Female Trouble

Rating:
Summary: Divine at her best!
Review: Finally! A re-release of this John Waters classic! I was fortunate enough to find an original copy of this in sealed condition on e-bay. It tells the tale of misunderstood Dawn Davenport, the girl in high school who was cool because most of the other girls hated her, and she didn't care. She has to deal with parents who don't understand her, and later, teen pregnancy (fathered by, of all people, herself!). We then get to see what her traumatic formative years formed her into, and the type of laissez-faire parent she would become.

Again, John Waters uses his wry wit to point out glaring facets of modern culture, and views on beauty and the near deification of criminals. It's a must see for any true John Waters fan!

Rating:
Summary: It's so bad it's great!
Review: I first saw "Female Trouble" back in the 1970s and since then I've been looking for the video. I have it now and it's just as I remembered it. Divine plays both the immortal Dawn Davenport and Earl, and it's clear that she is better at playing female roles than male roles. Dawn is so delightfully evil that we are not surprised by whatever happens to her, but the violence doesn't shock us as it would in some other movies. The late Edith Massey was great as Ida and Mink Stole - the only actor to appear in ALL of John Waters' movies - was almost as good as the bratty Taffy (I would have slapped her too if she was my daughter.) And we got to see Divine's penis and Massey's breasts! The only thing I didn't care about was the "romance interest", Gator. Waters should have gotten a good-looking guy to play Dawn's husband, not one of his hippy friends.

It's a shame that Oscars weren't given for trashy cult movies in the mid-seventies, 'cause "Female Trouble" would have swept the field back then.

Rating:
Summary: Beware of the girl who does not get her cha-cha heels
Review: In my opinion, John Water's movies have always been smarter on paper than most give him credit for. All of his work skewers the establishment was well as some of its offshoots and although intended to be shocking (in many instances just for the sake of being able to do so), my favorite moments generally involve the amazing Mink Stole and when John Waters in a very matter of fact fashion throws in something absolutely jaw-dropping as if it were just another scene.

On one hand you'll have people who will find Waters' early work to be too repulsive to watch and on the other extreme, you'll find others who worship his movies without any reservation and reject any critique as a sign that people just don't get it. My perspective is a little different as after watching Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, and Desperate Living, my view is that while the ideas continue to be as fresh as they were made in the mid to late 1970's, his early work is much funnier when taken in little dozes rather than full length movies. Although, many may disagree I find Desperate Living to be his early best, while Female trouble is highly overrated. Pink Flamingos falls somewhere between the two.

There are scenes in Desperate Living that had me laughing so hard that I cried. In fact, the first half hour of the film is absolutely hilarious. Every scene involving Jean Hill who plays the hilarious Grizelda Brown and/or Mink Stole who plays the crazed Peggy Gravel, is a gag waiting to happen. There is a scene that takes place after something horrible happens (like I am going to tell you what happened) when Peggy is driving away with Grizelda that is worth the price of owning this movie. Said scene has Mink Stole going off like a madwoman regarding her hatred of nature, and it never fails to surprise me how funny she is. As happens with most of Waters' early films, it ultimately runs out of steam and starts relying too much on shock value and by now almost any Waters fan is hard to shock visually so it better be funny too. Desperate Living is my favorite early John Waters film, although many find it to be his most grim and depressing.

Female Trouble is one of the early Waters movies that most fans tend to like, and I just did not like it at all. Of course no John Waters film can ever be made without having hilarious moments, but they are far and few in between and I was mostly bored. Mink Stole as usual steals every scene that she is in and she does a variation on her "I hate nature" soliloquy from "Desperate Living," this time involving humans. Although I could not get enough of Edith Massey as the egg lady Pink Flamingos or as Queen Carlotta in desperate living, her role in Female Trouble made me feel for her as I was not laughing with her or could not bring myself to laugh at her. While she has her moments and awesome potty mouth, Waters (possibly without meaning to) takes her costumes to a point where you want to hug her instead of laughing. Divine has the opposite effect as the cruder and ruder that she is, the more that I loved her in this movie.

Pink Flamingos, which is Waters' breakout movie, without a doubt uses shock value more than any of his subsequent films. It is supposedly centered around defining who is the filthiest person alive in Waters' beloved Phoenix, Maryland. Since this was Waters' first fully realized early picture, he went for the jugular in trying to get away with as much gross out material as possible. The story, as is the case with Female Trouble, is not worth following and starts to get old quickly, but there are MANY scenes that will shock the numbest person alive. In many instances, the shock is not a bad thing as my motto is if it's funny, bring it on. Edith Massey as the egg lady is so funny that I can't help seeing her scenes over and over again. There are little touches as the manner in which Divine steals some ham, or apparently throwaway scenes involving dealing drugs and a baby selling ring, that are too funny to describe.

In a nutshell, I think that John Waters in hilarious and is responsible for some of the funniest movies of our time (as is the case with Serial Mom, just to name one), but these early exercises in guerilla filmmaking work better as boundary pushers than fully realized self contained movies. Those who enjoyed Jackass - The Movie, said movie would probably never have seen the light of day if it were not for John Waters, and although some may wish that such were the case, I for one think that Jackass - The Movie is one of the funniest movies ever. Part of that success is due to Johnny Knoxville not attempting to create a linear narrative or a storyline but intertwining bigger and smaller ideas just for the sake of making us laugh. Maybe it was not a choice at the time, but all of Waters' early movies would have worked much better with extensive editing and bypassing the narrative to focus on being funny.

I give Desperate Living 3.5 stars, Pink Flamingos 2.5 stars, and Female Trouble 1.5 stars. New Line home videos has released several two-packs of John Waters' films, but none that I know of that have Desperate Living and Pink Flamingos on the same package. I mention this because in my opinion, Female Trouble is not a must see by any stretch of the imagination, even for hard-core Waters fans.

Rating:
Summary: DAWN DAVENPORT RULES IN JOHN WATERS' MASTERPIECE!
Review: John Waters has created a masterpiece in Dawn Davenport of 'Female Trouble'! ONLY, but ONLY, could Divine play the insanely HILARIOUS Dawn Davenport throughout her series of misadventures. This movie guarantees constant laughter, as well as a series of 'Oh my God's' that will no doubt drop from your mouth! This is a family with serious ISSUES! With a daughter like little Taffy - "Look at her face, she has the face of an old woman" to her 'Supermodel' career, Dawn races from scene to scene in her slingback pumps & heavy mascara with 'Divine' style! When she hits her arch enemy with a fish in the head, you will hit the floor laughing hysterically! It is so ridiculous that you will love it! You haven't LIVED until you have witnessed Dawn in her fringed bell-bottom jump suit - jumping on a trampoline - all 300 bodacious pounds of her! And her final speech is not to be missed! Get this movie! It will STUN you into uncontrollable laughter! And like our 'Supermodel' Dawn Davenport, you will soon finding yourself with an uncontrollable urge to inject mascara into your veins for your next 'beauty fix'! You just have to witness this extravaganza to believe it! Absolutely HYSTERICAL!

Rating:
Summary: The Life And Crimes Of Dawn Davenport
Review: John Waters' follow up to his classic PINK FLAMINGOS doesn't plume the same depths of hilarious depravity but is still an entertaining movie. FEMALE TROUBLE sees Waters (who also co-edits and wrote the lyrics for the title song) reteaming with PINK FLAMINGOS stars Divine (who also performs the title song) and Mink Stole (who is also credited with the stills).
FEMALE TROUBLE tells the tale of the life and crimes of Dawn Davenport (Divine) beginning with her High School days in 1960. After destroying Christmas for her family Dawn runs away from home and is picked up hitch-hiking by a sleazy guy who impregnates her. Not surprisingly she ends up giving birth to her daughter in typically tasteless Waters fashion.
With a daughter to support and a scuzzy hippie boyfriend spongeing off her earnings, Dawn works a series of menial jobs from waitress, hooker and gogo dancer (not a pretty sight) before discovering her true niche as a career criminal. As a result she meets a bizarre artistic couple who want to photograph Dawn's crimes because they feel "Crime equals beauty". This predictably leads to media fame and plenty of Waters' bad taste: gratuitous nudity (not the good kind), maiming, mutilation, incest- all the usual barrel scraping (Which I don't have the heart to spoil for potential viewers), though this is pretty tame compared to PINK FLAMINGOS which I still consider to be his masterpiece.
FEMALE TROUBLE will appeal to cult movie buffs but mainstream viewers should probably steer clear; especially those only familiar with his more accessible PG rated movies like HAIRSPRAY and CRY BABY. Connoisseurs of camp and vulgarity will love it. Personally, I have mixed feelings about FEMALE TROUBLE hence my 3 star rating. I still rate later Waters' movies like SERIAL MOM and CECIL B. DEMENTED higher than this, but it's still worth a look.