Polyester (1981) Review

Title: Polyester
Year: 1981
Director: John Waters
Country: US
Language: English

Have you ever wanted to smell a movie, but didn't know how to? Well now you can! With Polyester John Waters (Pink Flamingos) provided scratch n' sniff cards to audience members. They would use these cards when the screen prompted them to. Sometimes you'd get a nose full of beautiful daisies, and other times you might get the unpleasant odour of skunks. Waters' creativity new no bounds. 

Francine Fishpaw (Divine) is an upper middle class suburban housewife in Baltimore. Unfortunately for this "good Christian woman", her life is about to completely fall apart.

John Waters' Francine Fishpaw has worse luck than William H Macy in the Coen Brothers' Fargo. She is a perfectly innocent women with very simple goals, but unfortunately everything slowly falls apart. When you think it can't get worse for her it does. Polyester is a crazy movie that is equal parts uncomfortable and funny. You want Divine to stop suffering, but when even the dog hangs itself you can't help but roll over laughing. 

Polyester is a Douglas Sirk (Magnificent Obsession) melodrama turned up to 11. The acting is over-the-top, the falls are tremendous, the villains are dastardly, and the hero is hopeless. The film looks like it's going to turn over a new leaf and give Fishpaw a happy life, only to have the rug pulled from under her. Waters does a great job at exposing the dirty underbelly of the middle class in a most outrageous fashion. 

I enjoyed the film, even though I had one eyebrow raised the entire time. Polyester, as with most Waters' movies, is weird to the point of polarizing. Some people will hate it, and for some of the run-time I did, but I found it had a uniquely repulsive charm that had me glued to the screen. If anything, it's absolutely fascinating.