The concept of the holiday movie began back in 1898 with G.A. Smith’s pioneering silent film Santa Claus. The first of its kind to show the depiction of Santa that only runs just shy over a minute.
Since then Hollywood has belted out an array of films that have either been true to the genre such as A Christmas Story; The Holiday; Miracle On 34th Street; Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey or films like Die Hard; Brazil, and Gremlins that have teetered on the edge of identifying as a holiday film.
Then there are the anti-holiday movies and the Christmas horrors. Subgenres of their own like the slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night, Black Christmas, and Christmas Evil, a John Waters favorite, so you are inclined to know what demented viewing you are in for.
Related: 50 Classic Valentine’s Movies Gallery: From ‘Amelie’ & ‘In The Mood For Love’ To ‘Paris, Texas...
Since then Hollywood has belted out an array of films that have either been true to the genre such as A Christmas Story; The Holiday; Miracle On 34th Street; Jingle Jangle: A Christmas Journey or films like Die Hard; Brazil, and Gremlins that have teetered on the edge of identifying as a holiday film.
Then there are the anti-holiday movies and the Christmas horrors. Subgenres of their own like the slasher Silent Night, Deadly Night, Black Christmas, and Christmas Evil, a John Waters favorite, so you are inclined to know what demented viewing you are in for.
Related: 50 Classic Valentine’s Movies Gallery: From ‘Amelie’ & ‘In The Mood For Love’ To ‘Paris, Texas...
- 12/25/2023
- by Robert Lang
- Deadline Film + TV
When John Waters shocked audiences with “Pink Flamingos” more than 50 years ago, he probably didn’t foresee major museum exhibitions of his trashy aesthetic and irreverent filmmaking. But half a century later, he’s become the elder statesman of rebellion, and the Academy Museum is celebrating Baltimore’s treasure with a career-spanning exhibit and accompanying film retrospective.
Opening Sunday in Los Angeles, the extensive exhibit includes 400 pieces over 12 galleries. At the preview, Bill Kramer, CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said, “John Waters: Pope of Trash is a salute to an individual creative voice and the distinctive contributions he has made over the past six decades, not only to the art of film but to American pop culture.”
Among the many must-see props and costumes on display were the jackets Johnny Depp wore in the 1990 film “Cry Baby” and the prop electric chair from “Female Trouble.
Opening Sunday in Los Angeles, the extensive exhibit includes 400 pieces over 12 galleries. At the preview, Bill Kramer, CEO of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, said, “John Waters: Pope of Trash is a salute to an individual creative voice and the distinctive contributions he has made over the past six decades, not only to the art of film but to American pop culture.”
Among the many must-see props and costumes on display were the jackets Johnny Depp wore in the 1990 film “Cry Baby” and the prop electric chair from “Female Trouble.
- 9/15/2023
- by Jazz Tangcay and Pat Saperstein
- Variety Film + TV
(Welcome to Movies Are Gay, a Pride Month series where we explore the intentional [or accidental] ways Lgbtqia+ themes, characters, and creatives have shaped cinema.)
Nice girls don't wear cha-cha heels, so why would anyone ever want to be nice? Groundbreaking filmmaker John Waters has been lovingly declared "The Pope of Filth" for decades, and subversive queer themes, characters, and performers are present in each of his films. His midnight movie masterpiece "Pink Flamingos" is considered one of the most important films ever made, but asking a Sicko like me to choose my favorite John Waters film is like asking me to choose between my revolting, violent, hilarious, hypersexual children that only a mother could love. But "Female Trouble" feels like John Waters' sensibilities distilled to perfection, with gruesomeness and glamour swirling together to promote the central theme: crime is beauty.
Waters' muse and frequent collaborator Divine stars as Dawn Davenport, a fat,...
Nice girls don't wear cha-cha heels, so why would anyone ever want to be nice? Groundbreaking filmmaker John Waters has been lovingly declared "The Pope of Filth" for decades, and subversive queer themes, characters, and performers are present in each of his films. His midnight movie masterpiece "Pink Flamingos" is considered one of the most important films ever made, but asking a Sicko like me to choose my favorite John Waters film is like asking me to choose between my revolting, violent, hilarious, hypersexual children that only a mother could love. But "Female Trouble" feels like John Waters' sensibilities distilled to perfection, with gruesomeness and glamour swirling together to promote the central theme: crime is beauty.
Waters' muse and frequent collaborator Divine stars as Dawn Davenport, a fat,...
- 6/5/2023
- by BJ Colangelo
- Slash Film
I’d recently been absorbed in the deep colors and heartache of Douglas Sirk's melodramas, following on from this I found myself pining for more white picket fence drama, but with a twist. This is where John Waters came back into my world, how I had missed him, so this edition of Notebooks Soundtrack Mix is a sonic ode to a pioneer of perversion. I started back with Polyester (1981) and Serial Mom (1994), which, alongside Gus Van Sant's 1995 To Die For is a double bill I’m always dreaming of. The work of John Waters ramps up the technicolor dreams of Sirk and places them in a camp world of dysfunctional misfits. His work is a reminder to not take things so seriously and that there is a place for everyone in this world which, importantly, includes the poor, repugnant and nasty! Waters is famous for his use of...
- 2/23/2021
- MUBI
“RuPaul’s Drag Race” alum and Season 11 Miss Congeniality winner Nina West shows off her campy (and slightly deranged) side in her new original music video “Cha Cha Heels,” an homage to the iconic John Waters films “Female Trouble,” “Serial Mom” and “Hairspray.”
The song’s title and opening sequence are inspired by Waters’ 1974 dark comedy “Female Trouble,” which starred pioneering drag queen Divine (aka Harris Glenn Milstead) as Dawn Davenport. All Dawn wanted for Christmas is cha cha heels, and she throws a fit when she doesn’t get them. West recreated the sequence (view the original here), right down to Dawn’s brown bouffant and babydoll nightgown.
The music video then transitions to a pie scene that mirrors “Serial Mom” and a dreamy dance sequence inspired by “Hairspray.” West talked to TheWrap about the inspiration behind the music video.
“I wrote the song last summer and it was really...
The song’s title and opening sequence are inspired by Waters’ 1974 dark comedy “Female Trouble,” which starred pioneering drag queen Divine (aka Harris Glenn Milstead) as Dawn Davenport. All Dawn wanted for Christmas is cha cha heels, and she throws a fit when she doesn’t get them. West recreated the sequence (view the original here), right down to Dawn’s brown bouffant and babydoll nightgown.
The music video then transitions to a pie scene that mirrors “Serial Mom” and a dreamy dance sequence inspired by “Hairspray.” West talked to TheWrap about the inspiration behind the music video.
“I wrote the song last summer and it was really...
- 11/20/2020
- by Lawrence Yee
- The Wrap
As astonishingly vulgar and paradigm-challenging as 1972's Pink Flamingos was, it was John Waters' follow-up, Female Trouble that is the true jewel the crown of his early (pre-Hairspray) oeuvre. Female Trouble was the ultimate stage onto which Waters could send his superstar, the beautiful Divine, so show that they were both truly big time and unafraid of anything. Divine's performance here is among his very best, truly embracing the over-the-top drag terrorist he really was, and it's a sight to behold. Female Trouble is the story of the rise and fall of Dawn Davenport, a born juvenile delinquent, who overcomes every challenge thrown at her in order to find her true calling. Fame. On the way there she berates her parents for buying her the...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 6/26/2018
- Screen Anarchy
As astonishingly vulgar and paradigm-challenging as 1972's Pink Flamingos was, it was John Waters' follow-up, Female Trouble that is the true jewel the crown of his early (pre-Hairspray) oeuvre. Female Trouble was the ultimate stage onto which Waters could send his superstar, the beautiful Divine, so show that they were both truly big time and unafraid of anything. Divine's performance here is among his very best, truly embracing the over-the-top drag terrorist he really was, and it's a sight to behold. Female Trouble is the story of the rise and fall of Dawn Davenport, a born juvenile delinquent, who overcomes every challenge thrown at her in order to find her true calling. Fame. On the way there she berates her parents for buying her the...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
[Read the whole post on screenanarchy.com...]...
- 6/26/2018
- Screen Anarchy
Female Trouble
Blu ray
Criterion
1974 / 1:66 / Street Date June 26, 2018
Starring Divine, Mink Stole, Edith Massey
Cinematography by John Waters
Directed by John Waters
The story of one woman’s odyssey from trash-talking trouble maker to tabloid superstar, John Waters’ Female Trouble assembles a hot-tempered crew of terrorist fame whores ready for their close up – America’s Got Talent: Apocalypse Now Edition.
The astonishing Divine plays Dawn Davenport, a spiteful social climber with her heart set on a pair of cha cha heels. When Christmas arrives with no fancy footwear in sight, the brawny teenybopper propels her mom into the Douglas fir and hits the road.
The road hits back – she’s immediately assaulted by a leering factory worker (played by Divine), gives birth, works a strip club, walks the streets and mobilizes a cadre of criminally-minded floozies (“upper-echelon cat burglars”) to shake down the neighborhood.
Seduced by nihilistic fashion mavens Donald and Donna Dasher,...
Blu ray
Criterion
1974 / 1:66 / Street Date June 26, 2018
Starring Divine, Mink Stole, Edith Massey
Cinematography by John Waters
Directed by John Waters
The story of one woman’s odyssey from trash-talking trouble maker to tabloid superstar, John Waters’ Female Trouble assembles a hot-tempered crew of terrorist fame whores ready for their close up – America’s Got Talent: Apocalypse Now Edition.
The astonishing Divine plays Dawn Davenport, a spiteful social climber with her heart set on a pair of cha cha heels. When Christmas arrives with no fancy footwear in sight, the brawny teenybopper propels her mom into the Douglas fir and hits the road.
The road hits back – she’s immediately assaulted by a leering factory worker (played by Divine), gives birth, works a strip club, walks the streets and mobilizes a cadre of criminally-minded floozies (“upper-echelon cat burglars”) to shake down the neighborhood.
Seduced by nihilistic fashion mavens Donald and Donna Dasher,...
- 6/23/2018
- by Charlie Largent
- Trailers from Hell
The Criterion Collection is going bowling. Michael Moore’s Oscar-winning documentary “Bowling for Columbine” will be released on DVD and Blu-ray by the Collection this June, ditto “Manila in the Claws of Light,” “El Sur,” “Female Trouble,” and a new edition of Ingmar Bergman’s “The Virgin Spring.”
16 years later, Moore’s take on America’s gun culture in general and the aftermath of the school shooting at Columbine in particular feels more relevant than ever, making this new release nothing if not timely. More information — and, as ever, cover art — below.
Manila in the Claws of Light
“Lino Brocka broke through to international acclaim with this candid portrait of 1970s Manila, the second film in the director’s turn to more serious-minded filmmaking after building a career on mainstream films he described as ‘soaps.’ A young fisherman from a provincial village arrives in the capital on a quest to track down his girlfriend,...
16 years later, Moore’s take on America’s gun culture in general and the aftermath of the school shooting at Columbine in particular feels more relevant than ever, making this new release nothing if not timely. More information — and, as ever, cover art — below.
Manila in the Claws of Light
“Lino Brocka broke through to international acclaim with this candid portrait of 1970s Manila, the second film in the director’s turn to more serious-minded filmmaking after building a career on mainstream films he described as ‘soaps.’ A young fisherman from a provincial village arrives in the capital on a quest to track down his girlfriend,...
- 3/15/2018
- by Michael Nordine
- Indiewire
IMDb.com, Inc. takes no responsibility for the content or accuracy of the above news articles, Tweets, or blog posts. This content is published for the entertainment of our users only. The news articles, Tweets, and blog posts do not represent IMDb's opinions nor can we guarantee that the reporting therein is completely factual. Please visit the source responsible for the item in question to report any concerns you may have regarding content or accuracy.