A Dirty Shame

A Dirty Shame is a 2004 satirical sex comedy movie. John Waters directed and wrote it. Tracey Ullman plays Sylvia. Selma Blair plays Caprice/Ursula. Patty Hearst plays Paige.

A Dirty Shame was released with an NC-17 rating by the MPAA. New Line Cinema was the distributor. It received mixed reviews.

Plot
The people of Harford Road (Maryland Route #147) are divided into two camps: puritanical people who hate anything even remotely sexual. There are also the perverts, a group of sexual addicts whose sexual fetishes have been brought to the fore.

A held back Sylvia Stickles finds herself as a puritan. One day, she leaves her promiscuous daughter Caprice locked up over the garage and under house arrest. Sylvia is smacked on the head by a passing car. She meets Ray-Ray Perkins, a local mechanic.

Through a series of bizarre head knockings, everyone in the Harford Area of Baltimore becomes a sex addict. Ray-Ray shoots semen from his head. He becomes the messiah of "Let's Go Sexin'".

Cast

 Tracey Ullman as Sylvia Stickles
 Johnny Knoxville as Ray-Ray Perkins
 Selma Blair as Caprice Stickles/"Ursula Udders"
 Chris Isaak as Vaughn Stickles
 Suzanne Shepherd as Big Ethel
 Mink Stole as Marge The Neuter 
 Patricia Hearst as Paige
 Jackie Hoffman as Dora
 Wes Johnson as Fat Fuck Frank
 Paul DeBoy as Wendell Doggett
 Gaelan Alexander Connell as Horny kid
 Channing Wilroy as Male motorist
 Rosemary Knower as Female motorist
 Alan J. Wendl as Officer Alvin
 James Ransone as Dingy Dave
 David A. Dunham as Mama Bear
 Dave Moretti as Papa Bear
 Jeffrey Auerbach as Baby Bear
 Jewel Orem as Officer Loose Linda
 Jonas Grey as Warren the mailman
 David DeBoy as Dr. Arlington
 Doug Roberts as Driving neuter husband
 Mary Vivian Pearce as Nonjudgmental ex-sex addict
 Jean Hill as Woman at fire escape
 Ty Ford as the taxi cab driver
 Bob Adams as Bus passenger
 George Figgs (uncredited) as Neuter
 Ricki Lake (cameo) as herself
 David Hasselhoff (cameo) as himself

Production
John Waters decided to make the movie when he found several sexual slang terms over the internet.

According to Waters, when he asked MPAA what he would have needed to cut from the movie before he could have it rated R, they said "after a while, we just stopped taking notes." It was simply released into theaters with an NC-17 rating.

It was shot entirely on location in Baltimore on the Harford Road.

Reception
A Dirty Shame got mixed reviews from critics. Some liked or loved its unashamed vulgarity. Others, though, went against it for the same reason. On the Rotten Tomatoes, the approval rating is 53%, based on the reviews of 117 critics. On the Metacritic, the review for the movie is 56 out of 100, which means "mixed or average".

References

Category:2004 comedy movies
Category:2000s sex comedy movies
Category:2004 LGBT movies
Category:English-language movies
Category:2000s satirical movies
Category:American LGBT movies
Category:American sex comedy movies
Category:American satirical movies
Category:NC-17 rated movies
Category:Movies set in Baltimore
Category:Movies set in Maryland
Category:Movies directed by John Waters