This Filthy World

This 2006 film, directed by Jeff Garlin, is a record of John Waters's one-man stage show. The director of Pink Flamingos and A Dirty Shame delivers a monologue running from his early influences through career memories to his battles with the MPAA rating system. The form is as simple as it gets: a stage, a microphone, a man. The whole film rests on Waters's skill as a storyteller, and that turns out to be enough. What makes the show interesting is how it exposes the discipline behind the provocation. Waters delivers well-timed, heavily rehearsed material; behind every apparently shocking story there is construction. What he says about censorship, bad taste and class is legible even to people who have never seen his films. Who it's for: viewers who know Waters's filmography and enjoy stand-up storytelling and American subculture history. Who it's not for: anyone uncomfortable with blunt, provocative talk about sex and violence, or who wants visual variety.