Dan's Papers - August 3, 2007 - Guy de Fraumeni's Hollywod In The Hamptons

Why in a gyrating, unhinged, lukewarm hell would I precede as happy-go-lucky/plucky a movie as Hairspray with notes about, I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, a movie as insultingly awful and, as phony as the administration's rush to war reasoning? On the surface both are message films, putting down discrimination/prejudice by sending it up. I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry alleges ridiculing gay bashing, but, true to Adam Sandler and Kevin James' crude form, the homophobia runs rampant and, any promises of message are as offensive as their frat boy humor. Hairspray's creator, John Waters meant it to be a satire of message movies but, was able to sell it as a real one, intending to make trash "one percent respectable."

Cult favorite, Waters proudly shocked and repulsed and, endeared himself with gross-out flicks like Female Trouble and Pink Flamingos. Hairspray was his most commercial film hit. It produced a Tony-Award winning Broadway musical. Now, the musical is a motion picture and what a good time it is! I am stumped wondering what Mr. Waters must be feeling about having a hit that is for everyone. Anyone who has felt disenfranchised, left out, an outsider - not in the swing of things? You can cozily squeeze into this movie with easy happiness. Sure, it tends to take itself sorta seriously, you know, some songs are kinda preachy but what the hey!, it is part of the fun. Believability? Why not? John Travolta as the largely overweight Edna Turnblad, mother of the heroine, Tracy Turnblad. No lightweight either however, as played by Nikki Blonsky, her dancing is as energetically light footed as a 43.5 pound ballerina. And wait, wait 'til you see Christopher Walken as Tracy's dad, Wilbur, runnin' not walkin' back to his showbiz roots as a dancer. It is as campy as can be. Maybe as high camp as it is legal to be or, does it seem that way because of its delirious, infectious, bright spirited accessibility.

When Hairspray first showed up on midnight movie screens in 1988, the novelty of the movie comedy must have cut through the dense dope smoke and cleaved into the fuzzy heads in the audience for they kept coming back. Its storyline remained basically the same when it opened as a stage musical in 2002. The movie version is still set in Baltimore, Waters hometown, where full figured Tracy, troubled as an "outsider," hangs with black kids who're really "out." Their "race" music is abhorred but Tracy loves it because it freed her. She felt then that dancing wasn't what you looked like when you're doing it but, instead, how it made you feel. The Corny Collins Show was the big TV bandstand dance program. However, blacks could only appear on it on Negro day. Blacks were the best, freest dancers anywhere and Tracy would not accept the bigotry. With friends like a great dancer, sexy Seaweed, the amazing Elijah Kelley and, timid Penny, a dorky Amanda Bynes, they pour it on and Tracy gets a 'spot' on Corny Collins' show in spite of spiteful opposition from the station's manager, Velma von Tussle, spidery Michelle Pfeiffer. Soon, Tracy gets her own show with the help of those great moves she got from dancing wizard, Seaweed. Her joyousness rolls like a big wave flooding teens with the buoyant crest of integration. The turbulent sea of glee hits home, her diet pill hooked mother Edna, Mr. Travolta in a Miss Piggy chubby suit, is also liberated. As played by Travolta, Edna is gently naiive and vulnerable, her appetites are as large as her girth and she's wanted to get out of her self-embodied isolation. She too is freed. Optimism bounds across the screen with upbeat crowd pleasing charm.

For some purists, the naughtiness has been too sanitized. Travolta is no Devine, the cross-dressing toughie of the original movie or even, a growling Harvey Fierstein of the stage show and, much has been teased-up to a fair thee well by director/choreographer, Adam Shankman but, oh my, how the show moves. The players are all brisk: Zac Efron as Tracy's love, Queen Latifah as Motormouth, James Marsden is Corny and, Jerry Stiller is, well - Jerry Stiller and, funny! Waters does a fast Hitchcock cameo.

Hairspray's theme of inclusiveness had a few bad moments: a gay publication proposed boycotting the film because of Travolta's Scientology but director Shankman reminded them "all of the creators of Hairspray are gay and we are all comfortable." The rest of the film industry is not yet as well off. There are not that many stories told about teen outcasts, the lower classes, tortured souls or "freaks." Gay directors like Almodovar, Van Sant, Mitchell, Araki and Haynes are doing it with prestige. Happily, the list is growing.

Guy Jean de Fraumeni is the producer/writer/director of award winning European and American feature films. He has been a judge at Major Film and TV award competitions, including the Oscars, the Emmy's and various film festivals. Sarah Halsey assists him.