A Dirty Shame concerns Sylvia Stickles, a sexually repressed and frigid woman. That’s until she sustains a concussion during an accident and becomes horny beyond all expectations.

I hated A Dirty Shame when I saw it on its first release. Twenty years later and I find a DVD copy of the film selling for 50 pence in a charity shop.

But did I enjoy A Dirty Shame when I saw it this time after all these years? In a word- YES! I found it irreverent, out-there (even by Waters standards) and utterly hilarious.

There have always been perverts in Waters’ movies. In A Dirty Shame they are key to proceedings.

It was so great to find new actors participating in Waters’ work (Tracey Ullmann, Johnny Knoxville, Chris Isaak and Suzanne Shepherd to name but a few) joining the more established Dreamlanders such as Mink Stole, Patricia Hearst and Channing Wilroy with the whole cast attacking the material with such a massive degree of zeal.

But Selma Blair deserves special notice as Ursula Udders, the mammory enlarged s*x addict who lives to go-go dance. She reminds me of supermodel and Eurotrash regular Lolo Ferrari.

And with such subject matter and the fact that it’s a John Waters’ movie, the dialogue is something else. Community guidelines prevents me from repeating them though…

Waters also makes a great social commentary about both ends of the as*hole spectrum- the uptight conservative campaigners who seem to be allergic to any kind of fun especially if it’s to do with s*x and the liberals who are open to everything and nauseatingly condescending because of it. There’s even one point where the liberal couple within the film talk about how diversity is so fantastic. Waters was using his crystal ball when he was writing this dialogue with diversity being parroted about in the media of today endlessly whilst the same people only want *their* kind of diversity rather than real diversity.

I kept thinking that A Dirty Shame would make for a great double-bill with Cronenberg’s Shivers. People could bring their own poppers.

4 out of 5 stars