters' "Fruitcake."