A Dirty Shame poster & wallpaper

Chris Isaak, Jackie Hoffman, Johnny Knoxville

When prissy, prickly Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman) suffers a head injury during a traffic altercation, she's, er, revived by self-appointed sexual missionary Ray-Ray Perkins (Johnny Knoxville) and i...( read more  read more... )s transformed into an insatiable, take-no-prisoners sex maniac. Yes, it's a John Waters film. Yes, it's filthy. No, it's not as hilarious and sustained as you'd like it to be. It works for a while, though: Ullman, never a stingy comedienne, does everything Waters dares her to do without hesitation; words cannot describe the perversely sporting delight with which she mounts a water bottle during a round of "The Hokey Pokey" at an old folks' home. And there's some fun to be had when Sylvia's emancipation leads her Baltimore 'burb to new heights of ecstasy, freeing her large-breasted daughter Caprice (Selma Blair) while horrifying husband Vaughn (Chris Isaak) and her hardline mother Big Ethel (Suzanne Shepherd, hysterical) in the process. It's also packed with the standard cameos, the most satisfying of which is good old Patty Hearst at a Sex Addicts Anonymous encounter. But, for all the nasty, necessary glee, the movie feels inescapably been-there-done-that, and you can't help but wish this was 1972 and Divine was on hand to prowl for dog droppings. The most shocking thing about A Dirty Shame is how desperate and tiresome its anarchy becomes.--Steve Wiecking

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55% liked it

2,743 ratings

Critics

53% liked it

112 critics

NC-17, 88 min.

Directed by: John Waters

Release Date: September 17, 2004

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DVD Release Date: June 14, 2005

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Flixster Reviews (764)

  • organgrinder136
    March 8, 2009
    organgrinder136
    a pile of shite b-movie with sex appeal and outrageous humour... saying that... it's no worse than conversation down the pub. is it wrong to find tracey ullman (an old woman) hot? i just have this urge to give her oral sex now!
  • limoradalloway
    February 27, 2009
    limoradalloway
    Oh, my god, this film IS what the title suggests. I was transfixed and grossed out and entertained by its complete savagery and kitsch.
  • Stinger839
    April 21, 2008
    Stinger839
    As part of my movies with sexual themes series, I am reviewing/watching all of John Waters' work. This is the one that got an NC-17 after the MPAA review board had to compile a list of believed sexual acts that the board was unfamiliar with that they wished Mr. Waters to explain ...( read more)(great interview where he talks about that in the famous doc 'This Film Is Not Yet Rated').
    This is like the plot of Footloose, except instead of dancing, it is "sexual anarchy" that the "liberated" are fighting for.
    Johnny Knoxville is able to stand up to the always brilliant Tracy Ullman, which surprised me because of his Jackass start to his career. This is a straight-forward comedy romp, and unlike most modern comedies, is comedic (these are really the only kind I bother to write about). If you ever wondered what Waters would do if he had CGI in the budget, this film answers that question with some screwing squirrels and a real big money shot (no you have not seen a bigger one and if you have send it to me).
    My only complaint is that instead of continuing jokes centered around a character's favorite sexual activity, just keep going down the list and adding more and more people with more and more sexual proclivities. Across the span of Waters' career, he's covered many sexualities, and this movie has about thirty new ones, so I'm really being a blossomed anal bitch about that.
    Another fantastic thing I can say about this movie is that I wasn't able to get through it without a wank intermission. "Let's go SEXIN!!!"
  • YosemiteSamFan
    August 13, 2007
    YosemiteSamFan
    John Waters' absurd plot of characters being hit on the head and losing their sexual inhibitions so they'll act out their deepest desires -- which was cartoonish and hard to believe. Some of the fetishes were rare. It's hard to find the unrated version at Blockbuster. I liked the...( read more) Bear club in the movie. Silly fluffy stuff which had no big message.
  • habitualdamnation
    October 9, 2006
    habitualdamnation
    UGH.
  • jun33n
    October 24, 2009
    jun33n
    Absolutely Hilarious! A must see movie!
  • magnolia12883
    October 20, 2009
    magnolia12883
    There is quite a difference between a director who seeks bad laughs and one who attains them unintentionally. John Waters stands, alongside his 2004 film, scraping the bottom of the barrel while seeking bad laughs - and failing miserably. This completely unfunny, offensively stup...( read more)id and ultimately pointless garbage scow of a film is Waters' attempt to regain his title of King of Shock (or is it Shlock?). First, a little history: Waters shot to infamy in the 1970s with films like MONDO TRASHO, FEMALE TROUBLE (which is actually good!) and DESPERATE LIVING. He hit paydirt (cult classic, that is) with PINK FLAMINGOS, his notorious, surrealist excursion into the depths of human depravity. Then came the 80s, where he hit moderate success and mainstream acceptability with films like POLYESTER, HAIRSPRAY and CRY-BABY. In the 90s, he continued in this vein with SERIAL MOM and PECKER before beginning the current decade with CECIL B. DEMENTED. These were watered down Waters, but still better than they needed to be. Unfortunately, along came this execrable (something it would probably enjoy having done to it) wad of cinematic trash. The film is essentially a clothesline from which to hang every goofy, moronic, mildly depraved and ultimately made-up (I think) form of kinky sex and sex play that Waters and his characters can drum up. The plot, such as it is, is about an everyday housewife (the previously inoffensive Tracy Ullman) who gets hit in the head and is revived (and reinvigorated?) by Ray-Ray, the tow-truck guy (Johnny Knoxville from JACKASS), thus sending her headlong into a sea of free sex and hedonism the likes of which her hometown of Baltimore has never seen (even though Waters has made a career the past 30 some years of exposing and exploiting it). This film didn't even make me scoff, I just sat there in dumb silence with a deadpan look on my face: THIS is a FILM?!? By the time David Hasselhoff shows up going to the bathroom on an airplane, resulting in maybe the STUPIDEST deux ex machina ever devised (!), I wanted to go and collect every single DVD and warn people not to watch it or else - what? I'd burn it! But I think that's Waters' point, and it's a vaild one: stupidity, crassness, obscenity, etc. have a place in our culture and our national consciousness and he has as much a right to make such garbage as this as I do to vent my annoyance and, yes, anger at wasting the time I spent (maybe 90 minutes) watching it. That being said, I want to make one thing clear: I like John Waters. Do I admire his craft as a filmmaker? No. Do I think he's a talented writer? Not especially. But I LIKE him. His strongsuit lies in shock value for shock's sake (read: sophomoric, immature jokes and sudden, awkward cuts made to thrust the audience headfirst into something "obscene"). He has the look of the nicest pedophile you'd ever wanna meet. That being said, he should NOT have made this film. Not this way. Not at all. Let's hope he doesn't do it again.
  • SageSlowdive
    October 1, 2009
    SageSlowdive
    Waters's worst movie.
  • leocorbett
    September 19, 2009
    leocorbett
    is verry stupid but kind of funny!
  • WitchfulThinking
    September 12, 2009
    WitchfulThinking
    ...( read more)>
    Tracy Ullman - A Dirty Shame

    A Dirty Shame, 2004.
    Written and directed by John Waters.
    With Tracy Ullman, Suzanne Shepherd, Patricia Hearst, Chris Isaak, Johnny Knoxville, Selma Blair.

    Another of Waters' Baltimore whacko-fests, this time a sex parody, highlighting various sectors of the world of illicit and bizarre sexual practices and making fun of a variety of perversions. Tracy Ullman plays a prude who is turned into a sex addict by a concussion. She is discovered and brought into the fold by a sex addict guru and his following who attempt to convert the entire neighborhood into unabashed deviants by giving everybody a frontal concussion.. All the while, conflict is provided by the actions of the local league of abstinence. Simplistic, bawdy, tawdry, tasteless and very funny.

    "By allowing people to speak freely about their sexual urges and practices with a bluntness that is jaw-dropping hilarious, Waters has drawn deeply upon comedy's liberating power." -Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times

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Critic Reviews

September 24, 2004
Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail

Erotic obsession, by definition, is repetitive, but who knew it could get so tedious? full review

September 24, 2004
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

Monotonous, repetitive and sometimes wildly wrong in what it hopes is funny. full review

September 23, 2004
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

Wicked, kinky fun. full review

September 23, 2004
A.O. Scott, The New York Times

John Waters's first film in four years is a grindingly anarchic attempt to have it both ways, to be both cheerfully inclusive and in-your-face nasty. full review

September 23, 2004
Colin Covert, The Minneapolis Star Tribune

Waters has earned the right to be raunchy. Unfortunately, he has lost the knack for making it interesting. full review

September 22, 2004
Nick Schager, Filmcritic.com

nothing less than a form of perverted cinematic Viagra full review

View more A Dirty Shame reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

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