Afouotos
Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.
AshUnow
This is a small, humorous movie in some ways, but it has a huge heart. What a nice experience.
Isbel
A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.
David Munn
It was 1977, the year the Sex Pistols stormed the British pop charts with "Anarchy in the U.K.", and John Waters marked the year with the release of his most joyously angry opus, "Desperate Living".Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) is a suburban housewife who returns home from the mental hospital to the care of her husband Bosley (George Stover) and her massive black maid Grizelda (Jean Hill). She is caught up in one long paranoid screaming fit, accusing a neighbourhood kid of trying to murder her with a baseball and fearing that her pre- pubescent children are having sex. When Bosley catches Grizelda stealing and tries to administer "fit medicine" to Peggy, the pair attack him and Grizelda kills him by sitting on his face.On the run from the law, Peggy and Grizelda have an encounter with a perverted policeman (Turkey Joe) with a panty fetish. In return for their panties, and wet soul kisses, he shows them the way to Morteville, a town so hideous that criminals can live there in a state of "mortification" rather than go to prison.The pair rent a room from a lesbian couple, butch Mole McHenry (Susan Lowe) and her busty man-loving girlfriend Muffy St. Jacques (ex-stripper Liz Renay). But they are soon arrested by the leather goons of Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey) who orders them to have a trash make- over.Carlotta's daughter Princess Coo-Coo (Mary Vivien Pierce) is in love with Herbert (Mike Figgs), the garbage collector at the local nudist colony.Mole makes the ultimate sacrifice for her lover, Peggy joins forces with Queen Carlotta, and Princess Coo-Coo becomes a victim of her mother's insanity, as Morteville moves inexorably toward revolution.This John Waters classic is a masterpiece of deranged comedy which repays multiple viewings. Beneath the camp humour and cheap gross-out gags is a surprisingly perceptive satire on the infantile, neurotic nature of fascism. Compare this film with Barbet Schroeder's classic documentary "Idi Amin Dada" (1974), and you will see that the psychology of real fascist dictators is not that different from that of Queen Carlotta. (Idi Amin's portrait is one of several that hangs on the wall in Carlotta's castle.)Some may not like this film as much as John Waters' other early works because of the absence of Divine, but really this is a benefit in a way as it allows Mink Stole to shine in her one starring role and gives great space also to the incomparable Jean Hill. But everyone is good in this film, with Susan Lowe having her one big role in a Waters' movie. The scene in which she reveals her special gift to Muffy actually has a profound undercurrent of tragedy you just don't expect in a Waters' film.Look out also for one of Waters' most obvious tributes to Herschell Gordon Lewis in the wrestling scene, an appearance by Waters' current casting director Pat Moran as the bathroom pervert (she also played Patty Hitler in deleted scenes from "Pink Flamingos") and the gorgeous Marina Melin (who had been appearing in Waters' films since "Eat Your Makeup" (1968)) baring all as the chief nudist.Waters really wears his "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" and "Wizard of Oz" influences on his sleeve with this one.
NateManD
"Desperate Living" is about as disgusting as "Pink Flamingos" and at times worse. Mink Stole plays Peggy Gravel, a paranoid schizo housewife. Her and her maid Grizelda, who's a 400 lb. black woman, kill Peggy's husband. They flee in guilt and are stopped by a cop with an underwear fetish before driving to Mortville. Mortville is a town made up of all garbage. The evil queen Carlotta (Edith Masey) presides over the town in a fascist manner, her guards are forced to fulfill her bizarre sexual needs. The queen disowns her daughter princess Coo-Coo for wanting to marry Herbert, a nudist garbage man. We are treated to strange bright colored costumes and trash art galore. Delirious Peggy continues to bicker. Her and Grizela reside in an trashy apartment with a lesbian couple. The mean butchy Moe, longs to be a man and her lover Muffy is the the pretty one; blond and big breasted. In the films most hilarious and morbid flashback, we learn how Muffy had to flee to Mortville as a criminal. She gets upset at her stoned babysitter; not only for having a party while while she was away, but for leaving her baby in the refrigerator. She shoves the babysitter's face in dog food and screams "Eat dog food Bitch! Try and stick my baby in the refrigerator!" The sitter ends up suffocating in the dog food. Then Muffy kills her alcoholic husband, when his head gets caught in the car window. Although "Desperate Living" is missing drag actor Devine, it still is disgusting, depraved and hilarious as ever. With raunchy sex, nudity, perverse humor and low budget gore; it's in a town of its own.
jazzest
After rich housewife Peggy Gravel (Mink Stole) accidentally murders her husband and runs away with her overweight black maid Grizelda Brown (Jean Hill) to Mortville, a community of outcasts and criminals ruled by Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey), Desperate Living starts losing the power of John Waters's greatest merit--attack on the norm of the American value. For a Waters film, the more fictitious and metaphysical its format is, the less effective the outcome of his attack is; that's why realistic (for Waters) Female Trouble is intense but fairytale-ish Desperate Living is not. Freaky actors screaming and doing nonsense are amusing to watch, but, needless to say, missing irreplaceable Divine is a significant disadvantage for early Waters.
nickbox75
This film is so funny beyond belief. You must watch this film. Your life will never be the same again. It has all the J. waters ingredients to make a trashy film... probably the trashiest film after Pink Flamingos! What I like most about this film is the randomness and the funniest quotes. For starters, there is a scene which includes a baby being locked in a fridge, babysitter made to eat dog food, fake penises being chopped off and later eaten by a dog,gang raping, the Queen attempting to spread rabies, backwards day... the list goes on. Some of my favourite quotes include- "oh good Christ" ( you know what i mean once you have watched it), "seize her and rape her", "you are now the proud owner of rabies", "im so hungry i could eat cancer", "bad thoughts bring on bad dreams and your a bad girl Muffy!
