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Serial Mom

Serial Mom. John Waters. 1994. ⚅

Hey! Most of John Waters’ movies were released on 2K the other year, and I bought them all, but forgot to watch them.

So I’m starting with Serial Mom, which is the newest one.

That makes sense.

[thirty minutes pass]

I’m just flabbergasted at how funny this is, and I wouldn’t be typing now at all except that I’m baking, so I had to take a little break here anyway.

I’ve seen this a couple of times before, but I didn’t remember how totally it was in like with Waters’ 80s aesthetic. I vaguely seemed to remember it being a somewhat different thing — I mean, Cry-Baby and Hairspray were so… life-affirming? And then there’s this thing that’s…

It’s about how satisfying it would be to kill assholes.

So it’s Waters from his more anarchic 70s, but visually being in line with his 80s stuff, and it’s, perhaps, a bit jarring? Was this his first … failure, box office wise?

It was!

And I can totally see how people in 1994 would be grossed out (but for real; not like when Divine ate etc), because it seems to out of step with the 90s. Remember the 90s? You probably don’t, because you weren’t born then (statistical speaking), but it was a time of optimism: Sure, all the music sucked, but there was a feeling of things getting better; that change was possible. And then you get this… Nixon/Reagan satire thing… nobody wanted that.

But I’m just saying: This is hilarious! It’s as good as any Waters movie! Which means… it’s fabulous!

[ten minutes pass]

OK, now the cake is in the oven for 40 minutes…

All the performances here are spot on, but I can’t get over how fantastic Kathleen Turner is. I mean, I think that may be partially because I somehow associate her with a previous generation of actors, so it’s like having… er… Lauren Bacall… showing up in a movie like this. In my mind, she somehow has that classic stature despite making her first movie in 1981.

She’s hilarious! And I can’t quite believe that she would do a movie like this, which makes it even funnier.

[the end]

I love this so much. It’s so faux deep. It’s so funny. It’s pure John Waters.

Oh, there’s a documentary on this blu-ray where Waters talks with Kathleen Turner and Min Stole!

Heh heh heh! Turner just said that Michael Douglas called her and asked her… “are you really doing this? Tell me this isn’t true!?!?”

[twenty minutes pass]

This is really uncomfortable. I mean, Mink Stole and Waters are talking about their fun early movies, and Turner is like sitting there going “oh…”

It’s a kinda shitty conversation. I wanted to hear more about how Turner ended up in this movie, and what the repercussions were (if any).

But then there’s a documentary! It’s interesting… you get everybody from Sam Whatsisname to everybody else weighing in on the movie and saying fascinating stuff.

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