Hairspray (1988)

Now, I don't know if it's because I'm from a poorer, more rural part of Maryland, or if I have a kernel of kitsch deep in my cursed heart, but I love John Waters. Everything he does resonates with me on some level. That doesn't mean he's my all-time favorite or anything, but if he invited me to lunch I wouldn't say no. And I would probably dress nicely. 

With the words "Hey girls, whatchoo doin' over there? / Can't you see? I'm sprayin' my hair!" the 1988 kitsch masterpiece Hairspray opens with a bang. A period piece taking place in the '60s, the film revolves around the same dance show phenomena already discussed in the dud The In Crowd, the third movie ever reviewed on the blog. Except this film works in every. single. way.

Divine (in his final appearance) appears as Edna, Baltimore mother in 1962 presiding over her dance-obsessed daughter Tracy Turnblad (played famously by the charismatic Ricki Lake, who can MOVE, let me tell you). Tracy and her best friend Penny Pingleton appear on the local dance show, the Buddy Deane Show, and tend to upstage the elitist whitebread dance aristocrats who dominate it. 

But 1962 was a heady year for civil rights, and Baltimore a troubled city. The movie deals, very frankly and openly, with interracial relations on several levels (interpersonal, local, national). Since this is John Waters here and not some boring documentarian, the movie deals with these issues with style and flavor to spare and never comes across as trying to lecture the viewer or anything. 

Most of this area of the plot involves a public protest because the aforementioned dance show only has one "Negro Day" per month. The unrest grows and grows into a serious protest, but manages to stay light hearted even as it shows really pissed off people. It's kind of the opposite of Do The Right Thing that way. 

The attention paid to dances of the early '60s is also a lot of fun. It's a world away from the "dancing" of today, that's for sure. It's wild, yet tightly choreographed, and seems a little bit improvisatory, but also has definite rules that I don't quite get. Luckily it's fun to watch, even for someone like me who doesn't dance or really even understand what makes a dancer good or bad. 

Maybe my favorite parts of the movie are the school sequences - especially when the teacher insists they say the pledge and the students do dance moves behind her back. Hahaha! That kind of thing definitely happened. And a lot of the scenarios are really funny, like when Ricki Lake gets put in the Special Education class for having feathered hair. 

There is MUCH I want to write here but would really spoil the plot for anyone who hasn't encountered this before. Like the ... see, even the most casual reference would ruin big surprises. So instead I'll mention that this movie has a GREAT soundtrack - much better than the similar The In Crowd despite the similar topics. John Waters doesn't just have a great eye for color and scene but also a great ear for music and dialog. 

Obviously this movie has a wide appeal, since it was remade into both a broadway show (2002) and ANOTHER movie (2007!). Additionally, it made #444 out of 500 best movies ever according to Empire magazine. Which is kind of wild and yet not out of the realm of possibility, I suppose. It "only" made $8 mil in the theaters when it was released, which was still four times the budget, but had a huge take on home video and became a pretty rapid cult classic. The number of people I have met who know this movie and can quote it always surprises me. It's good! I lament that the other candy-colored Waters classic from this era, Crybaby, was 1990 and not 1989. No fair!