Cry-Baby (1990) review

Waters' take on Grease and West Side Story (as well as teen movies from the '50s) shows the clash between the "Squares" (clean-cut American values!) and "Drapes" (sex, drugs, greasy hair, teen pregnancy, rock 'n roll) when a "Square" (Amy Locane) falls for the leader of the "Drapes" (Johnny Depp). The tackiness and silliness (Kim McGuire is all up in the camera's face) are to be expected from the director, but without his typical gross-out/schlock moments, this is purely derivative and unsurprising. Waters is at his best, I've found, in written form - I'd take any one of his books (including Shock Value and Crackpot) than almost any of his movies, with possibly the exception of Serial Mom (which I consider one of my guilty pleasures). [Rating Not Applicable]