Polyester

Camp icon Divine stars as Francine Fishpaw, a frustrated housewife whose domestic life isn’t exactly what she imagined. Her husband is a cheating louse, her daughter is heavily involved with bad boys, and her son is making local news as a notorious foot-stomper. As her husband exclaims, “Well this whole world stinks, so get used to it!” Coincidentally, Francine has a particularly perceptive sense of smell. (For the film’s release, John Waters revived the tradition of Odorama with scratch‘n’sniff cards—asking his audience to stop and smell the roses…or gasoline…or flatulence.)

Francine seeks solace in her rags-to-riches friend Cuddles (Dreamland stalwart Massey, in her final performance) and curious stranger Todd Tomorrow (a tabloid-ready Hunter), yet spirals into alcoholism and the typical trappings of a suffocating suburban reality. This delirious melodrama is one of Waters’ finest achievements and a perfectly pungent parody of Douglas Sirk’s so-called “women’s pictures.”

This film is part of John Waters Threesome, a trio of films by the iconic queer filmmaker playing at BAM on Saturday, October 12.