Hairspray
New Line Cinema, ??mins, PG

Directed by
Adam Shankman    

I was never much of a John Waters fan. I remember watching his older films, like “Pink Flamingoes” and “Female Trouble” and was completely grossed out by them. His later stuff was a bit more mainstream, but still had that “ikk” factor to it, which is why when the original “Hairspray” came out back in 1988, I didn't bother to go. But I always got what he's trying to say: “We're queer  (in the original definition of the word), we're here. Get used to it. His was a celebration of the odd and the disgusting, and when he tried to do something even close to mainstream, he'd just added a little zetz, just to remind you of his sordid roots.

Which, in it's own perverse way, it was so nice to see him make a cameo at the beginning of this film. He appears for five seconds as a flasher, while young, cute and zoftic Tracy Turnblad  (Nikki Blonsky (right) ) sings the opening number, referring to him as just another guy in the neighborhood.

The original film, was an echo of Spiro Agnew's one good deed, which the future Vice President, gave his support to the integration of Baltimore's TV. Spiro is nowhere to be found, of course, but the look and feel of the time most certainly is.

Tracy and her best friend Penny Pingleton (Amanda Bynes), like most normal kids their age, were very much into the watered down rock and roll of the time between Buddy Holly and the Beatles. Tracy's parents  (John Travolta as Mom-a tribute to drag queen extraordinaire Divine, and Christopher Walken) were kind of okay, but, Penny's mom (Allison Janney-channeling Carol Burnett) was most definitely not.

The pair would head home from school to watch the Corny Collins show, where the eponymous impresario (James Marsden) and a bunch of too-clean-cut-for-their-own good teens (Zac Efron, Brittany Snow and a bunch of glorified extras) dance the cares of their audience away and evil station manager Velma Von Tussle  (Michelle Pfeiffer) tries to figure out how to get rid of the once-a-week Negro version, hosted by Motormouth Maybelle  (Queen Latifah) and make the station lily white.

Despite the focus on consciousness raising this is pure, lighter than air fluff. Top quality fluff that's sure to please, harkening to an era before irony took over the Broadway stage. Of course Tracy miraculously becomes a dancer on the show [fat is indeed “queer” when it comes to TV teen dance shows], and then inadvertently starts a revolution and everyone, but the villains live happily ever after. Of couse, Chris Walken and John Travolta can still dance just as well as those talented kids. Fluff can be wonderful, and it's a nice surprise to see such a good film come out from the guy who did such crap as "The Wedding Planner," and "Cheaper by the Dozen 2" 

This is a golden film for a golden summer. See it.



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