
Middle-aged, sexually repressed Sylvia Stickles is the subject of this John Water's film, set in North Baltimore. She refuses to have sex with her husband, Vaughn Stickles, and keeps her overly-endowed daughter, Caprice, locked in her room, while she serves home detention for moral depravity charges. Sylvia, together with her mother Big Ethel, lead a group calling themselves "neuters" that promotes decency on Harford Road. When Sylvia is accidentally hit on the head by a lawn... (Full plot summary below)
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Middle-aged, sexually repressed Sylvia Stickles is the subject of this John Water's film, set in North Baltimore. She refuses to have sex with her husband, Vaughn Stickles, and keeps her overly-endowed daughter, Caprice, locked in her room, while she serves home detention for moral depravity charges. Sylvia, together with her mother Big Ethel, lead a group calling themselves "neuters" that promotes decency on Harford Road. When Sylvia is accidentally hit on the head by a lawnmower hanging out of a passing pick-up truck, however, her sexual behavior is changed completely from prude to prostitute. She meets the sex addicted sexual healer Ray Ray Perkins, becoming his twelfth apostle of sex in a journey of pleasure and orgasm.
Leave your thoughts about A Dirty Shame.
| Reel Times: Reflections on CinemaMark PfeifferA Dirty Shame is outrageous for the sake of being outrageous, but unlike some of Waters' other films, it's neither shocking nor funny. |
| Baltimore SunChris KaltenbachA Dirty Shame is certainly dirty, and maybe it's even a shame. But this is the John Waters we've come to know and cherish, and that alone is cause to celebrate. |
| Internet ReviewsSteve RhodesWaters is in his finest form this time with humor so outrageously funny that audiences may injure themselves while laughing. |
| San Diego MetropolitanJean LowerisonFun, outrageous and over-the-top raunchy, so if you're easily offended this is not for you. |
| PajibaJeremy C. FoxThe 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? |
| Urban CinefileUrban Cinefile CriticsExploring 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 |
| Washington PostStephen HunterJohn Waters may not be a great filmmaker, but he's usually onto something, and A Dirty Shame is onto something big. |
| Los Angeles TimesKevin ThomasThis raucously gritty and high-spirited film could scarcely be bluer in terms of the language, but from Waters it comes as a gust of fresh air. |
| Washington PostMichael O'SullivanReturns to the wicked mix of transgression and positivity epitomized by "Pecker" and "Hairspray." |
| Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovA genuine cri de couer in the directors long-running battle against the forces of censorship and a banal societal (and cinematic) status quo. And for those reasons along it deserves to be seen. |