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Building on what is already the largest film-related collection in the world, comprised of more than 52 million items, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences revealed some of their most recent acquisitions today, including the Studio Ghibli animation collection, which contains more than 80 pieces of original art by Hayao Miyazaki and Noboru Yoshida, as well as the studio’s Japanese movie posters and animator’s desk. Another hot ticket item, presented at the Academy Museum Gala on October 19 in Los Angeles, is Quentin Tarantino’s personal, handwritten script for “Pulp Fiction,” which won the Best Original Screenplay Oscar and celebrated its 30th anniversary this year.

Filmmakers Curtis Hanson, Nicole Holofcener, Barbara Kopple, Oliver Stone, and Paul Verhoeven also donated their personal collections to the Academy, which features production records, photographs, scripts, and more from films such as “L.A. Confidential,” “Harlan County, U.S.A,” “Platoon,” “Showgirls,” and “Enough Said.

Why would a talking, singing and dancing cartoon chipmunk ever watch the works of transgressive cult filmmaker John Waters if the rodent himself wasn’t a member of the LGBTQ+ community? More importantly, why does a kids’ movie make us ask these questions?

When Armenian-American singer, songwriter and actor Ross Bagdasarian recorded his first novelty single in 1958 on a personal tape recorder with the speed control set high, he had no way of knowing that, almost 70 years later (and 50 years after his passing), his innovations in the field of gimmick music would be the center of a discussion on queer expression in cartoon media.

No, when Bagdasarian recorded the uncomfortably racial smash hit song “Witch Doctor,” he hadn’t even come up with the cartoonish characters to whom he would assign the high-pitched, sped-up vocal parts in his novelty tracks. Then, months later, Bagdasarian dropped the first single to feature the vocal trio of Simon,...

The horror genre might be the only genre where a low budget can have a positive effect on the final product. Horror movie fans are often swayed by the quote-unquote charm of a thriller with mere pennies to its name; and if the finished picture has a certain energy and style to it, the fact that it had no money to work with becomes part of its allure and legacy. We think of movies like Night of the Living Dead, The Blair Witch Project and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, to name an obvious few. Perhaps a not-so-obvious choice would be Basket Case (watch it Here), Frank Henenlotter’s deranged tale about a couple of conjoined twins who share an unusual bond. Or at least, they used to… It’s a funky, disorienting little item, and while the lack of money is always apparent on-screen, it’s ends up being to the movie’s benefit.

John Waters is a beyond magnificent director and is a true auteur; let’s take a look at his work and how his “strangeness” has impacted the way we view Cinema itself. Weirdness is my schtick, and it’s my favorite aspect of the human condition. For us to consider something as “weird” is subjective; and even so, what we’re even classifying as such is subjective in itself. When I think of something as “weird” or “strange,” I lean more towards what itches my brain in that particular spot that can’t be quite reached by anything else. More or so, what itches my brain, even more, is when a film or TV show is considered “odd” in some way. There is so much power in the world of creating visual content, and achieving an emotional reaction that causes the audience to feel rather off in an exciting way that keeps us intrigued.

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Roxy Cinema

Fidelio, our four-film program with Chapo Trap House’s Movie Mindset, begins this Saturday with Eyes Wide Shut on 35mm, which plays again on Sunday.

Museum of the Moving Image

70mm prints of 2001 and Lawrence of Arabia screen.

Film at Lincoln Center

A retrospective of Mexican popular cinema from the 1940s to the 1960s continues and a new restoration of Shinji Sōmai’s Moving opens.

Film Forum

A career-spanning Jean-Pierre Melville retrospective continues, as do restorations of Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams and Seven Samurai.

Anthology Film Archives

Films by James Benning, Robert Bresson, and Jean Eustache screen in “Verbatim“; films by James Broughton play in “Essential Cinema.”

Bam

Claire Denis’ monumental No Fear, No Die and Mapantsula continue screening in new restorations.

Museum of Modern Art

“Silent Movie Week 2024” begins

IFC Center

“Defamed to Acclaimed” brings films by the Wachowskis,...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Film at Lincoln Center

A retrospective of Mexican popular cinema from the 1940s to the 1960s is underway.

Film Forum

A career-spanning Jean-Pierre Melville retrospective has begun; restorations of Ann Hui’s July Rhapsody (watch our exclusive trailer debut), Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams, Fitzcarraldo and Seven Samurai continue.

Museum of the Moving Image

A 70mm print of Playtime screens this weekend; The Color of Pomegranates and Speed Racer play.

Anthology Film Archives

Robert Bresson plays in “Essential Cinema.”

Bam

Claire Denis’ monumental No Fear, No Die continues screening in a new restoration; Mapantsula begins playing.

Museum of Modern Art

A career-spanning Powell and Pressburger retrospective continues.

IFC Center

The Time Masters, Amadeus, and In the Mood for Love play daily; Fritz the Cat, Friday the 13th, The Last House on the Left, and The Matrix play late.

Metrograph...

NYC Weekend Watch is our weekly round-up of repertory offerings.

Bam

Claire Denis’ monumental No Fear, No Die begins screening in a new restoration.

Museum of the Moving Image

A new 70mm print of The Searchers plays this weekend.

Japan Society

A restoration of Shinji Sōmai’s Moving and Toshiharu Ikeda’s Mermaid Legend play on Friday and Saturday, respectively.

Film Forum

New restorations of Ann Hui’s July Rhapsody (watch our exclusive trailer debut), Les Blank’s Burden of Dreams, and Fitzcarraldo begin screening; Seven Samurai and Powell and Pressburger’s The Small Back Room continue.

Anthology Film Archives

Enrique Gómez Vadillo’s rarely screened Death on the Beach shows in a new restoration this Friday; Stan Brakhage plays in “Essential Cinema.”

Museum of Modern Art

A career-spanning Powell and Pressburger retrospective continues, including A Matter of Life and Death and The Tales of Hoffmann.

Nitehawk Cinema

Lucio Fulci...

Back in October of 2022, it was announced that legendary filmmaker John Waters, who has brought us such films as Pink Flamingos, Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, Cecil B. Demented, and Pecker (among others), was teaming up with Village Roadshow Pictures for an adaptation of his “craziest” novel, Liarmouth. We’ve since heard that Aubrey Plaza (Parks and Recreation) is up for the lead role in the film, which would mark Waters’ first time directing since 2004’s A Dirty Shame… but if you’ve been wondering why Liarmouth still hasn’t made it into production a year and a half after it was announced, Waters gives an answer in a new interview with IndieWire: he hasn’t been able to get funding for it.

When asked for a Liarmouth status update, Waters said, “I’m not going to… [Starts to laugh.] Every time I comment on that, some article comes out that causes me hell,...

Baltimore native John Waters is filmdom’s pencil-mustached titan of trash who has spent a lifetime of dumpster-diving into a vat of bad taste, sleaze, kinky gross-outs, over-the-top camp, maudlin melodramatics, sick jokes, taboo sexuality, vulgarity and bizarre personalities. At least he has a fabulous sense of humor. The director is a New York University film school dropout who instead became a scholar of transgressive, envelope-shredding cinema, influenced by the directorial likes of Herschell Gordon Lewis, Federico Fellini, William Castle, Douglas Sirk and Ingmar Bergman. Early on, Waters assembled a stock company of players from suburban Baltimore who he would the Dreamlanders, including Mink Stole and Edith Massey.

But Waters would find his true muse and favorite leading lady in his childhood friend, Glenn Milstead, a drag queen whose alter-ego was known as Divine. When Milstead died at age 42 from an enlarged heart in 1988, Waters’ output went more mainstream, with...

It’s a little shocking to realize that filmmaker and King of smut, John Waters (“Pink Flamingos”), hasn’t made a feature film effort since 2004’s “A Dirty Shame.” That said, things appear to be on the upswing, and the filmmaker seems optimistic about getting his next two movies made in the near future after a twenty-year hiatus.

Over the weekend in Los Angeles, Waters hosted a candid commentary for his first two short films (“Hag In A Black Leather Jacket” and “Roman Candles”) at the Academy Museum.

Continue reading John Waters Confirms Aubrey Plaza Will Star In ‘Liarmouth’ But Still Needs Funding To Make It at The Playlist.

Well, after a flurry of rumors, Aubrey Plaza is officially cast in John Waters’ first film in 20 years: “Liarmouth.”

Waters will write and direct the “feel-bad romance” adapted from his novel of the same name. “Liarmouth” will be Waters’ first film since 2004’s “A Dirty Shame.” Plaza is set to play con artist Marsha Sprinkle, who is described as “a suitcase thief, scammer, and master of disguise. Dogs and children hate her. Her own family wants her dead. She’s smart, she’s desperate, she’s disturbed, and she’s on the run with a big chip on her shoulder. They call her Liarmouth ― until one insane man makes her tell the truth.”

The feature was first announced in December 2022 with Village Roadshow Pictures has optioned the novel and Steve Rabineau producing. Waters recently provided an update to the project.

“The book was optioned. I turned in the script. They like the script,...

It’s not easy to shock John Waters. The “Pink Flamingos” director spent his career pushing, prodding and profaning the envelope in every way imaginable. But one thing the self-proclaimed “pope of trash” never thought he’d see was a career-spanning show at the Academy Museum.

The exhibition — which features everything from a full-scale trailer home to Ricki Lake’s cockroach-covered dress from the movie “Hairspray” — opened last September and runs through the end of August. Waters spoke to Variety ahead of the opening, but because of the writers’ strike last summer, he wasn’t able to discuss current or upcoming projects.

Back in Los Angeles this weekend, Waters provided a candid live commentary for his first two short films, “Hag in a Black Leather Jacket” and “Roman Candles,” and fielded questions from the audience. When asked how he feels to be paid such respect by the same organization that bestows Oscars,...

John Waters is taking issue with Canada’s moniker of being full of the friendliest citizens — at least not when it comes to cinema ratings.

Waters told the Toronto Star that in 1970, the Ontario censor board allegedly burned a print of his film “Multiple Maniacs,” which had been sent for a rating. Waters didn’t hold back his half-century-long disdain for the offense: “Tell them I spit on their grave,” the “Pink Flamingos” and “Hairspray” filmmaker said.

“I am pro-Canada, even though I sent ‘Multiple Maniacs’ to the distributor [in 1970], which had to go through the Ontario censor board, and they sent me a receipt that just said ‘destroyed.’ They burned the print!” Water said. “Tell them I spit on their grave.”

He added that since that experience, he’s worked in Canada multiple times.

“I’ve been to Toronto many times with my films and my books. It’s a...

A low-budget romp set in contemporary London against a curdled cultural backdrop of racist politics, Bruce Labruce’s “The Visitor” pays explicit homage to Pier Paolo Pasolini’s sexually provocative last feature, “Teorema.” The cheeky Canadian director’s graphic reimagining sees various mysterious suitcases appearing here and there, each of which turns out to contain an identical naked man, all played by performance artist Bishop Black.

The rest of the film follows one of these guys, the “Visitor” of the film’s title, as he inveigles his way into the home of a wealthy family, proceeding to seduce each family member in turn. The production has managed to wangle an imposing location for the Visitor’s antics to unfold: one of those huge London statement homes made almost entirely of glass, like a sort of gigantic Cubist fishbowl. In other respects, the production values are somewhat DIY. This is Pasolini via early John Waters,...

American Cinemas Editors has cut together the nominees for its 74rd annual Ace Eddie Awards, which will be handed out next month. See the list of all 13 film and TV categories below.

The group also said today that Nina West, who played Divine in Weird: The Al Yankovic Story and Edna Turnblad in the touring production of Hairspray, will host the March 3 ceremony at UCLA’s Royce Hall in Westwood.

Vying for the marquee prize of Best Edited Feature Film are the editors behind Anatomy of a Fall, Killers of the Flower Moon, Maestro, Oppenheimer and Past Lives. The Comedy Theatrical race will be among Air, American Fiction, Barbie, The Holdovers and Poor Things.

Since the turn of the 21st century, the Eddie winner for theatrical drama has gone on to score the Academy Award for Best Editing 13 of 23 times — but none of the past four years. In a twist,...

20 years after the release of his last film “A Dirty Shame,” shock film icon John Waters might be returning to the director’s chair very soon.

In an interview with The Baltimore Fishbowl on December 22 about his famous annual Christmas parties, the “Pink Flamingos” and “Hairspray” filmmaker revealed that he has finished the script for “Liarmouth,” a film adaptation of his own 2022 novel of the same name. Waters further said that he turned the script over to the producers — it’s set up at Village Roadshow Pictures, which optioned the novel — and that he is currently waiting on the budget for the project.

“I’ve written the script and I turned it in and they like it and we’re doing a budget,” Waters told the Baltimore Fishbowl. “Who knows? We’ll see. We’ll see.”

“Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance” focuses on con artist Martha Sprinkles, nicknamed Liarmouth, and her romance with fellow scammer Daryl.

Tom Holland's 1988 film "Child's Play" was about a serial killer named Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) who was fatally wounded by a cop (Chris Sarandon) during a shootout in a toy warehouse. As he lay dying, Charles, a.k.a. Chucky, used voodoo magic to shunt his consciousness into a nearby Good Guy doll, a talking plastic child about a foot tall. In the body of the doll, Chucky continues his reign of terror. "Child's Play" was clearly a spoof of the Cabbage Patch Kids phenomenon a few years previous, positing that the year's difficult-to-obtain ultra-hot Christmas toy could possibly contain the soul of a murderer. 

To date, there have been six sequels to "Child's Play," a remake, and a spinoff series called "Chucky," which concluded part one of its third season in October of 2023. The series became increasingly wild as it went on, tilting heavily into camp and comedy.

John Waters isn’t afraid to name Ari Aster’s existential dark comedy “Beau Is Afraid” as the best film of 2023.

The “Pink Flamingos” director shared his annual list of favorite movies of the year with Vulture, crowning the A24 film as his number one pick.

“A superlong, super-crazy, super-funny movie about one man’s mental breakdown with a cast better than ‘Around the World in 80 Days’: Joaquin Phoenix, Patti LuPone, Parker Posey, Nathan Lane, and Amy Ryan,” Waters wrote. “It’s a laugh riot from hell you’ll never forget, even if you want to.”

Pierre Croton’s “A Prince,” Paul Schrader’s “Master Gardener,” “Fallen Leaves,” “Do Not Expect Too Much of the End of the World,” “Last Summer,” and “Strange Way of Life,” the short film directed by Pedro Almodóvar, were all included in Waters’ list. The director additionally included Christopher Nolan’s “Oppenheimer,” which Waters...

John Waters has had some pretty outrageous moments on the big screen. From the umbilical cord scene in Female Trouble and the singing anus in Pink Flamingos to the fart-soaked Odorama cards of Polyester and a semen-shooting Johnny Knoxville in A Dirty Shame, he has easily earned the nickname the Pope of Trash. But as far as John Waters figures, he’s immune to being a victim of cancel culture.

Citing his classic 1972 midnight movie Pink Flamingos — you know, the movie where Divine eats fresh dog crap — John Waters told MovieWeb that even 50+ years on, “It’s more politically incorrect than it ever was, but I never get canceled. I think the reason is because I’m not mean-spirited. I make fun of things I love, and I direct a movie, I think, with love for the characters and with love to the audience.”

Such words came ahead of John...

John Waters was delighted that he’s “closer to the gutter than ever” as his name was added to the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Tuesday.

In his acceptance speech, Waters said that the Walk of Fame was the first landmark he saw when he got to Los Angeles.

“After driving across the country with David Locke, I got out of my vehicle in 1970 at Hollywood and Vine, darted across the street and got a jaywalking ticket,” he recalled. “The first one — and I never looked back.”

Waters’ star is located outside of the Larry Edmunds Bookshop on Hollywood Blvd. and N. Cherokee Ave. Waters said bookstore, which specializes in literature about film and showbiz history, is his favorite spot on the famous street.

The Walk of Fame event, which was sponsored by Outfest, came alongside the newly opened Academy Museum exhibit “John Waters: Pope of Trash,” which looks back...

When John Waters touched down in Hollywood decades ago, he immediately had a run-in with authorities. “I got out of my vehicle in 1970 at Hollywood and Vine and darted across the street and got a jaywalking ticket, the first one, and I never looked back,” recalled the filmmaker while standing at the podium Monday to receive a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame.

Waters, surrounded by throngs of fans and well-wishers, found himself not far from that famous intersection, but on the other side of a Hollywood career that has produced such films as Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Desperate Living, Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, Pecker, Cecil B. Demented and others. And he couldn’t be happier with the gritty Hollywood setting. “God, here I am, closer to the gutter than ever,” quipped the 77-year-old, who has long been referred to as a maestro of “trash” films or the “king of filth.

A new exhibition at the Academy of Motion Pictures celebrates the director - and Waters is taking the elevation in stride

For a man who made his name with gleefully hilarious guerrilla films populated by drag queens, provocateurs, foot fetishists, misguided egomaniacs, furtive suburban psychos and assorted criminal lowlifes, John Waters is taking his elevation to the Hollywood stratosphere in stride.

The 77-year-old director of Pink Flamingos, Hairspray and Serial Mom has never come close to winning an Oscar – Oscars are not what you get when you delight in bad taste and write that someone vomiting during one of your films is “like getting a standing ovation”. Yet this weekend in Los Angeles, the museum run by the Academy of Motion Pictures is opening a lavish, lovingly curated exhibit that chronicles Waters’ extraordinary life and work.

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.

John Waters is no longer a cult filmmaker. The filmmaker, author, artist, actor, and spoken-word performer has been a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1990 (David Lynch was his sponsor). He’s screened “Hairspray” in the museum’s theater (with a Q&a moderated by Oscar-winner Barry Jenkins). The Academy Film Archive preserved his PSA, “John Waters Doesn’t Want You to Smoke.” He’s even getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. As Waters likes to note, he’s so respectable he could puke.

At this point, everyone loves John Waters. John Waters should be hosting the Oscars, an idea so commonly held that if you ask the upbeat and unerringly polite Academy CEO Bill Kramer the odds of making that happen, you can hear him doing his best not to roll his eyes. “If I had a dime for every time that question’s been asked,...

John Waters looks positive giddy as he perches on the edge of his chair at the Provincetown Film Festival, chuckling as he recalls the bad reviews Variety gave him back in the day.

I recall one from the 1974 write-up for “Female Trouble” — “‘Camp’ is too elegant a word to describe it all” — and he rolls his eyes at the word “camp.” “No one says that word anymore,” he laughs. “To me, ‘camp’ is like two older gay gentlemen talking about Tiffany lampshades in an antique shop. We were never that. We used ‘trash’ or ‘filth,’ which was more punk, to describe our style.”

Trade reviews offered a strange sort of validation for the budding “smut-eur,” who would take the put-downs and twist them to his advantage back in the early ’70s, turning bad blurbs into good publicity for his gonzo stunts. When Fine Line rereleased Waters’ most notorious film, 1972’s “Pink Flamingos,...

Multiple Maniacs. Photographs by Lawrence Irvine courtesy and copyright Dreamland Studios.John Waters still shocks. While the Pope of Trash may now be something of a respectable elder to queer cinema, appearing on talk shows and making annual movie recommendations for Artforum, his films have retained their ability to surprise and challenge the status quo. Works like Mondo Trasho (1969) and Multiple Maniacs (1970) have kept audiences squirming in their seats (and reaching for the barf bags), but they’ve also gained their long-denied critical understanding. They’re now taken seriously, viewed as earnestly as any kind of “respectable” film that doesn’t feature singing anuses, mother-son incest, or rape via giant lobster. Pink Flamingos (1972) is almost certainly the only film in Sight and Sound’s Top 250 greatest films of all-time list that features its lead eating dog feces from the sidewalk.Yet not every aspect of the Waters canon has been given its rightful due.

The Pope of Trash is about to be the Trash of Tinseltown, as John Waters is slated to get a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The 77-year-old John Waters will receive his star – designated as the 2,763rd – on September 18th as he is surrounded by frequent collaborators Ricki Lake, Mink Stole and Greg Gorman. As part of Waters’ Dreamlanders troupe, Lake has appeared in five films for Waters, most notably Hairspray, while Stole has appeared in every single one, beginning with 1969’s Mondo Trasho. Meanwhile, Gorman has photographed Waters numerous times, capturing some famous images of the director’s trademark pencil mustache.

As per Ana Martinez, producer of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, “John Waters has been a huge part of pop culture for many years…As a director, he has created some of our historic and favorite film moments and we’re thrilled to welcome him to...

Until recently, with respect to Academy recognition, Hollywood filth king John Waters was batting zero. But the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is poised to correct that with a career-spanning exhibition at the Academy Museum. Set to open to the public on Sept. 17 — with screenings scheduled through October of still shocking underground classics like 1972’s Pink Flamingos as well as more wholesome fare like 1988’s Hairspray — John Waters: Pope of Trash promises to both celebrate and canonize Waters as one of Hollywood’s most deliriously brilliant outsider voices.

To add to the excitement, Waters, 77, will receive his own star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame on Sept. 18. The iconoclast caught up with The Hollywood Reporter for a rollicking conversation about his delinquent youth (he was expelled from NYU for smoking pot), his unique friendships with larger-than-life stars Divine and Edith Massey and his thoughts about being immortalized on...

(Hey, you! Yeah, you! Looking for the complete IndieWire After Dark Collection? Click here, homie!)

If a “midnight movie” is streamed on a laptop at two o’clock in the afternoon — and no one is there to obsess about it with you — is it even a midnight movie?

Some films automatically qualify as midnight movies thanks to subject matter or conceptual guts; Divine didn’t eat dog shit for you to disrespect “Pink Flamingos” (1972). Others get their genre credentials grandfathered in by decades of fans screening them; cheesy or not, “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” (1975) always counts.

But past counter-cultural phenomena can’t guide the future of the genre and weirdo film culture forever. A tradition rooted in transgression, left to wander down a sad path of static nostalgia and “The Big Lebowski” (1998) quotes, isn’t transgressive at all. And it’s not as if there’s a shortage of in-your-face cinema being produced.

(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,...

As long ago as 2013, director Hayao Miyazaki -- the animator behind multiple masterworks including "My Neighbor Totoro," "Princess Mononoke," and "Spirited Away" -- announced his retirement. His most recent film, "The Wind Rises," was his most grounded and adult to date, following the life of the aeronautics engineer Jiro Horikoshi and his gentle ambitions to make beautiful flying machines. The background irony of the film is that Horikoshi's crowning achievement was developing the type of planes that bombed Pearl Harbor. It seemed like a sophisticated and heady film to end a career with. "The Wind Rises" also came after several previous retirement attempts, although Miyazaki claimed that he was quite serious this time.

Unable to put down the pencil, however, Miyazaki will return for one more "one last round" with the upcoming film "How Do You Live?".

Perhaps daringly, or perhaps merely knowing that the Miyazaki name is enough to attract audiences,...

“Is that an Oz narrative?” asks director Rodney Ascher in the second chapter of Alexandre O. Philippe’s trippy, tricky, and obsessive cine-essay Lynch/Oz. Ascher is clearly being a touch dishonest with the question because he’s at that moment referring to Beverly Hills Cop. He follows up that query by wondering in tongue-in-cheek fashion, “Is everything?”

Even though Philippe’s film is ostensibly about the many ways that The Wizard of Oz permeates the work of David Lynch, Ascher’s half-serious digression into the expansively universal nature of Victor Fleming’s Technicolor musical fantasy, calling its fish-out-water plot a “sturdy template” for just about any kind of film you could imagine, is typical of the filmed essays collected by Philippe. It’s both dead-serious about its subjects and playfully exploratory.

That dual nature is present in Lynch/Oz from the start. In the first chapter, film critic Amy Nicholson,...

Australia should remove its strict censorship of legal sex fetishes and some acts of violence in film, a government-commissioned report has recommended.

The country has a national system of films and games classification that has been little changed since 1995 – the pre-internet, smartphone and streaming era – as well as differing systems in each of the country’s states.

The federal government this week released a report compiled by Neville Stevens in 2020, but not published for more than two years.

Federal communications minister Michelle Rowland said this week that the government would recommend to the states that video games with simulated gambling should attract at least R18+ and that certain types of video games should attract an M classification. She has not commented on the report’s other recommendations.

Australia has famously given outright bans (“refused classification” or “Rc”) to films that include both sex and violence, even if the violence is not related to the sex.

The magic of John Waters' 1972 cult classic "Pink Flamingos" is that even after decades, it still possesses the power to disgust and repel audiences. Bearing an Nc-17 rating — it deserves nothing less — "Pink Flamingos" features copious nudity, cannibalism, assault, vomiting, unsimulated sex, torture, real animal death, and real coprophagy. The characters constantly scream about how much they hate the world, and how wallowing in filth is the only thing that brings them true happiness. Indeed, breaking rules, destroying property, shoplifting, public sexual exposure, and eating poop are acts of blissful, pointedly perverted defiance against a world that demands normality. "Pink Flamingos" is a big queer, naked, punk rock middle finger to the pearl-clutching bourgeoisie.

Waters' movies from the 1970s — "Mondo Trasho," "Multiple Maniacs," "Pink Flamingos," "Female Trouble," and "Desperate Living" — are all essentially supervillain movies. Waters once said in an interview with yours truly (an interview that is sadly now...

John Waters, the Pope of Trash, made his most mainstream and family-friendly movie with 1988's "Hairspray" — but did so without diluting his outsider essence.

You don't get to be known as the Pope of Trash without seriously proving yourself over the decades. Having started with creatively titled short films like "Hag in a Leather Jacket" in the '60s, director John Waters slowly established himself as a thoroughly unique director of proud, all-American filth. He dominated the '70s midnight movie circuit thanks to attention-grabbing exploits like "Multiple Maniacs," "Female Trouble," and the infamous "Pink Flamingos." No director seemed less likely to penetrate the mainstream than Waters, a man whose works included singing anuses, feces eating, rape via giant lobster, and penis removal. Yet it happened in 1988 when Waters made "Hairspray."

The unthinkable occurred when Waters directed a film with big stars, a family-friendly rating, and a solid box office return,...

In what seems like something a very long time in the making, John Waters is getting his very own museum exhibit. However, this tribute won't just be at any museum, but rather the Academy Museum itself. The Academy of Motion Pictures released a statement today that announced the "John Waters: Pope of Trash" exhibit will begin exhibition on September 17, 2023, and will remain on display until August 4, 2024. Timed in conjunction with the director getting his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Academy teased that it will provide an unseen look at his uncompromising style.

"Works on view will include costumes, props, handwritten scripts, correspondence and memos, scrapbooks, photographs, moving-image material, and more," writes the Academy Museum.

"Pope of Trash" will not stand on its own, however. Screenings, public programs, and an adjacent gallery highlighting the broader New Queer Cinema movement will also be held. An official catalog for the exhibit will also be published,...

John Waters had the last laugh.

In 1973, Variety labeled “Pink Flamingos,” the director’s gleeful send-up of bad taste, “one of the most vile, stupid and repulsive films ever made.”

In a blistering notice, the trade publication went on to suggest that while it hated what Waters was offering up, it was hip to its appeal.

“Midnight unreelings of the poorly lensed 16 mm picture, populated by nightcrawling ephemerids and camp following sophisticates confer a special status on the audience. Shrill laughter and knowing hoots greet its excesses and “inness,” now pantingly sought by large segments of the hip masses, is achieved.”

What a difference a few decades makes. This week, we’ve declared that “Pink Flamingos” is one of the 100 greatest movies ever made. In reassessing the cult hit’s place in the cinematic pantheon, we now state, “John Waters’ ultimate midnight movie is, in fact, one of the funniest,...

John Waters officially unveiled his semi-annual list of top 10 films of the year, filled mostly with sex-laden dramas and yes, one Polish existential donkey movie.

Waters awarded the top honor of 2022 to François Ozon’s “Peter Von Kant,” calling the Rainer Werner Fassbinder-inspired feature “by far the best movie of the year” in a list shared with Artforum.

“Fassbinder’s classic lesbian melodrama is appropriated and remade as a gay Frenchman’s love letter to the original version,” Waters wrote. “Hilariously stilted, often overwrought, but always highly entertaining, this cock-eyed tribute will make you swoon when Hanna Schygulla finally makes an appearance and Isabelle Adjani soon follows. My God, it’s just plain Douglas Sirk perfect.”

Waters’ second pick, “Eo” by Jerzy Skolimowski, is another “tribute film” with Waters calling it “Bresson’s ‘Au Hasard Balthazar’ meets ‘Old Yeller.'”

“Can a donkey remember? Just ask Isabelle Huppert, who...

Just in case this is necessary, spoilers for the biopic parody "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" lie ahead. You've been warned?

If there's one thing "Weird: The Al Yankovic Story" does well, it's a parody. Weird Al rose to fame performing hilarious takes on hit pop songs, like his version of Michael Jackson's "Beat It," titled "Eat It," and Yankovic's biopic remains true to the comedic sensibility of his work. The film pokes fun at the musical biopic genre as a whole and pays homage to lots of iconic music, artists, and cinema that broke the status quo.

One final pop culture reference is snuck in at the very end of the film. The end of "Weird" mirrors the final scene in Brian De Palma's adaptation of Stephen King's "Carrie," with the role of Sue played by the infamous musician-turned-drug lord, Madonna (Evan Rachel Wood).

Based On A...

She’s stung in satire, chilled in horror, and charmed in comedy, but you’ve never seen Andrea Riseborough eat quite like this. Fusing each of these considered genres into one madcap mash-up, the British actress and producer kicks up her heels in “Please Baby Please,” a visually audacious camp exploration of gender and repression set in a dystopian 1950s New York. From the inventive mind of queer experimental filmmaker Amanda Kramer, “Please Baby Please” feels like John Waters and Peter Greenaway got together to remake Robert Wise’s “West Side Story.”

If that sounds like a lot, it is, but Kramer mostly pulls it off. Conceptually precise and visually daring, “Please Baby Please” is an impressive invention built on hyper-stylized performances and production. Unfortunately, it relies far too heavily on these elements — in place of story, character, and even comedy. Though Riseborough is clearly having the time of her...

From the soul-searching of “My Winnipeg” to reimagining Bram Stoker as a dance movie for “Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary,” Canadian filmmaker Guy Maddin has singularly made the movies he’s wanted to make for nearly four decades. There’s no one else quite like the cult director, who deploys tropes of Old Hollywood, from silent films to the talkies, in a language utterly his own. His first feature, “Tales from the Gimli Hospital,” had a midnight movie run after premiering in 1988 but has proven a rare find — until now, as Zeitgeist Films is releasing a new 4K restoration of the black-and-white, hour-long feature.

It’s one of Maddin’s nuttiest experiments and a blueprint for the sort of stories he’d go on to tell. Set in the eponymous unincorporated village in Manitoba, “Gimli” centers on a fisherman who brings a smallpox epidemic to his community. The...

The iconic and transgressive indie filmmaker John Waters is making his return to directing after nearly 20 years since his last film A Dirty Shame released in 2004.

Waters, known for films like Hairspray and Pink Flamingos, has been working in many areas including acting, writing, commentary and even touring some live shows.

He will write and direct the adaptation of Liarmouth: A Feel Bad Romance, which is set in his hometown of Baltimore and stars a woman Marhsa Sprinkle who is described like this in the book’s retail description: “Suitcase thief. Scammer. Master of disguise. Dogs and children hate her her own family wants her dead. She’s smart, she’s desperate, she’s disturbed, and she’s on the run with a big chip on her shoulder.”

You can tell this book was a John Waters original just from the description. It has been optioned by Village Roadshow Entertainment,...

Every creative is unique, but there is truly no one on this earth quite like Baltimore filmmaker John Waters. The writer and director has been shocking audiences for decades with his tawdry tales of punk-rock perverts, though he hasn't directed a film since his 2004 sex comedy "A Dirty Shame." That itself is a dirty shame, as Waters is a talented filmmaker whose unusual perspective and deep love for his weirdo protagonists is a much-needed rebuttal to polite society. Waters inspired multiple generations to let their freak flags fly, and his movie-making absence over the past 18 years has been sorely felt, but all of that is about to change.

Waters is finally returning to filmmaking and will direct a feature adaptation of his novel, "Liarmouth: A Feel Bad Romance." Since the Nc-17-rated "A Dirty Shame" is now old enough to go see itself in theaters, it's more than past time...

John Waters, the mad genius behind films like Hairspray, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom, and Pecker, is getting back behind the camera for Liarmouth, an adaptation of his “craziest” novel. Waters is partnering with Village Roadshow Pictures for his first time directing since 2004’s A Dirty Shame.

“Liarmouth is the craziest thing I’ve written in a while so maybe it’s fitting that my novel was shocking enough to jumpstart the engine of my film career,” Waters said about his novel Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance. “Thrilled to be back in the movie business, hopefully to spread demented joy to adventuresome moviegoers around the world.”

The description of Waters’ Liarmouth novel says the book is a “hilariously filthy tale of sex, crime, and family dysfunction.” Here’s the official synopsis via Amazon:

Marsha Sprinkle: Suitcase thief. Scammer. Master of disguise. Dogs and children hate her. Her own family wants her dead. She’s smart,...

Cult director John Waters has produced some of the most shocking and outrageous scenes in film history that have delighted fans for over 60 years of pure filth.

He began his career with low-budget indie films and then later proceeded to push the boundaries of taste when he released Pink Flamingos in 1972 to outraged critics starring his iconic muse, drag queen Divine, who played the “filthiest person alive.” Divine continued to collaborate with Waters and featured in several of his movies, including Multiple Maniacs, Female Trouble, Polyester (alongside Tab Hunter), and Hairspray.

Not one to shy away from the controversy, he leaned into his nickname ‘‘The Pope of Trash’ to create more campy 90’s classics like Cry-Baby starring Johnny Depp, Pecker; Cecil B. Demented; Serial Mom starring Kathleen Turner. Waters directed his last film, A Dirty Shame, in 2004, featuring Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville, and Chris Isaak. He shifted his focus in...

Legendary filmmaker John Waters is stepping back to the director’s chair for the first time in 18 years, for an adaptation of his 2022 novel “Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance.” Waters — a pioneering independent filmmaker who catapulted to cinema infamy with bad taste masterpieces like 1972’s “Pink Flamingos” and 1981’s “Polyester” — will write and direct the project for Village Roadshow, with Steve Rabineau producing. It will be Waters’ first movie since 2004’s “A Dirty Shame.”

“‘Liarmouth’ is the craziest thing I’ve written in a while so maybe it’s fitting that my novel was shocking enough to jumpstart the engine of my film career,” the 76-year-old filmmaker said in a statement. “Thrilled to be back in the movie business, hopefully to spread demented joy to adventuresome moviegoers around the world.”

The novel follows three generations of women in the same family: Adora, who runs an unauthorized veterinarian practice on the Upper...

After almost two decades away, John Waters is returning to directing.

Acclaimed cult filmmaker Waters will write and direct the adaptation of his novel “Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance,” as Deadline first reported. Village Roadshow Pictures has optioned the novel, with Steve Rabineau producing.

Waters most recently helmed “A Dirty Shame” in 2004.

“‘Liarmouth’ is the craziest thing I’ve written in a while so maybe it’s fitting that my novel was shocking enough to jumpstart the engine of my film career,” Waters said. “Thrilled to be back in the movie business, hopefully to spread demented joy to adventuresome moviegoers around the world.”

“Liarmouth” follows con artist Marsha Sprinkle, who is described as “a suitcase thief, scammer, and master of disguise. Dogs and children hate her. Her own family wants her dead. She’s smart, she’s desperate, she’s disturbed, and she’s on the run with a big chip on her shoulder.

Exclusive: In what marks a high-profile return to filmmaking for John Waters, Village Roadshow Pictures has optioned his new novel Liarmouth: A Feel-Bad Romance. Waters will write the script and direct.

It will be Waters’ first time behind the camera since 2004’s A Dirty Shame. Steve Rabineau will produce alongside Village Roadshow Entertainment, which Steve Mosko revived as a producer and financier. Mosko and Waters hail from Baltimore.

Related: John Waters Career In Film Gallery: From ‘Pink Flamingos’, ‘Cry-Baby’, ‘Serial Mom’, ‘Hairspray’ & More

“Liarmouth is the craziest thing I’ve written in a while, so maybe it’s fitting that my novel was shocking enough to jumpstart the engine of my film career,” Waters said. “Thrilled to be back in the movie business, hopefully to spread demented joy to adventuresome moviegoers around the world.”

The novel follows Marsha Sprinkle, a suitcase thief, scammer and master of disguise. Dogs and children hate her.

The inaugural Nuart Festival has been set for Oct. 21-30 to celebrate the reopening of the Nuart Theatre following its renovation. The 10-day fest will open with Oscar-winner Sam Mendes’ “Empire of Light” including an eclectic mixture of sneak previews and special screenings of films that made midnight movie history at the Nuart.

Among the advanced screenings is “Weird: The Al Yankovic Story” from Eric Appel, and starring Daniel Radcliffe ahead of its release on The Roku Channel. Co-presented with Film Independent, the film had its premiere at the Toronto Film Festival in September. With Variety’s Owen Gleiberman calling it “witty and inventive.”

Members of Film Independent will receive free popcorn and drinks with ticket purchase and proof of membership.

Furthermore, the Slamdance Film Festival’s Audience Award winner “The Civil Dead” from co-writers Clay Tatum and Whiter Thomas, will screen for audiences. Preceding the film, the duo will be awarded the 2022 Slamdance Screenplay,...

Some films are so disgusting, repellent, violent, prurient, or tasteless that audiences find themselves unable to easily define them.

Films like Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Salò, or the 120 Days of Sodom," Lars Von Trier's "Antichrist," Gaspar Noë's "Irreversible," Ruggerio Deodato's "Cannibal Holocaust," Takashi Miike's "Ichi the Killer," Tom Six's "The Human Centipede" trilogy, or even John Waters' "Pink Flamingos" are all brazenly confrontational films, each seemingly intended not to draw the audience in, but send the audience out. To keep viewers repelled and disgusted. One might argue that such "extreme" cinema seeks not merely to elicit a visceral response from an audience -- as, say, a mid-2000s torture porn film may do -- but to move them to a level of disgust so intense that they cannot help but push their mind into the realm of politics and philosophy.

To state a broad point: "Extreme" horror,...