I now get that the films of John Waters work best together, like the Harry Potter films. (If you only watch one, it's Pink Flamingos/Prisoner of Azkaban, but if you go for the entire series it culminates with Hairspray and Cry-Baby.) They don't play well compared to other movies, but work real well placed next to each other, with the stock cast you won't find anywhere else and an evolving sense of purpose. On this level, I prefer the Divine comedies and now having completed the journey, I have a special fondness for Female Trouble because it's the one where Divine takes no prisoners.
Multiple Maniacs (1970)
★ ★
“Rape is never funny, but it’s kind of funny with a lobster.” – John Waters on Multiple Maniacs
I was going to say how surprised I was to see Waters film The Passion Play, which is straightforward considering how bonkers the rest of this film is. For Divine, it's closest to Female Trouble, but the filmmaking is very crude and the storytelling too nonsensical even for John Waters.
Desperate Living (1977)
★ ★
This starts wild and funny with some pretty funny, outrageous dialogue. However, the more it wears on the more it’s just wild and not very funny. Divine gives his films something emotional to anchor onto and without that anchor it's too much id. I’ve come to like John Waters and this little corner of trash cinema he’s carved out, and he really lets it rip with this one, but the result is a more aggressive and off-putting brand of shock.
Polyester (1981)
★ ★
This early attempt at something closer to mainstream is harder to forgive, knowing Waters would eventually get it right with Hairspray. The odor-ama gimmick is one of Waters' best jokes, and it's easier to laugh with it without the anxiety of having a card. It was great seeing Edith Massey finally play a high society woman who's on top of the world - a hell of an arc from her early films - but I kept wanting Divine to snap and get some Female Trouble style revenge.