But the film is a hagiography in which Divine comes across as hilarious, warm-hearted, bright and generous (albeit often with money he did not have or that belonged to someone else), but women come off badly. The documentary is amusing and fascinating in places – for example the way we are introduced via his friends to Glenn, a gay, bullied young man, who then morphs into Divine, so desperate is he for fame. In his most notorious film Pink Flamingo, Divine screams, ‘I am the filthiest person alive’. In his films Divine called his female co-stars ‘sluts’. He played, according to his manager, female characters who were ‘trash’, ‘filth’ and ‘obscenity in bucket loads.’ But Divine was born into a conservative, middle-class family and played on nasty stereotypes of trailer trash women to get a laugh. The film is made up of archive footage and head-and-shoulder interviews with school friends, acolytes and colleagues of Divine. Maybe the movie's tail end has nothing on that of "Pink Flamingos," but, for Dawn, her final performance - given in the electric chair, no less - feels just like Oscar gold.War with Russia won’t be what the West expects That's a crowning achievement for the picture and a bummer for its fans, although I'm with those who say that the better Waters/Divine movie is "Female Trouble" (1974), which streams via Vudu, Google Play and YouTube movies (in standard definition, aptly or not).ĭermody considers "Female Trouble" to be "pre-punk" as well as "Waters' 'Gone With the Wind.' " Indeed, cross Scarlett O'Hara with the Germs' Darby Crash and you have something akin to Divine's Dawn Davenport, a shrieking narcissist who'd kill to be famous - and does. Also notable on VODįurther proving the eternal resistance of "Pink Flamingos" to the mainstream's warm embrace is the fact that the movie - which Variety credited with having the "most nauseating capper in film history" - can't be found anywhere on VOD. But the doc, like Divine, has a tender underbelly, especially in its treatment of the actor's reconciliation with his long-estranged mother, Frances, who died proud of her boy. For film critic Dennis Dermody, who got his start as a theater usher cleaning the vomit of "Pink Flamingos" patrons, Divine is the anarchic antithesis of America's sweetheart.Īnger, Waters says in the film, was a key component of the Divine persona, formed in the hard-fought emergence of bullied, introverted, movie-loving Glenn Milstead from homophobic early '60s Baltimore. Which isn't to say Divine lacked politics of a sort. A brisk mix of classic film clips, rarely seen performance footage and contemporary talking-head testimonies from Waters and other Divine intimates, including his mom, the doc is newly available for rent or purchase via iTunes, Amazon Instant Video and Vudu.Īmong the film's achievements is its definitive use of the male pronoun for the feminine Divine, who saw himself first as an actor and never identified as transgender. Originally born Harris Glen Milstead just after the end of WWII, Baltimore's most outrageous resident eventually became the international icon of bad taste cinema, as the always shocking and highly entertaining transvestite performer, Divine. Were there any justice in the months after Nixon's re-election in 1972, Divine would have taken the Academy Award for his performance in John Waters' fearlessly scuzzy "Pink Flamingos," in which he plays a flamboyant trailer-park criminal whose title as the "filthiest person alive" is forever secured when, at what you'd call the film's tail end, he devours a fresh lump of doggy doo-doo.Īlas, the late star will have to make do with immortal queer-icon status and "I Am Divine," a new documentary that tells his amazing story with boundless affection and humor tasteless and otherwise. From there, he continued to desecrate middle American propriety, and delight rebel outsiders of all stripes, during two of the most dispiriting decades the counterculture had seen. Even a quick glance at Divine is enough to make most Oscar-winning stars look like frightened bunnies by comparison.Ī vivaciously hammy, 300-pound drag queen with a mean streak and a face full of smeared makeup, Divine - born Harris Glenn Milstead in Baltimore, 1945 - made his screen debut in 1968, playing a blood-soaked Jackie Kennedy squirming in the back seat of the presidential limo.
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