Francine Fishpaw just wants to live a ‘normal’ life but finds this impossible because of her p*rno cinema owning husband, her son who may or may not be a notorious Baltimore criminal, her lewd daughter and her delinquent boyfriend. Thank God she has her friend, Cuddles who used to be her cleaner but is now a debutant due to coming into an absurdly huge amount of money.

Waters’ love of William Castle shines through with the brilliant Odorama scratch n sniff card gimmick (smell number 2 is exactly that).

But of course, this wasn’t used to distract away from mediocre or compromised material. Polyester is prime-grade early Waters. I think of this in the same way I think of Scanners in Cronenberg’s filmography- the natural peak of that era.

Yet more brilliant dialogue which demands to be quoted, amazing characters (LuLu Fishpaw is one of the greatest film creations EVER! ‘F is for fantastic!’) and a look that is as smooth as silk (Polyester was influenced by Douglas Sirk and it shows).

But there must be special mention made to Divine’s performance here. It’s something else! I especially loved the scenes in split-screen when Francine is being told, for example, that her son may be criminally insane or that her husband is going away with his sexy secretary. Divine’s reactions are priceless.

It would be 7 years before another John Waters would be made. And another era would begin.

5 out of 5 stars