Pecker

Just saw this in New York, it will never come to St. Croix! I liked it a lot, made me laugh. This is the most accessible of any of John Waters' movies I've seen and I like that, doesn't hit you over the head with weirdness. Waters is so good at taking a normal situation and making it appear just slightly off kilter. There are some great characters here...Ed Furlong is wonderfully wholesome and believable as Pecker, Christina Ricci is terrific in a very intense way as a too normal no frills small city girl. This movie is just plain good fun, it's easy to laugh at everybody and not feel mean spirited. Oh yeah and good to see Patty Hearst having some fun.

I thought this was an utterly charming film. The story seems to be a thinly veiled autobiography of John Waters: Pecker's greatest gift is his ability to find beauty in unexpected places. Edward Furlong does well in the lead, but the best performances are by his grandmother, Mink Stole (a hilarious cameo) and, of all people, Patty Hearst. I think the reviewers are way off base on this one. They seem to be taking Pecker's worst valuation of his work as gospel, when I think the film pretty clearly states that he is indeed a promising artist.

As I am no fan of almost any post-"Desperate Living" John Waters films, I warmed to "Pecker". After he emerged from the underground, Waters produced trash-lite versions of his earlier works ("Cry Baby", "Polyester", Hairspray") that to die-hard fans looked and tasted like watered down liqueur. "Pecker", which doesn't attempt to regurgitate early successes, is a slight, quiet, humble commentary on the vagaries of celebrity and the pretentiousness of the art world. Waters clearly knows this subject well because he has also exhibited and sold (at ridiculous prices) some of the most amateurish pop art ever created that you couldn't imagine anyone being able to give away if it wasn't emblazoned with the Waters "name". Edward Furlong is fine as "Pecker" and Waters' non-histrionic style is at ease with the subject.

Well, with the right amount of censors, I'm sure anyone would like this. While diehard John Waters fans will be disappointed (There's no obese transvestites that eat dog feces or hilariously hideous trailer park characters) it was still an uplifting film with good performances and several laugh-out-loud scenes. An uplifting John Waters film? Yes. He's also known for dark humor; but this film relied on harmless shock value.

Edward Furlong plays the title character, a kid who takes pictures of everything he encounters in his sleazy Baltimore neighborhood. A NY art agent (Lili Taylor) observes his work and he finds he has the choice between either rising to fame (which he loses his friends and family) or keeping his original lifestyle as a poor suburban dweller.

Give this one a try: Expect nothing, and you won't be disappointed.

The best thing about this movie is that it is fun. It is full of humorous characters and interesting situations, starting with the blithe, innocent Pecker (played appealingly by Edward Furlong) who likes to photograph almost everything he sees in every day life. Other great characters include Pecker's friend Matt ("he's a thief, but he's really a nice guy"), Pecker's sister Chrissy (who is addicted to sugar), and Pecker's Catholic grandmother who discovers life in a statuette of the Virgin Mary in her room.

The movie gently makes a point about how every day life has many riches to offer, and it succeeds in making this point without being too heavy-handed about it. There is always a risk, when making messages about the value and dignity of "common people", of sliding into a kind of reverse "holier than thou" - but "Pecker" avoids these traps, allowing the audience to get the point while allowing enough breathing room for viewers to compare this message to their own thoughts on the subject.

I recommend the movie mostly because it is a lot of fun.