Cecil B. Demented Review

by Max Messier (cnull AT mindspring DOT com)
July 20th, 2000
filmcritic.com presents a review from staff member Max Messier.
You can find the review with full credits at
http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/2a460f93626cd4678625624c007f2b46/40c8363506aed00a8825691e000b8c16?OpenDocument
Cecil B. DeMented
A film review by Max Messier
Copyright 2000 filmcritic.com

Hollywood is a pimp. A fat, cigar-smoking chump wearing a fur hat and
12 gold chains around its fat, hairy chest. All of its stars and
starlets are an evil brood of scum-sucking vampires looking for the next
percentage take, the next summer blockbuster, the next casting couch to
audition on. Pumping out comic-book adaptations, terrible sequels to
mediocre films, and remakes of foreign films to the nearest American
movie multiplex mall theater equipped with thin walls and bad sound
systems. How much longer can the works of Peckinpah, Fassbinder, Fuller,
Castle, Preminger, and Lee be placed and forgotten in the wrong sections
of the local Blockbuster stores? How many more Silver and Weinstein
films can we enduring in this stinky, decaying state of American cinema?

But now, from John "I don't give a shit what you think about my movies"
Waters, comes the siren call to all frustrated filmmakers and
aficionados: Cecil B. DeMented, a warped and twisted tale of how far a
filmmaker will go to create a personal vision of internal and social
revolution.

Stephen Dorff, in a career-defining role, is Cecil B. DeMented, a crazed
director devoted to making the most radical underground film. Together
with his film production cult, the Sprocket Holes - who wear tattoos of
Peckinpah, Lee, Fuller, Castle, Anger, Fassbinder, Preminger on various
parts of their bodies as badges of honor, they kidnap a Hollywood movie
starlet, played with perfect ridiculousness by Melaine Griffith, and
force her to take the starring role in DeMented's film.

With no budget and no contracts for extras, DeMented and his crew take
to the streets for production of Raving Beauty, a crass terrorist film
about an angry owner of an independent theater and her brood out to
destroy the mainstream film business. Using "ultimate reality" - with
real bullets, real people, and real terror - DeMented and his crew of
misfits attack a mall theater, terrorize the Maryland Film Commission
and crash a movie studio shooting a certain sequel to a really annoying
Tom Hanks film. Demented's crewmembers are maimed and killed, popcorn
machines are used for target practice, and no one can have sex until the
film is complete. It's like Bowfinger, only, you know, good.

The film moves with zigs and zags like the Magic Bullet of Kennedy's
assassination. The zeal of DeMented's cause catches quickly and conveys
the urgent message of "doing something, anything, for the accomplishment
of artistic motivations." The crewmembers all hold the quirkiness
common in Water's previous films - Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, Polyester,
Pecker -- and speak in the choppy, jaded dialogue used frequently by
Waters. It is as if Water's script strips away the unnecessary dialogue
common to most pretentious indie films and just delivers the goods.

Cecil takes such warped avenues of expression that it seems like it
might actually outdo itself. You can see how a major studio might take
this film, re-edit it, cut a deal with the remaining crew members who
are still alive, and make a few sequels, a la The Blair Witch Project.

But that's for the future. Overall, the ride is fantastic; it's one of
Water's best films to date and this year's Fight Club for filmmakers.

Director/Writer: John Waters
Starring: Stephen Dorff, Melaine Griffith, Alicia Witt, Adrian Grenier,
Larry Gilliard Jr.,
Mink Stole, Ricki Lake, Kevin Nealon
Producers: John Fielder, Mark Tarlov, Anthony DeLorenzo, Joe Caraccio
Jr.

Rating: R

4 1/2 out of 5 stars

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