John Waters’ musical finds just the right balance of kitsch and sincerity.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 20, 2023

Waters has a true knack for both celebrating and mocking a particular cultural milieu with equal flair and fancy.

Full Review | Jun 26, 2023

Ricki Lake’s unselfconscious performance as the all-dancing, all-bouffant Tracy Turnblad is a joy, Debbie Harry makes a fabulous bigot, while Waters seems to delight in the many toe-tapping dance routines as well as his own deliciously arch dialogue.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | Jun 9, 2023

Hairspray shows that Baltimore is the natural home of twisted legends and gothic subversives: Edgar Allan Poe, Dr Hannibal Lecter … and John Waters.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 7, 2023

The kitsch is a delight, and Divine, who has a low and fascinating deadpan voice, is very funny as Tracy's mother.

Full Review | Sep 5, 2018

It is absurd and jolly, parodying not only the worst conventions of the teen film but also the Sixties social-conscience movie, with an anti-racist sub-plot.

Full Review | Dec 31, 2017

Waters tones down his usual excesses, but his mischievous black sense of humour is still very much to the fore in this affectionate salute to Z-grade teen movies.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 10, 2016

Perhaps Waters' best known movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 3, 2015

While it's corny by design, Hairspray also aims to get at something truthful, about the various kinds of prejudice [...] and how youthful optimism and music made a difference [...].

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 10, 2014

A kitschy teen fantasy you can dance to.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 18, 2010

The shock Waters's cinema offers, then, is not transcendent, but almost reflexive, implicating the viewer in the awkward complexities of his own humanity and forcing him to either celebrate it or run screaming away.

Full Review | Aug 8, 2009

When Divine's Edna Turnblad is on-screen in the sleeveless dresses she's partial to, the movie has something like the lunacy of a W. C. Fields in drag.

Full Review | May 28, 2008

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 7, 2007

The Waters film for your grandma, who will probably be only a little bit freaked out by it.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Sep 12, 2007

Thoroughly deserving of its cult status.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 16, 2007

Controversial filmmaker John Waters finally hits his commercial stride in this film, parlaying his keen social observation and great compassion for society's outsiders into a colorful and engaging comedy full of dancing, music and heartfelt nostalgia.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 16, 2007

Not only Waters's best movie, but a crossover gesture that expands his appeal without compromising his vision one iota; Ricki Lake as the hefty young heroine is especially delightful.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Jul 16, 2007

Has a great message is endlessly entertaining, and come on you have to love Motormouth Maybelle...

Full Review | Jul 14, 2007

John Waters' appreciation for the tacky side of life is in full flower in Hairspray, a slight but often highly amusing diversion about integration, big girls' fashions and music-mad teens in 1962 Baltimore.

Full Review | Jun 30, 2007

One of John Waters' best films, and also one that was "palatable" to the strudios and accessible to the mass public in its charming theme and effective blend of faded stars and offbeat celebs.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Oct 9, 2006