Divine Trash

I hope Mark Borchardt, the aspiring auteur profiled in the recent comic documentary American Movie, has a chance to see Divine Trash; nothing could be more encouraging to a guy with a camera, a few bucks and a dream. Director Steve Yeager looks back at the early films of "underground" independent film pioneer John Waters, up to and including his legendarily outrageous 1972 breakthrough Pink Flamingos, painting a portrait of a guy who refused to believe he couldn't make movies His Way. Waters himself is self-deprecating in present-day interviews, but Yeager does an effective job of rightfully placing him at the vanguard of a do-it-yourself, give-your-friends-a-script cinema aesthetic that inspired a whole generation of independent film-makers. Yeager's focus strays a bit--spending an inordinate amount of time on Waters' professional collaboration with the late cross-dresser Glenn "Divine" Milstead--and he's clearly prone to a bit of hero-worship of the man whose career he's followed for over 30 years. Still it's fun watching archival footage of a scraggly-haired, 25-year-old Waters going to work on his own American movie, realizing his vision of a world unchecked by good taste. Recommended, though you may be disappointed (or relieved) to find no footage of Flamingos' infamous excrement-eating scene. Aud: C, P. (S. Renshaw)