I Am Divine

This surprisingly sweet and touching documentary serves up a full and rounded portrait of Harris Glenn Milstead, better known to the world as Divine, the larger-than-life transvestite star whose fame was launched in John Waters' anarchic comedies (including Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble and Hairspray). A bullied Baltimore kid, Milstead found solace in a long-term romance with a high school sweetheart, and also received support and acceptance from his parents, who got him work in a hair salon. But Milstead yearned to be a star, and he allied himself with Waters, an up-and-coming independent filmmaker whose manic, trashy features proved a perfect vehicle for Divine's brassy, over-the-top persona. Together, Waters and Divine—the latter wrapped in outfits far too small for her 300-pound frame and covered in layers of outrageous makeup—became darlings of underground film in the U.S. But Divine wanted even more, conquering off-Broadway theatre in New York and countless stages around the world. In I Am Divine, filmmaker Jeffrey Schwarz pieces together an engaging mosaic of the likeable Milstead/Divine, drawing on loads of archival footage (Milstead was soft-spoken in real life), as well as interviews with people from Waters' and Andy Warhol's circles. Perhaps the most poignant material here comes during the interviews with Milstead's mother, who largely watched her son's transformation into Divine from a distance. Milstead died too young (age 42 in 1988) at a time when he was happy and entering new frontiers in his acting career. A thoroughly entertaining profile, this is highly recommended. (T. Keogh)