CECIL B. DEMENTED
An Artisan Entertainment release 

review by Joseph B. Mauceri

SYNOPSIS: Box office star Honey Whitlock (Griffith) is in Baltimore for the gala premier of her latest feature when she is abducted by Cecil B. Demented (Dorff) and his band of cinema terrorists, the "Sprocket Holes." With his star, Cecil will battle the Maryland Film Commission, militant Family film supporters, the Teamsters and the police to complete his revolutionary feature "Raving Beauty." "Lots of kids dream of making a movie," preaches Cecil. "Only those willing to die for it succeed." 

REVIEW: Director John Waters is known for his independent features that buck the studio system. In CECIL B. DEMENTED Waters takes a "sharpshooter" bead on the Hollywood system with a double-barreled satire shotgun. The director jokingly refers to the film as his "action-comedy, a ëDie Hard' for the Hollywood impaired." Waters sets up the film in the opening sequence, but it is nothing compared to what follows the abduction. He introduces the "Sprocket Holes," and each is tattooed with the name of a different legendary filmmaker; Fuller, Castle, Peckinpah and others. Cecil, Honey and the Sprocket Holes shoot their way out of each sequence. The gun fights look more like "The Wild Bunch," but Waters claims that CECIL B. DEMENTED is influenced by Gillo Pontecorvo's 1966 feature "The Battle of Algiers." In doing so Waters brings the politics of the studio system to the foreground so that the cinema terrorists can "punish bad cinema."

Waters always makes unusual casting choices in his films. The Waters' "irregulars" in CECIL include Ricki Lake - Honey's neurotic personal assistant, Mink Stole - the hostess of the premier, Patricia Hearst - Fidgit's bible-pounding mother. The three interesting casting choices are Griffith, Dorff and Witt. Dorff has appeared in several interesting art house projects, but CECIL is more of a bold move for Griffith and Witt.  Griffith gets into the character and gives a solid performance. She is quite shocking to look at with her radical makeup and bleached blonde hair. There is a change in her character that allows her personality to come through, but we still see those nasty ticks. Witt, who played Cybil Shepard's daughter for four years, creates this character that is a "Keystone Cop" porno star. Don't ask me to explain it because you'll understand it when you see the film. All in all, the rest of the cast brings interesting character traits to the parts that make the film lots of fun.

A film about underground filmmakers should look like an underground film, and what better place for them to hold up then an abandoned cinema. It looks like the bat cave on acid, done on a low budget. The rest of the setups are this weird rampaging of the terrorists through the streets of Baltimore. Along the way they encounter different right-wing groups that give the film this bizarre feeling of Kafka meets Lewis Carroll.

When people asked me, "How was CECIL B. DEMENTED?", I have to ask them, "Have you ever seen a John Waters film?" No? Well, you don't know what you're missing! John Waters is a unique filmmakers, who continues to receive critical acclaim for every new project. CECIL B. DEMENTED is a return to rougher, more out spoken cinematic ventures since his days of "Mondo Trasho," "Pink Flamingos" and "Polyester." It's a wild ride that fills the void in the summer release schedule created by last summer's "South Park: The Movie"

OFFICIAL WEB SITE:
http://www.dementedforever.com

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