http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/desperate_living/
Brace yourself. If you’re about to sit down and experience the cinematic lobotomy that is Desperate Living, “brace yourself” is about the only advice I can give you. I’ll be giving you that advice from another room, too, because there’s no way I’m watching this one again. You’re probably getting the impression that this is a bad movie. But despite some horrific acting and some truly disturbing visual attacks, Desperate Living is not a bad movie. It’s a low-budget and truly bizarre early work from camp auteur John Waters, and even though it’s pretty damn funny, I doubt I’ll ever see it again. My stomach couldn’t take it.
Pointing his grime-covered camera (once again) at the absurdity of middle class America and its elitist class structure, Waters delivers a satire so strange, so shocking and so damn gross that you simply must see it to believe it. John Waters aficionados must have a ball watching this movie with first-timers. Desperate Living is a situation comedy, a shocking social commentary, a horror movie and at times even a hilariously ugly soft-core porno movie.
Peggy Gravel has recently been released from a mental institution at her husband’s request. He feels that she’d be better served by being at home. He’d be wrong. On Peggy’s first day of freedom, she has her obese nurse Grizelda sit on hubby’s head, effectively killing him. Trust me, this is a big nurse. The duo promptly hits the road (Thelma and Louise-style) and immediately gets pulled over by a cop. Fortunately for Peggy and Grizelda, this officer is more interested in stealing their panties than arresting anyone. After some unsavoury exchanges, the half-naked cop tells the two fugitives about a local town called Mortville, a place where criminals and deviants go to hide from their lascivious crimes.
Imagine a stinky alleyway covered in slime and populated solely by angry, ugly lesbians and you have a good idea what Mortville is like. The “town” is run by a disgusting porker of a monarch, the evil Queen Carlotta. Carlotta does wonderful things to her subjects, including (but not limited to) forcing everyone to walk backwards and her next plan is to inject the entire village with bat rabies. The queen is too obese to move around on her own, but that doesn’t stop her from getting down ‘n dirty with her henchmen more than once. (Just… ick.) Peggy and Grizelda rent a guest room from a pair of rather unpleasant lesbian ladies, and before too long, all the nasty women start a revolution to depose Queen Carlotta.
Described by Waters as a fractured fairy tale, Desperate Living will certainly appeal to fans of “Cinema Gross”. It’s not too often that you get to see a 350-pound woman have a sex scene with a woman who weighs about a quarter as much. Rare is the film that displays male frontal nudity so freely. Can you think of any other movie that displays a quickie sex change operation and an even quicker sex change reversal? (Think scissors.) Desperate Living has all that and much, much more. Not for the weak of heart or stomach, this one is worth a look for truly brave movie fans. People with delicate constitutions shouldn’t even get close.
Brace yourself. If you’re about to sit down and experience the cinematic lobotomy that is Desperate Living, “brace yourself” is about the only advice I can give you. I’ll be giving you that advice from another room, too, because there’s no way I’m watching this one again. You’re probably getting the impression that this is a bad movie. But despite some horrific acting and some truly disturbing visual attacks, Desperate Living is not a bad movie. It’s a low-budget and truly bizarre early work from camp auteur John Waters, and even though it’s pretty damn funny, I doubt I’ll ever see it again. My stomach couldn’t take it.
Pointing his grime-covered camera (once again) at the absurdity of middle class America and its elitist class structure, Waters delivers a satire so strange, so shocking and so damn gross that you simply must see it to believe it. John Waters aficionados must have a ball watching this movie with first-timers. Desperate Living is a situation comedy, a shocking social commentary, a horror movie and at times even a hilariously ugly soft-core porno movie.
Peggy Gravel has recently been released from a mental institution at her husband’s request. He feels that she’d be better served by being at home. He’d be wrong. On Peggy’s first day of freedom, she has her obese nurse Grizelda sit on hubby’s head, effectively killing him. Trust me, this is a big nurse. The duo promptly hits the road (Thelma and Louise-style) and immediately gets pulled over by a cop. Fortunately for Peggy and Grizelda, this officer is more interested in stealing their panties than arresting anyone. After some unsavoury exchanges, the half-naked cop tells the two fugitives about a local town called Mortville, a place where criminals and deviants go to hide from their lascivious crimes.
Imagine a stinky alleyway covered in slime and populated solely by angry, ugly lesbians and you have a good idea what Mortville is like. The “town” is run by a disgusting porker of a monarch, the evil Queen Carlotta. Carlotta does wonderful things to her subjects, including (but not limited to) forcing everyone to walk backwards and her next plan is to inject the entire village with bat rabies. The queen is too obese to move around on her own, but that doesn’t stop her from getting down ‘n dirty with her henchmen more than once. (Just… ick.) Peggy and Grizelda rent a guest room from a pair of rather unpleasant lesbian ladies, and before too long, all the nasty women start a revolution to depose Queen Carlotta.
Described by Waters as a fractured fairy tale, Desperate Living will certainly appeal to fans of “Cinema Gross”. It’s not too often that you get to see a 350-pound woman have a sex scene with a woman who weighs about a quarter as much. Rare is the film that displays male frontal nudity so freely. Can you think of any other movie that displays a quickie sex change operation and an even quicker sex change reversal? (Think scissors.) Desperate Living has all that and much, much more. Not for the weak of heart or stomach, this one is worth a look for truly brave movie fans. People with delicate constitutions shouldn’t even get close.