elicopperman

While not one of John Waters' grossest or crudest early works, Female Trouble is still a delightfully trashy dark comedy about the insane life of transgressive criminal Dawn Davenport. Despite the suggestive content, this flick is a shockingly brutal character study on a young woman attempting to rebel against American society. Divine might sell the bawdy campy persona of Dawn Davenport upon first glance, but seeing the woman's downward spiral from high school dropout to death row criminal is still harrowing to witness. From all of the insanity Dawn encounters, like having her own child out of force or said daughter Taffy trying to take her down, it's quite captivating to see how one promiscuous delinquent can completely flip their life upside down based on the circumstances that befall them.

On top of being quite cohesive story wise, this arguably might be the first of Waters' filmography to be shot like a traditional movie. Where his previous feature-length endeavors like Multiple Maniacs and Pink Flamingos went for a more faux-documentary styled presentation to make their grotesque content that much more impactful, seeing a film like this go for a more studio-style filmmaking approach allows the film's overall story to play out more substantially. While the filmmakers still had to utilize on set location shoots (Dawn's apartment was built inside a condemned suite above someone's store), they were still able to present each outrageous scenario in a cohesive vacuum to get the themes of blind sided vanity and finding beauty within one's own crimes across. One could even argue that this would mark a strong transition into Waters getting comfortable with studio filmmaking, thus making his minimal resource background pay off in the long run.

Lastly, without spoiling anything, this actually might be the best of Waters' filmography to watch around the Christmas season. Trust me when I say that you'll have a much merrier time watching the film during said time than you'd think.

I should probably know better nowadays given the film's bits of racism, homophobia and problematic views towards women. That being said, seeing the film that brought Martin Scorsese into the Hollywood scene is quite fascinating today. It's funny because the film doesn't have a concise story beyond its focal pointed troubled men and their lives in New York City yet so much goes on that you get sucked into the insane scenarios relating to mob mentality, Catholic grief and degenerate delinquency. Much of the fun comes from believably down to Earth the performances are, especially from Harvey Keitel & Robert De Niro. Their individual character's fluctuating relationship is what sells the tension the most, especially as the film jumps from one crazy scenario to another. Much of that can be attributed to the bombastic editing, which arguably paints the picture in a chaotically captivating light.

Not much else to say here other than Mean Streets is arguably meant to be seen in order to be believed. As New York City inner life was becoming a viable commodity in cinema at the time, works like this feel like time capsules that nonetheless invigorate raw intensity relating to human beings on an urban basis. In the words of Raymond Chandler, "But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid."

Made in collaboration with the Institute for the Intellectual Development of Children and Young Adults in Tehran, In the Shadow of the Cypress details a shattered father-daughter relationship through the effects of PTSD and the two's efforts in trying to save a beached whale. Told with grave imagery and hard hitting emotions in lieu of dialogue, this film is as thematically powerful as it is gut wrenching, and it's a reminder that caring for another person is far more challenging than we'd like to admit.

Those who have witnessed a loved one succumbing to severe emotional and mental turmoil might not find this film easy to stomach, but the whale itself could best be viewed as a metaphor for healing, hence how it brings the father and daughter together in an unlikely fashion. Beyond that, the minimalist art direction allows the characters and their environments to stick out well in shear simplicity as far as the eye can see. It's quite soothing to look at despite the gripping subject matter, aided by Shirin Sohani and Hossein Molayemi's precise direction.

As of this year, In the Shadow of the Cypress is the most recent winner of the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film, marking a historical victory for its home country of Iran. It's not only one of the best winners in this Oscars category, but it's also worth analyzing for the ages in terms of mental health awareness and emotional connection. It's not going to be easy to dissect, but it is vital for understanding the mental scarring of human bondage.