I can't remember how old I was when I first saw this movie, but I remembebr that a friend at the time, David Britt, insisted that I watch it. (David Britt appeared in numerous early skits and public stunts - those old VHS tapes were part of 5 major installments collectively referred to as "The Underground" - each had a subtitle, like "Fun and Games Until Someone Gets an Eye Poked Out." I must have been at least 18 years old when Dave presented "Desperate Living" to me but it is possible that I might have even been 21.)
I did not know what low-budget was, or even what it meant for a movie to be low-budget. I loved the flavor of the British sitcom, "The Young Ones" but I did not quite understand that the cheesiness of it was something that I was very fond of. So I can claim to be a true fan of low-budget movies because I loved them even before I know that they were in a separate category (yes, I was THAT ingorant - I had no idea how movies were made and I just assumed that a movie is a movie, and when people referred to the budget of the movie I just regarded that as trivia).
Another thing that I did not know was the term "campy." i didn't think I even heard that term until a few years ago, actually. But one thing I did know was that I liked that kind of acting.
Desperate Living started with a scene that pulled me in right away. The female lead was played by Mink Stole. I loved her immediately. Her character was introduced as a recovering mental patient. I know that it's not politically-correct to laugh at the mentally ill, but when mentally ill people behave in certain ways, it's very funny. When I laugh at BEHAVIORS of mentally ill people in real life, I am not laughing at their tragic condition - I am laughing at behavior that is amusing. Returning to Mink Stole, she deivered an absolutley hysterical performance. Her crisis moment was triggered by a baseball that accidentally broke through her window. She screamed that one of the kids had tried to assasinate her. She opened the broken window to yell at the children, and her character's choice of words was gut-busting- "I'm not running a communist day-care center. Go home and tell your mother that I hate her!"
Her hilarious fit was enhanced by little things, like her walking with a brace. Again, my laughter wasn't a cruel mockery of suffering - it was a genuine appreciation for a comical event. There are some ultra serious people who can fuck off - when I laugh, it's out of amusement, not disdain.
Another character in this movie is a 400-pound black maid who adds so much to this extreme comedy. It's hard for me to hold back describing what she does - I don't want to ruin the surprises if you haven't seen the movie.
Let's just say that when I first saw this, the term "politically-corrct" was not yet coined. But I knew that what I was watching had crossed almost every line I had presumed movies to abide. I was watching the most "wrong" movie I had ever seen, and I was instantly and completely addicted.
The movie just kept getting nuttier and nuttier. But even in my convulsions of laughter I held a deep appreciation for the genius of the dialogue, and the creativity was truly inspiring.
Later on I came to appreciate the movie even more. John Waters knew his limits budget-wise, but he also knew his strengths. He provided CONTENT that no big-budget movie could ever hope to match. This affected me without me even realizing it. You see, tehre are many independent film makers who try to match the sensibilities and style of Hollywood movies. They pretty much just make movies as sort of "demos" which they hope will be seen by an influential industry=person one day. I always wondered why they didn't revel in their indepence and freedom - they are not constrained by the same rules. But the same is true for musicians. How many bands out there just imitate what is popular, or what is accepted? Artists, whether they be musicians, moviemakers, or whatever other category there is, do not always have the artistic outlook. They do not make art. They make product.