Cry-Baby (1990)

3 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Tears and Loathing

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

This was the movie that convinced me, after months of ridiculing him for "21 Jump Street," that Johnny Depp could actually act. Depp stars as the title role in John Waters' ode to the 1950s, a leather-jacket wearing rebel who sings rock 'n' roll and sheds a single tear from time to time. A member of the "drapes," a group of social outcasts, he falls in love with a member of the "squares," cute Allison (Amy Locane).

That's pretty much the entire plot, with the squares trying to prevent the lovers getting together. A great cast of misfits rounds things out: Traci Lords in her first non-porn role, Susan Tyrell (an Oscar nominee for Fat City), Iggy Pop, Ricki Lake (also in Hairspray), Polly Bergen, and small roles for Patty Hearst and Mink Stole. Willem Dafoe has one scene as a sadistic prison guard. (Sadly, Divine passed away two years earlier.)

Cry-Baby has plenty of Waters touches, such as bizarre musical numbers, slimy making-out sequences and one character drinking a glass of tears. Working with the biggest budget of his entire career and mainstream producers like Brian Grazer and Jim Abrahams, Waters somehow does not let anything detract from his usual vision. Pink Flamingos fans will find Cry-Baby decidedly tame, but it's one of my favorites.

New Line long ago released all the John Waters films to DVD, but this was the one lone hold-out, stuck in the Universal vaults. In 2005 Universal has made up for it by allowing Waters to piece together a longer director's cut with about four new minutes of footage inserted back into the film. The disc also comes with Waters' usual brilliant commentary track, a feature-length making-of documentary and some disgusting deleted scenes (including a sequence that parodies Traci Lords' porno career).

In 2024, Kino Lorber released a two-disc edition, featuring the restored theatrical cut on the 4K disc and the director's cut on the Blu-ray Disc. (Both transfers are from the original camera negative, though the director's cut includes additional materials.) Waters provides an essential director's commentary track for each.

The bonuses are all on the Blu-ray Disc: "Bringing Up Baby," a 38-minute behind-the-scenes featurette with Waters, associate producer Pat Moran, cinematographer David Insley, and Mink Stole; a 14-minute interview with actress Locane (from prison!); a 19-minute interview with Traci Lords; a 9-minute interview with Iggy Pop; an 8-minute interview with Ricki Lake; a 9-minute interview with Patty Hearst; a 10-minute interview with Darren E. Burrows; a 9-minute interview with Stephen Mailer; a 10-minute interview with Howard 'Hep' Preston, the movie's barber; a 2005 documentary on the film (47 minutes); five deleted scenes (7 minutes); and a theatrical trailer. Highly Recommended.