Reviewer's Bias*
Loves: John Waters, good one-man shows
Likes: Art, suburban life
Dislikes: The culture police, decencymongers
Hates: That Waters would probably be bored by me

The Movie
When I bought my first DVD player, the first disc I bought and watched was John Waters' "Pecker," just freshly released at the time. Years earlier, at the tender age of 14, I was borrowing VHS tapes of Desperate Living and Female Trouble from the Copiague public library (a more progressive cultural institution than it ever knew) and telling my disbelieving young friends about Pink Flamingos. Suffice to say, Waters has been a big influence on me, and I've gladly checked out everything he's done, be it book or movie. So obviously, when I found out they were releasing a film of him performing a monologue on-stage, I was a tad interested.

Anyone who's listened to one of Waters' commentary tracks could tell you he's an ineresting man with a gift for gab, but that's behind a microphone in a small recording studio, not in front of a theater audience. Impressively, his down-to-earth chit-chat style of speech translates effortlessly to the lecture circuit, as he starts off strong and just builds from there.

Emerging from a confessional booth to take his place on a stage bordered on one side by a massive floral funeral arrangement, and on the other by a pile of trash, Waters looks like a preacher in his dapper black suit. He doesn't have the best stage presence (noting at one point how he looks like a pedophile), standing basically in the same spot for the entire show. Truthfully, he could do the whole thing from a rocking chair (which would have been an interesting visual) and it would have been just as good, as it's really all about the stories.

Those stories range in topic from his youth in Baltimore, to the films and filmmakers who inspired him, to his own film career, with a pinch of his own personal philosophy thrown in. For fans of his films or fans of fringe cinema in general, it's a fantastic oral history that's told with flair and humor, all in his own unique style.

Though his views on sex, art and culture are all provocative and entertaining, it's his stories about the movies that shaped his warped mind, and the films that brain gave birth to that are the most fun, like his childhood experiences with William Castle's "Tingler" device. Waters even manages to be cute, like when he talks about his parents' reactions to his films.

As he progresses through the timeline of his own movie career, he takes a few detours, but he never bores, eventually returning to the main road, and further down, visits another of his creations. There's not many directors with a past as varied and as interesting as Waters, and few of them are as intimate with their casts as he is. Whether he's talking about Divine or Johnny Depp, he comes off as completely genuine and absolutely entertaining.

The only negative here is the presentation of the show, which is directed by "Curb Your Enthusiasm" producer Jeff Garlin. I've seen monologue/spoken word pieces like this presented with more energy and a bit more variety, but here, you get a few different angles from about the same distance, and a very small amount of crowd reaction. A close-up or two would have been nice, if only to mix things up a bit.

The DVD
We received a very generic screener of this film, without packaging, menus or anything else. If we receive release product, this review will be updated.

The Quality
The video is presented in full-frame letterboxed widescreen, though that could just be the screener. The video is a bit soft and grain, and the colors seem to bleed a bit. Though the disc seems to indicate the film was mastered for 1080p, it doesn't look it, but once again, it's a screener.

The audio is a clean Dolby Digital 2.0 track, which presents Waters' voice without distortion. It's not a challenging track, but a good one.

The Extras
There were no extras included on the screener DVD.

The Bottom Line
Waters is an engaging speaker, an oddball and a very funny fellow, all of which comes across clearly as he presents his monologue about life, film and our filthy nature. Though his presentation can feel a bit like a lecture (albeit from a very cool film teacher), there are plenty of lines that will make you laugh. If the screener we received is similar to the actual release, there will be no extras, and the quality will be just so-so. Waters' fans will have to check this film out to get another very enjoyable dose of his sense of humor until his next film, but this release doesn't do them any favors.

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*The Reviewer's Bias section is an attempt to help readers use the review to its best effect. By knowing where the reviewer's biases lie on the film's subject matter, one can read the review with the right mindset.