Customer Reviews

John Waters: This Filthy World

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John Waters has been honing his monologue on college campuses and other low-key circuits for years, and with the release of The Filthy World on DVD, you, too, can view the pencil-mustached director in your living room. The DVD has over 70 minutes of material filmed in New York's Harry De Jur Playhouse on a stage featuring both a gigantic flower arrangement and a pile of trash. Waters delivers a charmingly bizarre performance which touches on his childhood (he has a great relationship with his Catholic parents), his cinematic inspirations, his films and frequent collaborators (including Divine, Traci Lords, and Johnny Depp), and his own personal philosophies.

The performance is never foul and always engaging, full of humorous vignettes. Waters tells us about his father's reaction to one of his early films: "It was pretty funny. But I hope to never see it again." He explains that even Divine had limits: "The first time he met Richard Simmons, he felt homophobic." Waters himself also has limits. "A drug that makes you love everyone?" Waters says of Ecstasy. "Sounds like hell to me." This DVD is sure to delight long-time fans as well as inspire some new ones to explore the extensive John Waters film catalog.

For Waters fans this is a must-see! For comedy fans this is a must-see! If you are not familiar with Waters this is a must-see. The man shoots from the hippest hip and is ON the entire time. He speaks from experience so the nutty fun just rolls out with snap and ease. A uniquely entertaining video self-portrait!

John Waters has always been a hero of mine. In a world that's addicted to spin and drowning in BS laden rhetoric, his is one of the few genuine voices left that isn't afraid to tell Those Who Make The Rules where to go. If your familiarity with his work begins and ends with the most recent version of Hairspray (...which wasn't bad, I have to admit), This Filthy World will provide an excellent, and refreshingly honest, introduction to what motivates and inspires this creative legend. On the other hand, if you've seen Pink Flamingos more than a few times and aren't more than a few steps away from your beloved, dog-eared, copy of Crackpot, it's still worth getting, if for no other reason than to watch him work the room and be himself.

I decided to watch this film on a night when I was tired and unhappy. In about 5 minutes I was laughing out loud. I want to watch it again with friends....and yet again with whomever I can rope into the living room! John's humor is a great gift and his irreverence for the constraints of middle class morality and religion, refreshing.

I enjoyed the JOHN WATERS: THIS FILTHY WORLD dvd. Part story telling--part stand-up comedy, Waters discuses the inspiration behind his movies, his relationship with cast members Divine and Edith Massey(among others), and why he got into film making in the first place.

Funny, intelligent, and off-the-wall John Waters is as colorful as his movies and he'll keep you entertained for the 86 minutes he's on stage.

For special features there's a lengthy Q&A with the audience.

I don't know why really but when I see a really good John Waters film I think it's the best thing ever. This film gives me the same feelings and it's just him talking or answering questions from the ultra-hip film student crowd in NYC.

I've always been a fan of John Waters. He was indie before it was cool, and always had a sense of humor that I found hilarious. You can sense it in his movies across the years. Now that he's much older and wiser and his career has come full circle of being a misfit to that of being a "filth elder" (as he says), we can look back with him on his life story and find inspiration and delight in creating our own filthy things.

I've had the privilage of seeing John Waters live in his theater tours a few years ago. He is just as funny and entertaining then as he is now. He has the whole audience in stitches, telling his tales of how weird people really are. He tells the tales of his film inspirations, meeting his friends that would star in his indie to his mainstream movies, and encountering the myriad of oddities that have inspired him to create all that he has created.

A word of criticism? In the question and answer period, the audience doesn't ask the funniest possible questions. Then again, there was no control over that factor. Waters is not filthy, he produces witty and clever commentary on celebrities, trends and all the things in between. I was remembering the funniest thing I think I have ever heard him say, when the last question of the night was when someone shouted "Who's the filthiest person alive?!". Without pausing for a moment, he said "Michael Jackson! Thank you, good night!" and left the house roaring.

I've loved John Waters and his work since the '70s, especially PINK FLAMINGOS and FEMALE TROUBLE, and this self-portrait video sounds great, but who approved the horrible painting on the DVD box? It makes Waters looks like Dr. Sardonicus! Good lord!

If you have wanted to know more about john or pick his mind this DVD is for you. Quite halarious

hysterical and fascinating!
this made me rent Polyester and Pink Flamingos
(both of which i completely love!)
i'd put This Filthy World up there with Delirious and Dressed to Kill,
because my friends and I will be quoting it for years.