At face value, the movie seems to favor sexual freedoms, but is anything but. At every stage, it seems to speak against sexual freedoms. First, it implies (and later directly states) that sexual freedom is only caused by head trauma, and equates it to sexual addiction. It also clearly links sexuality with infidelity (although, I grant, non-sexual people aren't likely to practice infidelity). In the same few scenes, the leader of the sex addicts is shown as being the devil. The viewer is then shown a sample of the strange "perversions". Though some may not seem all that strange, they're all giving a bad light... During the film, an infantile grabs a real baby, a defecater unloads in an unsuspecting woman's purse (causing her death), a saliroist is shown licking a tire and eating strangers' cigarette butts, etc.; it's virtually guaranteed that even the most open minded person will be grossed out by at least one thing. After the perverts are failed to be saved in metaphoric church and tempted back by the devil (and more head trauma), they all run around raiding "normal" people's homes, and sexually assaulting strangers, simultaneously conjuring up zombie movies and literal "assault on families". At the climax of the movie (pun intended), it's revealed that the ultimate sex act is bashing your head in. After all this, the only thing that could have saved the movie was if it was funny. Maybe it is the self-contradictions in the movie that are supposed to funny, but sadly, the only thing good I can say about the movie is squirrel.

John Waters was truly a seventies icon because of his appetite for trashy and low budget filmmaking. Because of content, a number of his films earned the rare but strict "NC-17" rating for things I'm sure no other movie has even come close to - Pink Flamingos (Rated R: Wide range of perversions in explicit detail) for example. Waters attempts to come back in the 2000's and give the world a taste of A Dirty Shame, when all it does it sink his ship and proves that in the 2000's Waters is likely to never be as big as he once was.Most likely because in the 2000's, we've seen a lot dirtier things on Television and other movies. The film centers around sexual fetishes which aren't even explored in explicit form. The famous "water bottle" scene isn't even shown in its entirety. If I'm not mistaking, I though "NC-17" meant that anything goes.The plot is about an uptight suburban mom named Sylvia Stickles (Ullman) with a husband Vaughn (Isaak), and a stripper for a daughter named Caprice (Blair). They live on Hartford Road which has its social groups; the neuters and the perverts. When Sylvia gets hit on the head she suddenly becomes sex crazy and meets the "sex saint" mechanic named Ray-Ray Perkins (Knoxville). Ray-Ray runs an underground sort of perverts club for the neighborhood and his goal is turn all of Hartford Road into perverts.John Waters proves what was dirty back then, doesn't live up to its name now. A Dirty Shame is nothing but constant unfunny sex jokes. Not even the fact that this film has them makes it the least bit funny. Some of the fetishes the film explains are putrid and absolutely despising, but some may have them which is the funny part. I think that is the goal for Waters. I think he wants people to cringe and be disgusted. I'm not even sure if he's trying to make a good film at all.The only two things that remotely save A Dirty Shame from being one are its soundtrack and Johnny Knoxville. The soundtrack includes the songs Let's Go Sexin, Red Hot, and a few others to make the music for the film favorable and Knoxville plays a great, offbeat comedy guy which will likely be his calling when he retires from Jackass or becomes absorbed in other things.I have no problem with language, sex, drugs, or anything in any movie. I do have a problem when filmmakers feel they have to just randomly include sexual references and nudity every chance they get. It becomes monotonous, not funny, and just plain stupid. There is hardly anything in A Dirty Shame that's funny, memorable, or even watchable. It's sick and ill-behaved - the sad part is it loves itself for being like that.During the trailer for the film, Waters holds a book titled Suicide in the Entertainment Industry by David K. Fraser when the narrator exclaims "from the director of Hairspray and Pink Flamingos." I couldn't agree more with the choice of book.Starring: Tracy Ullman, Chris Isaak, Selma Blair, Suzanne Shepperd, and Mink Stole. Directed by: John Waters.

Depressed puritanical housewife Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman) with a nice but horny husband (Chris Isaak) and a HUGE breasted kid (Selma Blair) is hit on the head one day. It immediately turns her into a raving sex addict and she finds there's a whole group of people like her led by Ray Ray Perkins (Johnny Knoxville).First off I should mention I saw the 84 minute R rated cut and not the 89 minute NC-17 one. Some of the cuts were obvious as were the voice overdubs but I don't think it changed the movie a lot. What I saw was a typically strange John Waters film with plenty of good moments but it didn't totally work. The main problem is the script is all over the place! The first half of the movie is coherent but the film totally derails during the second half. Complications come on fast and furious and it all ends up not making a lot of sense. The movie is chockful of dialogue discussing frank sexual acts and some incredibly unsubtle imagery. Some of it works but, more often than not, it just doesn't hit its mark. A cameo by David Hasselhoff particularly makes no sense and isn't funny at all. Also the pacing here is atrocious--but that's not uncommon in a Water film. Acting really helps this one. Ullman is fearless here considering some of her very sexually explicit lines and costumes. Blair deserves a lot of credit for wearing these HUGE breasts and making the character sympathetic and believable. Isaak is given little to do but he's good. Best of all is Knoxville who has a real difficult role to play--and pulls it off. So, it has its moments but not enough of them. I can only give this a 5.

A Dirty Shame (2004) * (out of 4) John Waters latest film has a woman (Tracey Ullman) being wacked on the head and turning into a sex addict. Waters can be very funny in some films but this isn't one and them and this is certainly the worst I've seen from him. Waters tries hard to recapture his early days but fails on all levels because the film isn't shocking and is fairly tame. The NC-17 rating and the films weakness comes from dirty language, which gets tiresome after the first ten minutes. You can tell Waters is trying hard to recapture his early days but all the humor comes off very forced and weak.