Like many of the contemporary audiences who have a taste for the alternative forms of filmmaking, I absolutely adore John Waters and his films, finding his brand of off-kilter comedy and complete commitment to providing glimpses into the limits of human decency through entirely eviscerating every notion of good taste we hold to be true so incredibly endearing. Whether it be his early, transgressive cult films like Pink Flamingos or Female Trouble, or the enormous leap he took into the mainstream, working with recognizable stars such as Kathleen Turner in Serial Mom and an incredible ensemble in Cry-Baby, there is always something special about a film that has Waters at the helm, even if they’re not to everyone’s taste (but then again, when it anything that is dedicated to attacking the most sacrosanct social and cultural institutions aligned with any logical person’s taste?). However, the film that tends to be separate from these conversations also happens to be his last – A Dirty Shame, a film that I have to painfully admit is nothing but thoroughly mediocre, a pointlessly dull exercise in debauchery that doesn’t come across as nearly as authentic as some of his other work. A return to his roots of degradation and sexually charged rebellion, Waters makes a film that just doesn’t compare in any way to the ones that he made at his peak, for a number of reasons. However, as is the case with any controversial work of art, there is definitely something to be said about this film in terms of how it does attempt to balance the merits and shortcomings in a constructive way. This is neither a film that deserves redemption, nor warrants an entire dismissal – more than anything else, A Dirty Shame is a toothless attempt at replicating the work Waters did earlier on, but without many of the aspects that made them special in the first place. A lack of heart and an abundance of bewildering situations makes for a truly confusing experience that had the potential to be so much better.

A Dirty Shame is a film that certainly has the appearance of a John Waters film – it is set in suburban Baltimore, focuses on an ensemble of deranged characters that are little more than caricatures, and tells a story centred on the decay of popular notions of what constitutes morality. However, it lacks some of the more fundamental qualities of the director’s better works – there isn’t much heart in this film, nor does it have the subversive genius that normally defines his stories, which is an enormous disappointment, since once these aspects have been stripped away, all we’re essentially left with is a morally-ambigious comedy that doesn’t even dare to take many real leaps, and is instead perfectly content in just being a demented comedy without much depth. As unbelievable as it may be to hear, even something as perverted as Pink Flamingos or Multiple Maniacs carried a sense of cutting-edge commentary, which certainly can’t be said for this film. Ultimately,  A Dirty Shame feels like someone doing an impersonation of a John Waters film, rather than one directed by the Pope of Trash himself. Nearly everything here can be traced back to an earlier moment in the director’s career, which isn’t surprising, considering he was clearly trying to make a bold leap to his more transgressive days. We can understand the motivation, since he had spent the last two decades making more mainstream, palatable comedies, rather than the gross-out riots that made him such a controversial figure. However, one would imagine that an artist with as keen a sense of self-awareness as Waters would understand how this may not be the best option, since age had caused his perspective to somewhat evolve, which means that a return to form doesn’t always been a direct replication, which is where the film seems to fall the hardest, since there is always something lacklustre underpinning every moment of unrestrained genius, causing a muddle of ideas.

Criticizing a film by Waters isn’t an easy task for someone who is just a few steps below an outright apostle to his vision – but if there is a film of his that we’re going to call an enormous disappointment, A Dirty Shame is the most acceptable answer. There is something incredibly sinister about this film that just doesn’t quite fit into what we expect from a director who may have always brought a sense of sleaze to his stories, but in a way that was profoundly tongue-in-cheek. A Dirty Shame just lacks the intelligence needed to stand alongside even his most revolting work. The overriding plot of a group of suburban prudes suddenly being transformed into sex addicts after hitting their head is one that would thrive better in the form of a quick joke, rather than a feature-length film. However, it’s not the premise that’s the problem, but rather what is done with it – for the entire film, we keep expecting to find something of value spun from the hilarious but slight storyline, an evolution akin to what the director often did by introducing us to a particular situation, and then developing on some of those ideas, even if it was through unhinged narrative anarchy. A Dirty Shame just doesn’t deliver any of this, and falls short of many of its more attainable goals – we’re introduced to characters that we think are going to be meaningful, but instead end up just fading into the background, and the general tone of the film comes across as mean-spirited, which is especially concerning when we start to align ourselves with the antagonists of the film (those rebelling against the debauchery), since even though they’re stuffy and old-fashioned, they’re level-headed and represent some semblance of normality, in a film that proposes such a binary exists, rather than demonstrating that decency is a continuum, which Waters has never had a problem elaborating on in his other works.

A Dirty Shame is not a film that is indicative of any weaknesses on the part of Waters – he is still a cinematic icon, and a revolutionary that deserves our respect, even if one doesn’t necessarily find enjoyment in his films. He made revolutionary works that not only incited long-lasting discussions on decency and censorship in artistic expression, but also helped pioneer a form of underground filmmaking that would essentially become the foundation for modern independent cinema, which owes an enormous debt to some of the scathing, deranged comedies directors like Waters made early in his career. A Dirty Shame is a film that stands separately to all of the director’s previous work – it doesn’t have the free-spirited madness of his cult films, nor the devil-may-care satirical edge of his later forays into the mainstream. Instead, it attempts to combine both under the guise of being a union between the visceral sexual depravity of his early films, and the mainstream appeal of his later ones. It certainly doesn’t work in either instance, and not even the presence of some very interesting actors (Johnny Knoxville is certainly someone who could’ve easily fit into the original Dreamlander circle in the 1970s), or some hilarious moments that hint at the potential embedded in this story (which could’ve been realized through a bit more attention to the more compelling aspects of the narrative), can distract from the fact that this film just doesn’t hit any of its intended targets, and comes across as a bit too disingenuous and, dare we say, incredibly immature, which Waters nearly always avoided through his unique brand of sophisticated sleaziness, or his proper perversions. To date, this is the last film that Waters has directed, and with nearly two decades having elapsed since making it, it’s looking increasingly clear that this is his cinematic swan song – and the fact that it is this film that will hold that distinction is, for lack of a better term, a dirty shame.