Thoughts from Waters fans...
I was curious what other Waters fans here thought about this film in relation to his other work.
Just to explain where I'm coming from, I've seen all of Waters' previous features, going back to "Mondo Trasho". I found this to be by far his weakest effort, and I'm not entirely sure why.
The film seems to have more in common with the plot structure of "Cry Baby" than any of his recent works. I have a similar problem with that film, which leads me to think it's the plot structure that I dislike about this film.
Despite the NC-17 rating, the film lacks the real shock value of Waters' early works. At its worse, it feels rather dated, and its targets seem all too safe. It lacks the strong characters of Waters' middle-period work (roughly "Polyester" through Serial Mom") which offered delightfully vulgar parodies of suburban values. Unlike the previous two Waters films of his late-period, it lacks the likable, quirky protagonists that made those films so much fun even in the dull stretches.
____
View my films at: www.youtube.com/comedyfilm