A Dirty Shame

A Baltimore housewife (Tracey Ullman) suffers a blow to the head that causes her to become an insatiable nymphomaniac, to the dismay of her doofus husband (Chris Isaak), the disgust of her uptight mother (Suzanne Shepherd) and the delight of her big-busted stripper daughter (Selma Blair). Writer-director John Waters, the aging enfant terrible of the indie film scene, does it again—whatever “it” is. Waters makes bad movies almost on principle—ugly cinematography, phony dialogue and even phonier acting—but it’s hard to really dislike them; after all, has he ever made a movie that even pretended to be good? (This one could have been called Night of the Living Horny.) It’s even a little endearing, the way Waters is stuck in the 1970s, making movies that would have been offensive 30 years ago.