A transitionary film for John Waters, 'Female Trouble' marks a shift in the film makers output from a very grungy 'rough and ready/run and gun' style of heavy gross out counter culture film making, into the beginnings of a much more technically proficient, considered and 'studio friendly' era. Make no mistake, 'Female Trouble' still has a hardened controversial edge to it. But the days of sodomizing women with rosary beads and eating dog crap are sunset.
The film follows 'Dawn Davenport' a wicked high school girl with one thing on her mind. a shiny pair of black 'Cha-cha heels' to complete her school outfit. When her parents fail to deliver on the goods come christmas morning, Dawn snaps; destroying the christmas tree, smashing all the presents and knocking her mother unconcious, before fleeing in her pyjamas into the back roads to hitch a ride somewhere and start afresh.
Unfortunately the first person to catch her on that road is a sleazy individual (Also played by 'Divine') who sexually assaults her, resulting in Dawn falling pregnant with her daughter 'Taffy' a VERY vocal an opinionated child who gets under Dawns skin.
After falling in with a bad crowd (and a boring marriage) Dawn eventually finds herself as the face of a crime syndicate being run out of a hair salon, where committing elaborate and disgusting crimes raise her higher and higher within the criminal industry, where muder is considered high art, and the electric chair is like winning the academy award.
I've always had a bit of a soft spot for this one personally, while the pivot away from wild-eyed chaotic film production is missed, the structure and technical skill being injected here is welcome and this film seems to manage to just about get the best of both worlds. having enough intensity and chaos to keep it unpredictable and interesting, but enough structure to keep it visually engaging and on the level. Some would argue the shift to a more 'technically friendly' output does deminish the sense of rawness that Johns early work encapsulates...I'd agree, but I dont think its bad that this embraces a more linear and traditional film pacing and plotting...its just different.
The script is a nice change of pace, we have a clear and slightly more complex than normal plotline that runs with a clean 3 act structure in place, the acts seamlessly transition quite well I found and lead to some nice impactful 'ramp ups' as and when the film needs to warm the audience up, or cool them down.
I do feel the 2nd act does get a little lost at times, the film clocks in at 97 minutes and I feel a good 10 minutes could have been shaved off this thing to make a much tighter overall production. There are just a few moments (particularly in the back end of the 2nd act) that, while nice...Just, dont really add anything to the main narrative drive. It feels a bit like a runaround in places, bordering on dreary.
Fortunately, John Waters dialogue and direction on delivery SHINES here, being almost as quotable as 'Pink Flamingos' theres barely 5 minutes that goes by without some OUTLANDISHLY yelled line of dialogue knocks you right off your seat, as you wonder how the HELL he even thought to write the way he did. Its punchy, VERY entertaining and easily one of the main reasons to check this film out outside of the performances themselves.
The tone of the film is wickedly dark with some wonderfully macarbre sight gags in place and the cast seem fully tuned into this new way of working, seemingly relishing every opportunity they can get.
The direction seemingly gets the biggest upgrade here, gone are the 'wildly flailing' camera moments, and instead comes very well considered, structured and crafted scenes that aim to show rather than tell how our characters are feeling. It looks like a professional low budget work, yes it loses the anarchy, but the anarchic days of John Waters career hit almost as much as the missed in terms of trying to tell the story through the moving image.
This is laser focussed on driving the story, and it feels a like a lot more planning went into trying to turn out an affectionate and sickly tribute to the 'Juvinile delinquent'/'roughie' films of the 50s and early 60s. In fact, one of my only criticisms here is that, again, around the second act things start to get a little bit nebulous, we get introduced to a lot of characters very quickly, some who are integral to the 3rd act, some who only appear in a scene or two. And the direction doesnt really do a great job of keeping track of why these people are here doing what they do...though part of that also comes down to a slightly rough edit...but more on that shortly.
The cine again is a big improvement over Johns previous works, here we have clean and clear shots, that follow the rule of thirds and have decent composition. Its a bit unfortunate that depth of field work isnt explored more with this one, but then, on that note, there are moments where whats in FRONT of the camera is barely focussed in...So my guess is, they didnt want to be too adventurous. Sequences are well constructed, though the edit does struggle a little bit due to a low uptake in B-roll captured on set and with there being so MANY characters who all have such mixed levels of involvement in the narrative. It would have been hard enough to juggle so many narrative lines in a full blown studio feature. letalone an indie one...Johns a fab writer, a fun director...Editing seemingly isnt his strongest point, god bless him for doing what he does, but his cutting work is a little lacklustre to me.
Performance wise, its still firing on all cylinders, Devine as 'Dawn' gets to work a full range of emotions from amerous, to sadistic, cunning to full on freaking out. Her physicality is only surpassed by her total committance to THE most over the top and manic deliveries possible. Her performance as 'Babs' is probably the most iconic role she ever did. But this one is probably the role that showed she had range.
The rest of the cast too all bring their own elements to the table, there is still as stong manic energy to this film, but it does seem a little more paired back when compared to Johns earlier works. Whether thats just because, they now had 'retake' money and could afford to mould things a bit better (reducing the sponteneity) or whether its just that they were aiming for a more subdued time, I cant honestly say. But they're still good non the less!
And, once again we're on a jukebox soundtrack. The title track for this film and some of the other original elements are fab, the 50's/60's scoring here actually really works for the film (given it starts in the 50s and ends in present day 1974) here? the OST works for me.
Female Trouble still packs a weighty punch, but its impact is quite different from anything that came before it, As John Waters progressed through his career, he would soften a little, favouring Studio safety and comfort over really getting into the muck and mire that his earlier films defined him as being renowned for. Non the less 'Female Trouble' lands at a point where your able to get the best of both world...a technically proficient picture thats not afraid to be controversial, hammy and hilarious...I think depending on your preference for Waters works, you'll either absolutely love the coherency of this one, or feel its the worst of both worlds for losing its edge and favouring more structure. I however enjoy this one, and do rewatch pretty regularly.
source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/female-trouble/1/
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