Cecil B. Demented (R)
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I've never been a fan of John Waters's films. To be fair, I've hardly seen anything of his work, but what little I have seen I haven't particularly liked. But maybe that was just because... I didn't so much see movies as ads for the movies, or whatever. I tend to feel like if a trailer is totally unappealing to me, there's not much hope for the actual movie, right? But whatever, this is something I definitely wanted to see, since I like the cast (particularly Alicia Witt and Maggie Gyllenhaal). And I actually ended up enjoying the movie, and thinking maybe I should try to get into some other John Waters movies someday. Though there's still a good chance I won't like them. I think they tend to be... unconventional in a way that just really turns me off (even if there are plenty of unconventional movies that I love). This is the type of unconventional that I like... the kind of thing that, on paper, contains all sorts of elements that I normally dislike, but which somehow ends up working for me. And I guess I can kind of understand it, because it also has elements that I do usually like... a strong anti-establishment sensibility, general over the top craziness, whatever. It inspires the rebel in me, like Pump Up the Volume or something. And then, there's also a part of me that does want to enjoy sort of cultish things along the lines of Rocky Horror Picture Show. And this definitely felt like that to me, the kind of thing that a group of people in the right frame of mind could totally dig in that way.

Anyway, there's this bitchy Hollywood actress named Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith), who's making a charity appearance in Baltimore, when she gets kidnapped by a group of outlaw filmmakers called the SprocketHoles, led by a guy who calls himself Cecil B. Demented (named after famous early Hollywood director Cecil B. DeMille; predictably, we eventually hear the line "I'm ready for my close-up, Mr. Demented"). He's directing a "no budget" film that he wants Honey to star in, along with a couple of other actors (one of whom is a former porn star who used to make parodies of Honey's movies, and the other is a drug addict). After shooting a brief introductory scene in their hideout, the rest of Cecil's movie's scenes are basically just the director, cast, and crew crashing various places related to mainstream cinema, and terrorizing everyone involved in perpetuating Hollywood's tendency to make artistically bad but financially successful movies. So, there's lots of violence and swearing, as well as sexuality (in spite of the fact that Cecil insists he and all his horny SprocketHoles take a vow of "celibacy for celluloid" until they've finished making their movie). Of course, there's one moment when Honey becomes "one of them" instead of just a hostage acting against her will. I thought that change happened too quickly and without truly sufficient motive, but whatever. Though I guess... aside from the immediate impetus for the change in her character, there's the ongoing thing about how her career, without her realizing it, had become something of a joke, and now she was getting new respect from fans of Cecil's demented maverick style.

Um, so yeah, I don't know what else to say, really. It was just a really weird movie, as John Waters movies always are, but it was also fairly funny I thought. And while I'm sure I like alot of the kind of movies these people are rebelling against, I also understand where they're coming from. There's a great deal of mainstream Hollywood movies (and TV shows), and indeed mainstream anything that I'd love to rebel against. So it was pretty fun. And it had some interesting (if ridiculous) characters. And not much of an ending, really. But it was definitely cool. And hopefully the next time I watch it, I can do so with some like-minded friends, instead of alone....

Oh yeah, and the DVD... before you get to the actual menu, there's a fake menu for the film Honey was promoting at the start of the movie. That was kinda funny.