Synopsis:
Cecil B. Demented, an insane independent film director and his renegade group of teenage filmmakers kidnap an A-list Hollywood actress and force her to star in their underground film.
My Version:
DVD rental from the public library (HOW do I not own this movie though?)
My Thoughts:
I decided to grab this movie from the library after learning that my partner, Shawn, had never seen it. 13 years together and we haven’t lost the ability to find things the other hasn’t seen. It’s pretty magical, actually.
See, I’m a John Waters fanatic. I love his work. I love him. All hail the Pope of Trash! Also, I hadn’t seen it since the mid-aughts. It was time.
🎶Demented forever🎶
Although Cecil B. Demented lacks the transgressive edgelord-ness that marks much of Waters’ earlier work (trending as far toward mainstream as he’s likely to ever get – which started with 1988’s Hairspray), it still definitely captures his ethos, I think. It’s a movie about how studios and studio-owned filmmakers are sucking the art out of movies. And this is seriously a career best for Stephen Dorff, and probably Melanie Griffith at that (Alicia Witt, Maggie Gyllenhal, and even that curly-headed guy from Entourage whose name is currently escaping me are also spectacular). Like with all of Waters’ movies, Cecil B. Demented has a stacked cast of Waters-regulars as well as some unexpected additions, and everybody kills it. They’re playing to the back rows for sure, but they’re doing it like the damned well mean it.
🎶Demented forever🎶
If you want to watch a bunch of bizarre film-obsessed filmmakers/actors/various crew members kidnap a bought and paid for Hollywood starlet and use their culty talents to turn her toward their cause, you should definitely check this one out. It has all the filthy, silly jokes you’d hope for from a John Waters joint, but it’s also aggressively millennial in its feel, which strikes me as funny for one of his films, considering how many of them are set in/reminiscent of the 1950s/60s/70s.
“Death to mainstream cinema!”
Dorff’s Cecil is…demented. I feel like such a dork doing that, but it’s the only real appropriate descriptor. The entire band of lunatics with their self-imposed vows of celibacy (but only til they finish shooting their guerrilla opus) is completely unhinged. It’s an incredibly entertaining movie.
Rating:
Holding Cecil B. Demented up against any of Waters’ earlier films feels unkind. It’s so vastly different. But looking at it alongside some of his more modern work like Pecker, Hairspray, or A Dirty Shame it’s solid. It’s on par with his later works.
Cecil B. Demented
Written and Directed by: John Waters
Polar Entertainment
Le Studio Canal+
US Release Date: August 11, 2000
Rated R
88 Minutes
