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Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

How sad is this?

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

I hadn't seen "Polyester" since its initial release, and was curious about it after having just viewed the recent Criterion Blu-Ray of one of John Waters' earlier independent productions "Female Trouble" (1974). I honestly couldn't remember "Polyester" at all, or whether or not I had liked it, so I gave it another look today.I couldn't even finish watching it; what a wretched, unfunny mess of a movie. I guess Waters figured it was time to sell out for the Reagan era, which was probably a savvy business decision, but the way in which he did it, by doing a broad satire of a Douglas Sirk melodrama using trashy characters and a "reformed" Divine as the pathetic (rather than monstrous, as he played in "Pink Flamingos" and "Female Trouble") character of Francine Fishpaw comes off as a cheap, slapstick betrayal of his earlier anti-aesthetic. Perhaps Waters is even satirizing himself by having his heroine be a pro-life Christian, to show how "sick and twisted" heterosexual family life is in surburban America; recall that Edith Massey, playing Aunt Ida in "Female Trouble," states this explicitly in one of her scenes with her son Gator.I guess after realizing he couldn't "go home again" and had to do something totally different (his next film after this one, "Crybaby", was pretty iffy, too), Waters hit upon the goldmine idea of doing a musical, "Hairspray," which ended up rejuvenating his career and was later successfully produced as a Broadway smash. Waters didn't give up on his old "bad taste" aesthetic, however; his later film releases that hearken back to his Dreamland period, "Serial Mom", "Cecil B. Demented," and "Pecker", while all ultimately unsatisfying for one reason or another, are all superior to "Polyester". It is truly sad that Waters' last film with his star Divine was so lame, but it certainly wasn't because of Divine's acting. He gives it his all, but the script suffers from not having any sympathetic characters except maybe for Edith Massey. The casting of has-been Tab Hunter was probably a huge mistake, too, since he and Divine don't really have any chemistry onscreen. "Polyester" hasn't aged well at all, and should be considered a transitional misfire in Waters' career that he was, thankfully, able to put behind him.

It's hard to describe "Polyester". It's not a camp movie. It's different. It does have some funny moments. It does have some really funny ideas. And Divine is something else. Almost always watchable in this one. The only scene that he didn't really pull off was the ending. There is a lot of really funny stuff in this one. On the flip side, there's a lot cringe worthy stuff in it too. John Waters would later lose his way. I guess he couldn't work with a budget. John Waters was a unique filmmaker. There will never be another one like him. I'm saying I'm a fan of his movies but he is a director that I think should not be lost to younger generations. "Polyester", for better or worse, is one of a kind.

...in context of John Waters' reality...Polyester is a perfect balance between Waters' somehow-charming trademark gross-out sleaze (in explaining the character of Baltimore, he calls those movies "documentaries") and major - picture production values.Packed with his regular ensemble of - uh - actors, a (closet homosexual) 50's heartthrob, hysterical social satire, and ODORAMA, this movie has something to purturb EVERYONE several times over.For the mild-mannered, it's much easier to take than his early debaucheries, while for die- hard Waters fans, it retains the hammy, outlandish - uh - acting that helps make his movies so eccentric.

This is almost as good as Desperate Living, my favorite Waters flick. Divine stars as a beaten-down housewife married to a philandering porno theater owner. He leaves her for Mink Stole and hounds her relentlessly. Her daughter's a knocked-up skank and her son huffs like crazy and lusts after women's feet – which he likes to stomp on. Meanwhile, her well meaning but mildly retarded friend (Edith Massey), her former maid who received a hefty inheritance and is now nouveau-riche, tries to persuade her to take part in upper class activities. Like Desperate Living, the film is absolutely hilarious. It has some of the greatest lines ever. My favorite is "Don't you know it's bad luck to let retards in your home?", although "I never wanted to use macramé to kill!" is pretty great, too (nothing quite reaching "I don't want no white man touching my tampons!" or "Your clothes are on backwards, stupid!"). The film is especially famous for using a scratch and sniff gimmick, which it calls Odorama. Few gimmicks have been funnier. Unfortunately, I couldn't play along (the scratch and sniff cards are fairly rare), but you could just imagine. It's probably funnier not to have smelled what's on screen.