“Perhaps the defining moment in [John Waters]’s career-long dedication to lionizing Baltimore’s misfit population” -Nick Schager

John Waters’s first entrée into mainstream semi-respectability maintains his jubilantly subversive edge. Centered on “pleasantly plump” teen Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake, in her first screen role), who becomes a local celebrity for her appearances on a local Baltimore dance TV show, the film sends up conservative ’60s mores (racism, most prominently), while simultaneously celebrating the decade’s glorious kitsch: outrageously sculpted hair-dos, lame-o slang, garish interior design, and more. The film features Waters regular Divine in a dual role as Tracy’s loving mother and a high-strung TV producer, Jerry Stiller as Tracy’s goofball dad, and appearances by a bevy of weird and wacky stars including Ric Ocasek, Debbie Harry, Sonny Bono, and Pia Zadora. The lovingly choreographed dance sequences set to ’60s hits by the likes of Chubby Checker and Lesley Gore steal the show and planted the seeds for Hairspray‘s triumphant reincarnation decades later as a popular Broadway musical (and film adaptation of the same). But nothing can top the sheer joy of Waters’ original.

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