Cecil B Demented (2001)

After the disappointment of the previous film (I don't even want to say it name), I retreated to a cantankerous old friend, John Waters and his film, Cecil B Demented. I've never been in any rush to see his films in a completist way and if anything, i love the man for himself, less than his films but they have a delightful distasteful fug them. I don't know why but the 3 or 4 films of his i've seen, have a comforting simple entertaining trashyness about them like fast food. They're superfluous, salty and probably bad for you. I love his sense of absurdity like in this film, he has a character that's continually torturing one of the main characters, as a way of venting his own frustration at being heterosexual and that his life would be so much easier if he were gay!
Cecil B Demented is the story of a wannabe director and his cult-like desciples who kidnap a Hollywood actress, for the purpose of using her to make a movie. But this is more or less, a vehicle for Waters to vent about Hollywood and how fay their movies have become. Cecil's gang/crew have directors like Fassbinder and Sam Fuller and William Castle tattooed on their body and Cecil takes time give sermons on the weight movies used to carry, while they hang on his every word. The Hollywood actress, played by Melanie Griffith, exemplifies everything wrong with them- she stars in these trite romantic comedies, that are offensive by their inoffensiveness.
Another delightful surprise about the film is that 10 or 11years later, it features glimpses at a youthful Maggie Gyllenhall and Michael Shannon. They look so cute!
The point of Water's message is 'I don't care if you make high drama or pornography but do something that makes me feel!'. I mean obviously the idea of an audience paying to see Patch Adams 2 or a sequel to Forest Gump is a joke (and a righteously distasteful Waters-ean joke at that!) and but, there's obviously a realistic sense that it's not exactly far from reality in this 'Wild Hogs/Old Dogs' industry.
There are many sight gags set by Waters like cinemas showing the likes of Lake Placid 2 and Scream 4,obviously auspicious by the reality that they actually exist nowadays.

I watched Cecil B Demented (2001) on LoveFilm Online.
My 2011 in Movies will return with Screwed (2010)...