rating:
(out of
4 stars)United States; 1990
Directed by John Waters; produced by Rachel Talalay; written by John Waters
Starring Johnny Depp, Amy Locane, Susan Tyrrell, Polly Bergen, Iggy Pop, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords, Kim McGuire
Below you will find a temporary review for this film. The real (better, more complete) review will be online very soon.
'Cry-Baby' stars a young Johnny Depp in a John Waters musical that has fun
mocking certain aspects of the fifties as well as honoring others. What we
get is a love between Cry-Baby Walker (Depp) and Allison (Amy Locane). He is
a "drape", the kind John Travolta is in 'Grease', and she is a "square", the
kind Olivia Newton-John is in 'Grease'. Their love seems impossible because
they are different and, even more so, the people around them are very
different. He is surrounded by Ramona (Susan Tyrrell), Uncle Belvedere (Iggy
Pop), his sister Pepper (Ricki Lake), Hatchet-Face (Kim McGuire) and Wanda
(Traci Lords), all dressed in black leather. She is surrounded by her
grandmother (Polly Bergen) and her wannabe-boyfriend Baldwin (Stephen
Mailer) and his friends, all dressed in decent clothing. Yes, the story
follows 'Grease' pretty closely.
That does not really matter. 'Grease' gave some attention to that story,
'Cry-Baby' really sees it as a needed thing to role from one episode into a
next, most of them musical numbers. The numbers are also a lot different.
Some of them were written for the movie, others already existed, but I
enjoyed almost all of them. We understand that Cry-Baby and Allison will end
up together but we need the usual misunderstandings to make sure that will
not happen too soon. Here they are caused by a girl named Lenora (Kim Webb)
who pretends to be Crty-Baby's lover the entire time. Actually pretty funny.
Of course the wannabe-boyfriend and the grandmother are there too, as is
Cry-Baby's juvenile delinquency.
In the end 'Cry-Baby' is a predictable but funny musical with some nice
songs and another weird but terrific performance from Johnny Depp.