A Dirty Shame
A Dirty Shame
NC-17 | 24 September 2004 (USA)
A Dirty Shame Trailers

Sylvia Stickles runs a convenience store with her husband and mother-in-law. One day, Sylvia is hit on the head and transforms from an uptight prude to a sex-crazed lunatic. As she goes on a rampage through town, Sylvia attracts the attention of Ray Ray, a sexual healer and tow truck driver in search of the world's greatest orgasm. Their sexual revolution, however, causes a class war in their tiny Baltimore community.

Reviews
Incannerax What a waste of my time!!!
Protraph Lack of good storyline.
Livestonth I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible
Mabel Munoz Just intense enough to provide a much-needed diversion, just lightweight enough to make you forget about it soon after it’s over. It’s not exactly “good,” per se, but it does what it sets out to do in terms of putting us on edge, which makes it … successful?
yourwarmembrace I absolutely enjoyed this movie up until the final scene. The final climax is rather anticlimactic but I guess there isn't much further this one could have gone without getting into the gross and unspeakable. We still have Pink Flamngos for that. The music for this segment did not help matters. So why 7 stars? This movie is something of a middle finger to the motion picture ratings board in America. If not for the documentary, This Film Is Not Yet Rated, I wouldn't have even known about it. Kudos there. If you have not seen This Film Is Not Yet Rated, I urge you to do so. I no longer care to see a film until it is out on DVD and then I will be looking for the Director's Cut and/ or Unrated version. It's laughable to think that Waters expected anything less than a NC-17 rating for this film. While it's sad that NC-17 equates to the kiss of death. See it. It's a riot... reminds me of Shaun of the Dead.
northmaven I'd never heard of this movie which I watched last night purely on the basis of Chris Isaak's being in it. When it was over, and I had gathered my jaw off the floor, what I believed I'd seen was a wrongheaded attempt at a John Waters movie, without any of the wit or skill. Imagine my surprise to discover this IS a John Waters movie. Where to start? The blank-eyed performances? The screwed-up dualism? The awful editing and pacing? The banal innuendo? The heartless sexual politics? Maybe you need to be American and to have suffered the crazy US religious right to really get this movie - to the rest of us, it feels like someone crossing the street to pee on a Madonna statue... Therapeutic for them but a bit embarrassing if you're with them. The worst thing is, it's almost put me off Chris Isaak for going anywhere near a script this bad. I'll never be able to watch Wicked Game in the same light!
MartinHafer A DIRTY SHAME is a good film but it certainly isn't for everyone. Of all the many films I have seen in my life, this one has (by far) the most pervasive sexuality of any movie--even more than in John Waters' early films. While there is not much nudity at all, I think only about 25 seconds of the film are not intended to be offensive by talking about perversions or showing them (at least in a sanitized manner). Like PINK FLAMINGOS, this film seems to be an experiment by John Waters to see how far he can go and get away with it. In this, case, he seems to be seeing how many sexual references and perversions he can include in a single film. However, given how much things have changed since the early 1970s, apparently you can go amazingly far! Of course, this could be because I saw the DVD version of the film (that is rated NC-17) and not the theatrical rated-R version.The story is sort of like a fairy tale (or anti-Biblical morality play) set in a Baltimore suburb. In it, strange things happen when people have accidental head injuries--they become sex maniacs with their own particular type of perversion. Most any fetish or weird sex act you could imagine has someone in the town who recently switched to it. I could only think of a few weird sexual hangups that were not in the film and IMDb would probably ban me for even mentioning them or the ones in the film! This town, oddly, has two types of people--pervs and neuters. The neuters think all sex is bad and the pervs are running amok having sex with everything (even trees) and everywhere, even the local quickie mart(!).When neuter Tracy Ullman receives her head injury, it's something special. The band of pervs leader announced that she is the chosen one--the one who will introduce some new form of perversion that has never been seen before. However, before she can find it, she is hit on the head again accidentally and becomes her old neuter self. It seems that accidental head trauma can make anyone switch back and forth--even Ullman's amazingly slutty daughter (who you just have to see to believe). Will Ullman regain her perversion and come up with the new sex act or will the revolution just fizzle out? Tune in and see.The film is very funny but very raunchy. If you can watch John Waters' early films (PINK FLAMINGOS, MONDO TRASHO, DESPERATE LIVING or FEMALE TROUBLE), then you are probably a good candidate for the movie. If not, then it's an iffy proposition--this film is offensive in practically every way. If all the smuttiness were to be cut out, this film would be the length of a TV commercial. Seriously.Oh, and by the way, for the fans of the old John Waters films, Mink Stole and Mary Vivian Pearce are both in this film--keep an eye out for them.
Conard Le Barbu Riant John Waters early work (until Polyester) made me a huge fan of his craziness. I usually adore his cast of freaky characters, his hyperbolic dialogues, his great music selection and his DIY attitude. Sure, in the eighties, he goes a little more mainstream, but that was OK, I guess. Ironically, his worst period is his comeback to his "bad taste" roots. Cecil B. Demented was painful and this one, A Dirty Shame, is plain stupid. So campy, I stopped the DVD many times, and until now, I still haven't finished watchin' it!!! A comedy too trash to please the usual family-comedy fans, and too dumb and childish to interest the others. It got enough ingredients to made a good film, but there's way too much cheese. Come on! Penis-shaped trees getting erected? CGI-squirrels having sex? Skip.