This Filthy World

Toronto International Film Festival Program Guide
2006

This Filthy World
Jeff Garlin
USA, 2006
English 86 minutes Colour/HDCAM
Production Company: Filthy World/Red Envelope Entertainment
Executive Producer: Ted Sarandos
Producer: Michele Armour, Jeff Garlin
Written by: John Waters
Cinematographer: Dan Shulman
Editor: Rob Naylor
Production Designer: Vince Peranio
Featuring: John Waters
Production: Filthy World

While This Filthy World might be described as an autobiographical stand-up comedy set by John Waters, its real purpose is to document a sardonic lesson in cinema’s decline and fall. Pencil moustache perfectly trimmed, Waters leads us through his most extraordinary career as he pours forth endless raucous anecdotes about the freaks, celebrities and freak celebrities who have crossed his path. But each tall tale is also a dig in the ribs directed at both our hypocritical world and the film industry with which he must have truck.

The show begins (and interstitially continues) with a survey of Waters’s perverse bouquet of obsessions: true-crime stories, exploitation films, fashion violations, the contemporary art world at its most ridiculous, plus many more of his other acknowledged Weltanschauung stimulators.

He chronicles the making of his movies, from 1964’s Hag in a Black Leather Jacket to A Dirty Shame some forty years later. Here is where a student of contemporary cinema perceives a clear-minded voice of opposition to current film practice. Waters has long been the poster boy for independent cinema—he even hosts the Independent Spirit Awards—yet he is now uncomfortable with the vocabulary of “independent film,” gently teasing out the term’s bizarre commodification. Other sacred cows find themselves slaughtered too: supposed liberal disdain for celebrity culture, censorship of any kind, drug laws (sort of) and many more.

The show is knee-slappingly funny. Much of the material was created for the show, so Waters maniacs—those of you who have read every book and seen every TV appearance—are in for a treat. The promotional materials label it “a call to arms for filth followers everywhere.” You know who you are.

Director Jeff Garlin (Jeff Greene on “Curb Your Enthusiasm”) is a gifted comedian himself. His understanding of stand-up rhythms and his ability to create an uncluttered approach to a charming figure like Waters makes This Filthy World all the more enjoyable.
—Noah Cowan