Hairspray (1988) review

Waters touches on his fascination with the local TV celebrity scene of his youth, when youngsters in Baltimore danced the most popular ditties of the day on "The Dizzy Deane Show." Unfortunately, this film is inferior to Waters' essay - in his much-recommended book Crackpot - and the loaded issue of segregation is given a gloss-over (Divine plays both the face of racism and a proud, liberal parent); the written piece also talks more about the personality of the dancers and the craze's eventual decline, unlike the movie's superficial handling of the characters. Instead of a real story, there are many static shots of old-time dancing which don't interest me at all. [Rating Not Applicable]