"Is this actually happening? Is this movie actually real?"

The Movie: Cry-Baby, directed by John Waters
Recommendation: Dee
Reason: "Oh, just watch. Trust me."

I could have sworn I hallucinated half of this film. It just seemed so unreal, so bizarrely perfect that I didn't believe I was actually seeing it on the screen. I haven't seen any of John Waters work before, though I've been peripherally aware of the movies he's done. Oddly, I didn't know Hairspray (the original) was his film until I checked out his filmography on Imdb-I knew about Pink Flamingos and Serial Mom. Now that I've seen his work, I know that Waters is the sort of director I like.

Cry-Baby's a weird as hell movie that subtly and not-so-subtly lampoons Elvis's movies, teen-rebel movies, James Dean, Grease and the list goes on. It's quick paced. I'd even call it lean. Waters exaggerates the 'falling in love in an instant' schtick that so many romantic movies try for, and does so in such a way as to thumb his nose at all of them. Johnny Depp is the perfect beautiful boy in the lead role, shimmying like Elvis and smoldering like James Dean. I think it was here, with Cry-Baby, that John Waters found Depp's potential as an actor. Depp plays weird well and with great gusto, taking on quirky characters and giving them depth and life. His character, Cry-Baby, is an overblown mockery of the antiheroes John Waters is satirizing, and Depp plays it note-perfect.

Waters' reputation precedes him, but one transvestite-eating-dog-doo scene (not in Cry-Baby, that's from Pink Flamingos) does not make an entire career. I recommend this movie to those with sharp eye and an appreciation for this sort of over-the-top production. Anyone without a vague sense of what's being mocked here need not apply.

-153/365 down, 212/365 to go