A Film With No Dog Crap

Hi, all. Hope your Pride month's going pleasantly. One of my favourite musicals of the previous 20 years is 2002's Hairspray. Its libretto and score are so superlative. It can be enamoring for an audience. An admirable aspect of Hairspray is how the show passes with flying colors as an adaptation of its source-material. It's actually a same-titled iteration of a 1988, New Line Cinema-distributed film. It was penned and helmed by the infamous John Waters. It is deserving of your viewership. I'll inform ya why.

Waters was gifted with a 2.7 million $ budget (sizable for him). This film sure as heck ran with it. The hair (obviously) and makeup departments were on the points. The Baltimore location footage and scenery captured essences of the 1960s. Van Smith's costuming is wonderfully detailed and colorful. Musically, the film has mostly pertinent bops, cannious music composed by Kenny Vance and an original song performed by Rachel Sweet. Edward Love's chorography integrates dances moves from the time-period. Cinematographers Dave Insley and editor Janice Hampton had expertise in their fields.

Mary Colquhoun and Pat Moran cast the movie divinely. A plethora of dexterous dancers were participants. Pia Zadora, Toussaint McCall, Buddy Dean and Rik Ocasek had appearances of memorability. John gets in on the act in a quaky cameo. Jo Ann Havrilla's Prudy was spot-on at mocking people who sadly exist. Cyrkle Milbourne, Li'l Inez, had competence as a child performer. Shawn Thompson's Corny Collins and Mink Stole's Tammy worked well, they turned in worthy performances. Michael St. Gerard's Link Larkin was a believable 60s heartthrob. Colleen Fitzpatrick (a.k.a. Vitamin C) was an enjoyably brattish Amber Von Tussle. Likewise, Blondie's Deborah Harry and Palm Springs Mayor Sonny Bono were on the nose as her intolerable, bigoted stage parents. Clayton Prince provided charm and coolness as Seaweed J. Stubbs. Leslie Ann Powers supplied adorably awkward, perky support as Penny Pingleton. Queen of R&B Ruth Brown is a supplier of infinite fabulousity as Motormouth Maybelle. In the role of Wilbur, Jerry Stiller was charmingly committed as a jokester and family man. Divine was refreshingly conventional as Edna! Glenn excelled at portraying a man, too (it's lovely how the stage show honored Divine's memory by hiring Harvey Fierstein). Talk show hostess Ricki Lake is an admirably atypical, retable, sturdy lead as Tracy Turnblad.

John got to write a project with vast appeal. I admire its normalized crossdressing. Apart from being humorous, campish and infectiously energized, Hairspray has depths to it. Waters used history as influence. This film conveys a message about equality. It's socially-satirical. It mixes comedic execution with tragic realities. Interracial romance, segregation, riots, protesting and attempted bombing are factors. The film's characters are unbelievably noteworthy. For a movie from the late 80s, it's appropriately 60ish. The dialogue has catchiness to it. There's a sense of pacing. Everything's topped-off with an enjoyable denouement.

As a director, John Waters was efficient at enacting their visions and bringing them to celluloid. Rachel Talalay was clearly an effective producer. Hairspray laid the groundwork for Thomas Meehan, Mark O'Donnell, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman to adapt it (Waters was a fan of the adaptation, incidentally). It's an incredibly diverting film for underdogs.