150 Word Review: 'Polyester' (1981)
Something smells funny
Harris 'Divine' Milstead was Robert De Niro to John Waters' Martin Scorsese—or is it the other way around?. He was an over-the-top drag queen willing to do anything for the camera, but Divine was also a deft comedic actor. While I prefer Waters’ earlier trash, this pivot into the mainstream preserves his vision of America as a wasteland of sex freaks and glue addicts.
Polyester stars Divine as a housewife on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Her cruel husband runs a porno theater, her dimwitted daughter runs with thugs, and her son is a dead-eyed creep. She is mercilessly mocked by her family and driven to drink until she meets a dreamboat.
During the original theatrical run, scratch-and-sniff cards were distributed to moviegoers. When instructed on screen, one could get a whiff of a fart, for instance. Polyester is crude but there is a radical innocence underneath the stench.