Cecil B. Demente

Any film with Alicia Witt and Maggie Gyllenhaal has very good things going for it visually. And although a little weird for mainstream audiences, "Cecil B. DeMented is a very entertaining film. Imagine a spoof about the American film industry and American movie audiences, packaged as a cross between "Dr. Strangelove" and "State and Main".

It is after all a John Waters film, and a film set in his hometown of Baltimore. Which means the jokes will be hit-and-miss, with many best appreciated by film industry insiders and Baltimore natives. But the obvious fun the cast has playing their out-there characters is infectious. Melanie Griffith (Tippi Hedren's daughter) has a ball tweaking her diva image as she plays an aging star gradually won over to the cause of her kidnappers (insert Patti Hearst here who actually has a small part in the picture). Alicia Witt gives her best ever performance as the delectable porn star turned revolutionary. The best scene is when she and her fellow film revolutionaries hide out at a porn theater showing "Rear Entry", an anal epic co-starring Witt and a randy gerbil.

Stephen Dorff, before he went insane and got involved with Pamela (slug) Anderson, does a good job as the title character. But watch closely for an absolutely glowing performance by Gyllenhaal. She is something special with lines like: "I haven't had this much fun since my last livestock mutilation!"

Worth watching if you have a sense of humor, even better if you are demented.

After the bloody awful "Pecker", John Waters made this hilarious satire about a radical independent director, Cecil B. DeMented (Stephen Dorff) and his wild crew (Maggie Gyllenhaal, Adrian Grenier and Alicia Witt, among others) who kidnap a spoiled Hollywood starlet (Melanie Griffith, self-parodying her career of once successful turned B-list name) and force her to star in an underground film. In a world where the spoofs are made for the teenage audience and with the only purpose of recreating blockbusters' popular scenes (the "Scary Movie" series and its lame imitators - even the work of "cult" names like Kevin Smith - "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back" - jumped on the same bandwagon), it's refreshing to watch a satire that's really funny and kitsch, but also very witty. DeMented's crew worships directors like Sam Peckinpah, Kenneth Anger, Pedro Almodóvar, Samuel Fuller, David Lynch and Rainer Werner Fassbinder, and not everybody will realize the irony in the end, but for film buffs who like these tidbits, "Cecil B. DeMented" is an absolute riot. 9/10.

Last night, I saw Cecil B. DeMented at a special screening hosted by John Waters, who took questions after the fact. After taking into account my own impressions of the movie, John Waters' apparent impressions, and the comments on this site, I really have to conclude that most of the commentors don't quite get the point. This movie was not in any sense meant to be taken seriously, and yet the detractors label it a hypocritical satire while the fans read it as an honest indictment of Hollywood- in both cases, the commentors are barking up the wrong tree, in my opinion. If Cecil B. Demented is to be taken as a genuine satire, it is clearly meant as a satire of both sides of the argument. Waters does not take sides in this movie- he portrays Cecil and his Sprocket Holes as pretentious loons and cultists, and the "Hollywood (actually Baltimore) Filmmaking Establishment" as tasteless middlebrow panderers. It is obvious in these portrayals that Waters thinks they're ALL pains in the ass- after all, Pauline Kael-ite auteur-lovers ARE pretentious, and Hollywood DOES turn out a lot of lousy shlock. The critic who points out that the Sprockets' tattoos "read like a list of directors kids SHOULD be watching" and who compares the love of Preminger with the dislike of Lean clearly doesn't realize that Waters is in on the contradiction. The Sprockets celebrate "art movies" as they celebrate pornography and Kung Fu flicks. It should be apparent to almost anyone that the Sprockets are no more meant to be role models for the moviegoing public than the makers of "Forrest Gump II" are. First and foremost, the movie is meant to be funny, and it succeeds admirably on that count. True, the humor is sometimes overly crude and often falls flat, but any movie with memorable dialogue such as "Before I was a drug addict, I had all KINDS of problems- now I just have one!" can't be considered bad. Waters seems to consider this film, like most of his others, a lark- a reflection of his own sense of humor. When asked his inspiration, Waters pretty much admits that he just thought it would be fun to suppose what would happen if the readers of Film Threat magazine really took their anger to the next level. When asked if Cecil is a reflection of himself, Waters is quick to discredit the notion, pointing out that Cecil has utterly no sense of humor. In fact, the main target Waters skewers in this film are people who take things too seriously. Judging from the other comments on this page, those humorless people have trouble recognizing themselves in the film.

It's not for the average movie fan. Cecil B. Demented is full of hidden clichés and retro-references that appeals to the warped viewer. The viewer who only sees movies with their 'significant other' will not appreciate this artistic production. The characters are almost toonish, but yet they are real. They are people you may have known, or at least viewed on the internet..eh. The colors are vivid as is the imagination. Waters leaves you wondering what he can think of next! Honey Whitlock is seductive, mature and yet willing and submissive to the abductor's plot. This does bring up memories of the Patricia Hearst kidnapping which appropriately she is in the movie. Hearst plays the role of Fidget's mother. And most of us guys can relate to Fidget. If you are a fan of underground movies, you will love this one!! Be careful who you refer this movie to, or they may put you in their prayers! It could polarize your next family get-together!

While I've enjoyed John Waters recent output, movies like Pecker and Serial Mom have played it a little to safe for my liking. It's great to think of middle-America watching any kind of Waters movie rather than pap like Pearl Harbor and The Mummy Returns, but these movies only give half the picture. While Cecil B. Demented isn't pure unadulterated Waters like Pink Flamingos, it is his best movie since Cry Baby, and a complete HOOT. Man, the sheer energy and humour of this movie, and the basic message of its love for REAL cinema, really pushed my buttons and left me grinning from ear to ear, and UP for a week afterwards! Hopefully someone out there is listening, 'gets it', and will check out some earlier Waters, and some of the work of Sprockets heroes, and their lives will be enriched forever.