Archive Review: John Waters Confronts 2023 at The Parkway Theater
“Devil’s Advocate is the next chapter in Waters' rapid-fire one-man spoken word Vaudevillean act, This Filthy World, celebrating the film career and joyously appalling taste of the man William Burroughs once called "The Pope of Trash.”” — The Parkway Theater
Friday, October 27, 2023
John Waters is bringing his “trash” comedic sensibility into the 2020s with vigor. He’s facing the reality of “Pink Flamingos” playing on the Turner Classics cable TV channel. He says it comes across worse to audiences today. As if the drag queen Divine eating dog excrement wasn’t enough of a shocker in 1972.
The Academy — that holds the Oscars! — is restoring his early films. The ultimate cinematic seal of approval. Though Waters warned his sold-out, Minneapolis audience at The Parkway Theater that if only your mother and the person you’re f***ing likes your film, it’s not good…
Waters is getting to see his own legacy unfold into prestige territories like The Academy and the Criterion Collection. Those held for only the best films. His new exhibit at the Academy Museum is said to be a must see, and sells fun merch online.
He told us the last time he saw Divine was ideal… the world’s previous Queen of Drag — years before RuPaul — met Waters all dressed up in a men’s suit at a fancy restaurant. After all, Divine was a queer man.
On RuPaul, Waters gave him his flowers for somehow making drag mainstream, in a time where “conservatives are just now finding Rocky Horror.”
Have a lot of Facebook friends? John Waters says that doesn’t matter, it’s lazy friendship. You have to meet in person. Don’t have friends? You cannot be bored in public — eavesdrop. Join in a conversation. In today’s cultural climate he jokes you need three lawyers just to ask someone on a date.
He has “youth spies” in his native Baltimore, who go to rap clubs at 4am and tell him what it’s like. They tell him horrible new things about the world in general that he should know, as THE preeminent auteur of trash.
Seeing John Waters grapple with modern ideas with such vigor and edge at 77 gives me hope. Hope that our younger pop culture heroes will hopefully be able to stand at 77 and give us their advice about the past, present and future, too. It certainly left me with a smile knowing Waters is still out there, spreading trash art and restoring his beyond classic, essential queer films. 5/5 stars
