For those who haven't seen the film, the story goes as follows. The wife of a former CIA analyst named Osbourne Cox (John Malkovich) unintentionally steals confidential files from his computer in an attempt to secure his financial records in preparation for divorce. These files inevitably fall into the hands of Chad Feldheimer (Brad Pitt) and Linda Litzke (Frances McDormand), two employees of a gym called Hard Bodies who see the files as an opportunity to make some money through blackmailing Cox with a 'Good Samaritan Tax'.  When he refuses to pay up, the conspirators take the information to the Russian government.  Tension builds and hijinks ensue with a fast-paced 'who's watching who' motif.  True to form, the Coen's deliver significant amounts of very gratuitous violence which is delivered in a whimsical, non-consequential way that only Joel and Ethan can produce. 

While I liked the plot and the characters a great deal, I felt there could have been more humour in the interactions.  The jokes were very subtle and the situations were often played too realistically to be funny.  Don't get me wrong: I love the Coen brothers' use of realism in their characters' dialogue.  However, all too often, the dialogue was rushed and missed the target between theatrics and realism that it was striving for. 

Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt really impressed me in this film.  Pitt was the perfect representation of that asshole working at a gym, constantly wearing tight shirts and bicycle shorts whilst listening and dancing to an iPod.  He was just the right amount of stupid and the scene in which he and John Malkovich meet in the car was priceless.  McDormand was also fantastic in her role.  Her character was a woman approaching middle age in her career at a gym, where she is supposed to look young and fit.  She, too, was portrayed as a rather simple person, although her character had more of a charming aspect to its dullness; her guffaw made me smile again and again.

I was very disappointed with John Malkovich's performance, not because it was bad but because he is such a fantastic actor and this film made a molehill of the mountain that is his talent.  His character had very little emotional range and was really only yelling the entire film.  George Clooney, too, let me down as the playboy who seduces various wives.  Then again, I've never really been a Clooney fan and every time I see him, I think of how madly he butchered Batman.  His character in this film is unlike anything he's ever done before.  His usual typecast is the generally the stoic character who keeps grinning for no reason.  In this film, he is a strangely cunning ladies' man who eventually lapses into paranoia.  Even though it was unique, I still thought the character could have been better portrayed by someone like Burt Reynolds or Aaron Eckhart. 

The violence in the movie was hard to swallow, and though it was a black comedy, it was difficult to find myself in a laughing mood after a few very brutally violent scenes.  There was a way that Fargo was able to portray the violence in a sort of tragic case of misunderstanding.  Although this film has the same 'wrong time, wrong place' feel to its violence, the scenes just stand out against the contrastingly upbeat remainder of the film.

In conclusion, I'd watch the film again and encourage fans of the Coen brothers to partake in a viewing.  However, I have a feeling I'll only be watching this film under the influence of some drug or in the company of someone who wants to watch something really really random. 

In John Carpenter’s The Thing (1982) this aggressive incarnation of the monstrous female comes through very clearly in connection with the mythological and powerful image of the Vagina Dentata - the Toothed Vagina. Where films such as Ridley Scott’s Alien focus on monstrous motherhood and womb imagery, The Thing show us a female threat that takes over and ultimately wipes out male identity. Women’s sexuality makes them desirable to men, but it also threatens them, and this is a problem traditionally addressed in horror films. This is one of the reasons for conventions that dictate that sexually active young women must be brutally killed in slashers.

The Thing tells the story of twelve stationed in a remote arctic base as winter sets in. They take in a dog fleeing from a deranged Norwegian explorer who they end up killing. When they go to the Norwegian base to try and find out what caused this madness, they discover a spaceship buried on ice for thousands of years which sheltered an Alien life form which is now masquerading as the dog they took in. This monster has the power to penetrate, kill and make itself a clone of, any life form. As the film progresses the men continue to investigate the alien – performing autopsies on the bodies they find, discussing its nature and trying to find ways to counter it and to find out which ones amongst them are already clones. It is all to no avail though, as by the end of the film there are only two men left alive, and while Carpenter leaves us wondering whether or not the Alien has survived, it is clear that the two men will freeze to death after being forced to destroy their only shelter.

Every attempt - from the pathetic to the brilliant - the protagonists make at surviving and outsmarting the threat is beaten by the exquisitely constructed horror they are faced with. Measures that could have worked against normal threats fail again and again, and this outlines a general feeling of male powerlessness to deal with the monster regardless of what they do. This sense of helplessness is the metaphorical castration that the film addresses, mirrowing the mood of the 1970s and early 1980s, when men were acutely feeling the confusion and threat of changing roles caused by the Women’s Liberation movement as well as by the increasing use of technology in the workplace. Men were finding out more than ever before that they were replaceable, and this made many of them feel vulnerable and threatened. This is expressed brilliantly in the scene where MacReady (Kurt Russell) plays chess against a computer which significantly talks to him in a female voice. When he loses the game he pours a drink onto the machine, using physical aggression in the face of the double-pronged female and technological threat.

The thing communicates this feeling with repeated images of feminisation. The male characters are penetrated by the creature’s phallic tentacles. This “rape” results not only in death, but also in impregnation. This is something that also happens in Alien, when Kane is effectively orally raped by the alien creature and impregnated with a monster that will eventually burst out of his chest and kill him. Male bodies taking on these female characteristics become extremely grotesque, and the fear is increased by the sense that men are vulnerable to rape and impregnation, a horror traditionally reserved for women.

The creature in The Thing cannot be rendered powerless – metaphorically castrated - no matter what part of it is cut off, it is able to regenerate itself, which is made clear in the scene where the head of the creature detaches itself from the burning body, sprouts spider-like legs, and starts to walk away from the scene. The only way to destroy it is to burn it to a crisp, yet even so its generative power means that it is already lurking somewhere else.

This is a baffling creature that with a generative power that will always find a way to multiply, but its most frightening incarnation is when it embodies the ancient male phobia of the Vagina Dentata. This is the literal representation of the female body as the devil’s gateway, and the vagina as a mysterious and dangerous place which can be potentially monstrous. In the scene where one of the men is dying and the doctor is applying electric shocks to his chest to try to revive him, the man’s torso opens up into a gigantic mouth-like organ full of sharp teeth which amputates both of his hands, swallowing them whole. This impacting scene is shocking not only because of the gruesome and graphic amputation which evokes castration anxiety, but because this vagina-like organ appears in a male torso, which opens it up and feminises it. The creature in The Thing clones, castrates and consumes the explorers that are at its mercy whatever they do. They do not understand, and are therefore subjugated by the creature that baffles them by its difference. The recurring image of the Vagina Dentata represented in horrifying detail in this film has nothing to do with lack, and yet it is undeniably, monstrously female.

In spite of this extreme difference, however, the creature is able to imitate the men perfectly, becoming so much like them that they cannot tell it apart from their own companions. This personifies the male fear of women taking over traditional male spheres, showing us a creature that is horrifyingly different but whose purpose is not only to imitate man, but also to take over, castrate, and ultimately replace him without a trace. In the social context of the time in which the film was made, we can see how the increasing number of women working in areas that were previously exclusive to men would make men feel resentful and threatened. This resentment could be partially rooted in the belief that women were merely trying to imitate them what they did, and in so doing, were well capable of completely supplanting men in the workplace. In such a world where women seemed on a path towards self-sufficiency, men would become almost obsolete, and this is the true terror that is given shape in John Carpenter’s film.

Divine stars as Babs Johnson, a trailer denizen with a fabulous sense of flair. She lives with Miss Cotton (Mary Vivian Pierce), Mama Edie (Edith Massey), and her deranged son Crackers (Danny Mills). They lead a less than idyllic life but are blissfully unaware of any shortcomings. Hell, this family has it all! Retardation, poverty, corpulence, perversions...sounds like every family we know intimately!

Enter into this arrangement Connie and Raymond Marble (Mink Stole and David Lochary) "two jealous perverts" who are aware of Divines' reputation as "The Filthiest Person Alive" and who are hell bent for leather to seize her title. Through more vicious local gossip, they acquire the address and fire the opening shot in this war of filth by sending a turd in the mail. This does not sit well with Divines' brood and an escalating battle follows. The devil is in the details here, and to describe what goes on would not only strain credulity, it would be criminal not to let the viewer discover it for himself.

This is a visceral experience, and by sitting through repeated viewing, one can be made whole. Waters tells us all we need to know about the human condition. In his world, loyalty is prized more than obedience. That is exactly why I'm so pissed off that A DIRTY SHAME has been in release for three weeks and has not yet made it to a screen in my stinkin' backwoods town.

It seems that Mr. Waters is up to old tricks. He accepted a NC- 17 rating for his new film, A dirty shame, rather than trim his vision to meet the small minds that censor our life. Give him the Congressional Medal of Honor for this. He's fighting for our freedom in a very real sense. God Bless!

The film opens by showing the deep division that has always existed in high schools between the practical and the sheep. Our lead girls could care less about school and are only marking the time until they are old enough to earn money dancing in a strip bar. The realities of Columbine come easily to mind when you consider the contempt with which our protagonists are held by their classmates and teachers. Here we are introduced to Dawns' friends, Chiclet and Concetta. Not only do they share Dawns' disdain for all things having to do with school or with family life; they feed off each other in their hatred of normalcy, making (presumably) anything possible. There is a hitch, with Christmas fast approaching our heroines must be on their tip- top best behavior so that they can receive cha-cha heels as gifts. Well, the big day arrives and the "normal" shoes given to her by her parents because "nice girls don't wear cha-cha heels" disappoint Dawn.

After an angry and profane outburst that ends with Dawns' mother pinned under the upended family Christmas tree, she runs away in her peek- a- boo nitie and fuzzy slippers. Hitch-hiking, she is picked up by Earl Peterson, a fat and perverted Lothario whoops' idea of a good place to fuck is on an old mattress at the city dump. Earl is also played by Divine, and this scene is go- fuck- yourself spectacular.

She is impregnated during this very strange interlude, and the idiot bastard child of the masturbatory tryst is born on a couch in a ramshackle flop-house. Dawn names the child Taffy, thus ensuring that the girl will grow up to be worthless trash. In a brilliant montage, Waters shows Divines' growth as a criminal: Rolling drunks, robbing houses, and jiggling her ample ass in a go-go bar. A cutaway when Taffy is about eight years old establishes the child abuse that our loving mother heaps upon her unwanted daughter.

We fade to a later time. Dawn is at an important juncture of her life. Single motherhood has taken its' toll on her, Taffy is an exceptionally bratty and precocious teen-ager now (played superbly by Mink Stole, our favorite Dreamland regular).

She feels the need for love in her life. Through catty gossip ("I'd suck the socks off him in a minute" Concetta says) Dawn learns of a new addition to the squalid Baltimore neighborhood in which she resides. This is Gator, a hunky hair- dresser that lives next door with his fag- hag Aunt Ida, roasted to a turn by the immortal Edith Massey. He works at The Lipstick Beauty Salon, run by a Donna and Donald Dasher (David Lochary and Mary Vivian Pierce) and catering only to "Special Women". Divine has to audition to get her hair done there, and is accepted for her incredible awfulness. Gator is told to "cater to her every whim."

Another montage is offered of the happy couples' whirlwind courtship and marriage. Aunt Ida who worries that this heterosexual thing is "a sick and boring life" for Gator resists all this. She wants him to "turn Nellie and get a nice beautician boyfriend." However, as sound an idea as that is, even Edie cannot change persons' sex preference, and the marriage goes on over her rather bizarre and extreme objections.

We have the last montage of the movie, showing roughly five years of her strange married life. We get a scene of Dawn and Gator having rather perverted sex, and Gator shoves a carrot down Dawns' flexible throat at her moment of orgasm, pissing her off. She goes to the Lipstick to have her hair done, whereupon the Dashers make her their crime model and fire Gator on her whim. This sets off a chain of events, which culminates in a rapid divorce. Ida is furious with Dawn for driving Gator away, who has decided to split Baltimore for Detroit ("I'm going to find happiness within the auto industry"). She announces the news to Taffy, and orders her to burn all of Gators' belongings. In a parting gesture, Gator leaves Dawn with a black eye.

Meanwhile, the Dashers take odd photos of Divine engaging in criminal behavior that "tickles our fancy" and drive her to deeper levels of exhibitionist hysteria than we had ever believed possible. Ida gets her revenge by busting in on one of these ridiculous photo sessions ("Now look like you've just won a prize" Donald the photographer shouts..."Now look horrified at what you've done to your daughter") and throws acid into Dawns' face.

The film now moves at a torrid pace. Taffy leaves home to find and murder her father in a Manson- like overkill attack that leaves us breathless even after repeated viewing. Her face somehow "improved" by Idas' acid attack, Dawn is now the most exciting model alive, not to mention monstrously insane. Taffy has returned home to find Aunt Ida dressed in feathers, gagged, and living in a large cage. Her mother has gone completely over the edge and even Taffy finds the living arrangements to be less than desirable. Her only option being life as a Hare Krishna, "They're always so nice to me when I meet them at the airport" she whines. Donald and Donna convince Dawn that the time is right for her to burst into show business. Backstage immediately preceding her sold- out performance at the Superstar nightclub, the mortified Dawn murders her saffron- robed daughter. Enraged and out of control, Dawn concludes her disgusting nightclub act by shooting wildly into the audience. She goes on the lam and is caught after a brief chase ("I didn't do one thing!" she says to the arresting cops.) Dawn is brought to trial and is convicted on the perjured testimony of the Dashers and Ida, whose' arm she had cut off with an axe in a previous scene. She is sentenced to death in the electric chair and after a brief death row scene; Dawn gives her acceptance speech and is fried to a crisp.

John Waters does not waste a single second of film or a single opportunity for a great line in this entire movie. There are more ideas in five minutes of this than in an entire summer's release from the big studios. This is the ultimate independent film. Waters baits, shocks, and delivers the goods. Fearless actors such as Divine come along once in a lifetime, and JW seized the moment with this one. Everyone involved with this was working at the top of his or her game. Endlessly quotable, Female Trouble is the ultimate sleaze-fest. Borrowing heavily from Hershell Gordon Lewis and Russ Meyers alike, Waters outdid his own heroes. He would be too humble to admit this, but we defy anyone not to agree after seeing it.