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MOVIES / ON DVD / A DIRTY SHAME
A Dirty Shame

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A Dirty Shame (2004)

53%
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47%
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53 %
Reviews Counted: 112 Fresh: 59  Rotten:53 Average Rating: 5.4/10
Runtime: 89 mins
Synopsis:
From the wondrously fertile mind of writer/director John Waters comes A DIRTY SHAME, America's first carnal concussion comedy. Set in the Harford Road area of Waters' native Baltimore, A DIRTY SHAME tells what happens when a horny horde of "sex addicts" invade a blue-collar neighborhood,... [More]
From the wondrously fertile mind of writer/director John Waters comes A DIRTY SHAME, America's first carnal concussion comedy. Set in the Harford Road area of Waters' native Baltimore, A DIRTY SHAME tells what happens when a horny horde of "sex addicts" invade a blue-collar neighborhood, to the shock and dismay of the "neuter" neighbors. Rude, joyous and full of sexual anarchy, A DIRTY SHAME is a movie with a generous heart and a dirty mind: in other words, a classic John Waters comedy. Lust is in the air on Harford Road and Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman), a grumpy, repressed middle-aged Baltimorean, doesn't like it. Though Sylvia's handsome husband Vaughn (Chris Isaak) still has marital urges, Sylvia couldn't be less interested - she has work to do. Isn't it enough that she has to run the family's "Pinewood Park And Pay" convenience store, and prepare proper meals for their exhibitionist daughter Caprice (Selma Blair), a go-go dancer known to her adoring fans as Ursula Udders? After several "nude and disorderly" violations, Caprice and her stupendously enlarged breasts have been sentenced to home detention in the mother-in-law apartment above the Stickles' garage and now, even the neighbors know. Everything changes when Sylvia is involved in a freak accident on the way to work and receives her first head injury. Sexy tow-truck driver Ray-Ray Perkins (Johnny Knoxville) rushes to her aid and Sylvia realizes he's no ordinary service man; no, he's a sexual healer who knows how to bring out her flaming cauldron of hidden concussion lust. A prude no longer, Sylvia suddenly views the world through hypersexual eyes. Vaughn is happily surprised by his wife's resurgent libido, but when he sees her do a raunchy "hootchie-cootchie" dance during a routine visit to a nursing home, he knows something is wrong. Sylvia's mother, Big Ethel (Suzanne Shepherd), already up in arms about the libertines in their midst, decides it is time to fight back. Supported by her sex-hating neighbors like Marge the Neuter (Mink Stole), Big Ethel leads the battle for "Neuter normality." Burnin' and bewildered, Sylvia seeks out Ray-Ray at his garage, and discovers that she is not alone in erotomania. Head injuries have brought forth a flock of Sex Addicts who have infiltrated every corner of the community, from the post office and the police department to the Stickles' "Park And Pay." Ray-Ray's disciples include some of the most bizarre sexual fetishists known to man, and together the wanton followers plan to take over Harford Road. As the twelfth member of Ray-Ray's inner circle, Sylvia's arrival portends a new age of erotic bliss. What one concussion giveth, however, another can take away. Sylvia's torrid night out at the Holiday House biker bar is brought to an abrupt close by a second head injury, and her raging libido is snuffed out like a candle. The Stickles family turns to the family doctor and twelve-step meetings to help Sylvia deal with her "runaway vagina" and reclaim her sexual sobriety. But Ray-Ray and his followers have seen the Promised Land, and they will not abandon their sister to erotic anorexia. With a joyous cry of "Let's go sexin'!," Ray-Ray and his followers set out to rescue Sylvia, liberate the community and discover a brand new sex act. The final battle for Harford Road is about to unfold, with Big Ethel and her fellow Neuters making their last stand against the Sex Addicts' lewd invasion. As the struggle moves from the "Park And Pay" to the streets, lawns and even the trees of Harford Road, the head injuries multiply – and the sexual miracles begin. Sylvia and Vaughan's marriage is jump-started by a final new sex act that elevates the Sex Addicts beyond Harford Road into a whole new dawn of sexual awakening. -- © Fine Line Features [Less]

Genre: Comedies

Starring: Johnny Knoxville, Selma Blair, Tracey Ullman, Chris Isaak, Patricia Campbell Hearst

Director: John Waters
Screenwriter: John Waters
Producer: Christine Vachon, Ted Hope
Composer: George S. Clinton

DVD Info

Release:

Feb 6, 2006

[DVD Details]
  • Are you ready for a movie that puts filth right where it belongs? Then get ready to laugh with A Dirty Shame--the latest raunchy riot from director John Waters (Hairspray). When a concussion awakens the carnal urges of Sylvia (Tracey Ullman), the people of Pinewood become pitted against each other in a battle of decency versus depravity.
  • Source: Warner Home Video
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    04/01/06 04:20 AM
    Empire Magazine
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    02/09/06 03:17 AM
    Time Out
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    05/03/05 03:16 AM
    BBC
    Top Critic Icon Top Critic
    Ratings Image

    Outrageous, filthy and often hysterically funny, this is John Waters' best film since Serial Mom.

    Full Review | Comment
    04/30/05 04:14 AM
    Matthew Turner
    ViewLondon
    Ratings Image

    John Waters takes on the decency brigade with a social comedy that's a refreshing return to his unhinged filmmaking style.

    Full Review | Comment
    04/29/05 01:02 AM
    Rich Cline
    Shadows on the Wall
    Ratings Image

    Waters has made a resolutely unsexy sex comedy, but he hasn't left out the comedy.

    Full Review | Comment
    07/30/07 08:20 AM
    Rob Gonsalves
    eFilmCritic.com
    Ratings Image

    On the one hand it depicts what the world might be like if women had the same constancy of sexual desire that men have, but on the other hand, it has the intelligence level of a teenage boy's dirty joke.

    Full Review | Comment
    07/20/06 11:46 AM
    Douglas Pratt
    Movie City News
    N/R

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    05/26/06 03:17 AM
    Jeffrey M. Anderson
    Combustible Celluloid
    Ratings Image

    No shame here.

    Full Review | Comment
    11/18/05 06:16 AM
    Christopher Smith
    Bangor Daily News (Maine)
    Ratings Image

    Exploring the wide divide between prudes and the world of sexual excess, there’s enough bad taste on display to shock, amuse and entertain. Sizzles when hot, fizzles when not

    Full Review | Comment
    08/30/05 10:18 PM
    Urban Cinefile Critics
    Urban Cinefile
    Ratings Image

    A Dirty Shame is a fabulously funny exploration of fetishism, a look at the ever-more-insane ways people find to 'get off'.

    Full Review | Comment
    08/22/05 09:50 AM
    Bill Gibron
    DVD Verdict
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    Wow. The challenges of reviewing an NC-17 movie for a family newspaper are, um, challenging.

    Full Review | Comment
    08/09/05 09:25 AM
    Linda Cook
    KWQC-TV (Iowa)
    Ratings Image

    More a return to roots than a return to form, this messy carnal-concussion comedy celebrates the libido and every form of sexual practice

    Full Review | Comment
    07/31/05 02:32 PM
    Emanuel Levy
    EmanuelLevy.Com
    N/R

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    07/21/05 04:03 AM
    Houston Chronicle
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    A Dirty Shame is not a good movie, but it has a good message, and for that, it’s well worth seeing.

    Full Review | Comment
    06/11/05 04:49 PM
    David Cornelius
    eFilmCritic.com
    Ratings Image

    The NC-17 rating and the images of Selma Blair with her gargantuan bosom seemed to promise a return to form — if Waters were going dirty again, how could he disappoint?

    Full Review | Comment
    04/23/05 04:15 AM
    Jeremy C. Fox
    Pajiba
    Ratings Image

    A Dirty Shame is outrageous for the sake of being outrageous, but unlike some of Waters' other films, it's neither shocking nor funny.

    Full Review | Comment
    04/14/05 12:59 PM
    Mark Pfeiffer
    Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema
    Ratings Image

    The filmic equivalent of a child reading aloud the Dictionary of Filth with the express intent of giving his nanny a heart attack.

    Full Review | Comment
    04/01/05 06:40 AM
    Brian Juergens
    Freeze Dried Movies
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    12/19/04 10:16 PM
    Michael Szymanski
    Zap2it.com
    Ratings Image

    Goes through the surface motions of naughtiness, [but] it all comes off rather quaint in the end.

    Full Review | Comment
    12/05/04 02:02 PM
    Michael Dequina
    Mr. Brown's Movies
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    shierkahn
    This was pretty bad....
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    What the &$#*?
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    Darko, Donnie
    John Waters A DIRTY SHAME is okay, but it could've been dirtier & funnier!!!
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