This film and Waters previous comedy Pecker , about a young photographer who hits it big when the New York art scene discovers his grungy work, are companion pieces about outlaw artists who, instead of tailoring their work to the masses, stay true to what they love and wait for the masses to come to them. In other words, autobiographical. As always, Waters works with an unmistakable affection for even his grubbiest characters. He loves both art films and outlandishly corny Hollywood melodramas. You re not meant, I think, to take Cecil or his slogans all that seriously.
Waters pokes fun at the cinema rebels as much as the Hollywood hacks.
Waters adores single-minded people, and Cecil and his Sprocket Holes are nothing if not dedicated to their loopy cause. Waters gives her a send-off worthy of creakiest Old Hollywood. Cecil B. DeMented is vintage John Waters, which means it doesn t have a chance in hell of winning the mass audience that wept over Patch Adams . And thank God for that.