Author: Faust667@aol.com (Jerry Saravia) Subject: Review: Cecil B. Demented (2000) Approved: graham@ee.washington.edu Newsgroups: rec.arts.movies.reviews Organization: None X-Questions-to: graham@jetcity.com X-Submissions-to: graham@ee.washington.edu Followup-To: rec.arts.movies.current-films Summary: r.a.m.r. #28087 Keywords: author=saravia
CECIL B. DEMENTED Reviewed on March 28th, 2001 By Jerry Saravia
I am not sure what to make of John Waters at this point. The witty Baltimore trash director who opened the world's eyes with the fabulously disgusting "Pink Flamingos" has followed that hit with more lows than highs. For every "Hairspray" and "Serial Mom," there were travesties to cinematic decency such as "Cry-Baby" and "Pecker." "Cecil B. Demented" shows me a director who is sinking to such a low extreme that I found myself trying to come up for air repeatedly.
Cecil B. Demented (Stephen Dorff) is a no-budget film director/cult leader who along with his crew, known as the "Sprocket Holes," kidnap a famous movie star, Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) and force her to star in their own demented production. Cecil's intent is to shoot a film titled "Raging Beauty" about outlaw filmmakers who bust in and out of multiplexes, production meetings and more multiplexes to proclaim their rant that Hollywood, basically, sucks! Their hostage, Honey with a peroxide hairdo, will help them fight their cause by threatening everyone with a gun and ranting their philosophies such as "Death to those who support mainstream cinema!"
"The Sprocket Holes" are a motley crew of punkish, insufferably smug character types that include Cherish (Alicia Witt), an incest victim who is also a former porno star; a drug addict named Lyle (Adrienne Grenier) who consumes all substances and plays the leading man in Demented's film, and Rodney (Jack Noseworthy), the hair stylist, who hates being heterosexual. There is also a makeup artist, Raven (Maggie Gyllenhaal), a Satanic worshipper who adores Kenneth Anger and Aleister Crowley, and a butch female cinematographer and producer, and so on. None of these characters elicit much interest or inspiration. They come across as flat caricatures.
In the end, that may be the problem with John Waters. His last excruciating film, "Pecker", was so flatly staged that it induced boredom more than anything else. There is no drive, no energy, no real sense of movement in this film either. You get the sense that Waters only filmed one take of every scene with no punch or irony. Of course, none of that would matter if the film was funny but it is decidely not. The fundamental question is: who is Waters really attacking in this film? It may seem like Hollywood but that is a moot point when you consider savagely funny satires such as "The Player", "Living in Oblivion" and "My Life's in Turnaround," to name but a few. Also consider how in the last few years, independent films have become almost as mainstream as Hollywood. Has Waters heard of Miramax, which is literally Hollywood in the East Coast, the same company that produced "The English Patient"? The term "indie" has been abused so often that the line between Hollywood and independent is very thin. And what company has produced Waters latest? Well, it is Artisan entertainment, the same company that puts its label on a new video edition of Schwarzeneger's "The Terminator"!
"Cecil B. Demented" is simply not demented enough or savage enough to really attack its targets and so as satire, it fails miserably. The actors shout and rant but with little purpose or ingenuity. The film ends with a crowd forming around the drive-in showing of Honey's last Hollywood opus while Cecil and his demented group go around having sex with each other while the cops shoot at them. It may seem radical but I would call it desperate at best.
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E-mail me with any questions, comments or complaints at faustus_08520@yahoo.com or at Faust667@aol.com
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