John Waters calls this 2000 film “a DIE HARD for the Hollywood impaired.” Inspired by a magazine headline that dubbed Waters “Cecil B. Demented,” this is far from his best work, but is funny and perceptive enough in its corrosive portrayal of guerilla filmmaking to warrant a qualified recommendation.
The film was released by the late Artisan Entertainment, fresh off the monster success of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT. Artisan tried to replicate that film’s legendary internet based publicity campaign via a website—dementedforever.com—that was given more coverage in CECIL B. DEMENTED’s trailers than the film itself. That may explain (in part) why it didn’t do anywhere near the kind of business BLAIR WITCH did (with a worldwide gross of just $1,961,544 against a $10 million budget).
It opens with the Hollywood starlet Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) being kidnapped from a Baltimore movie premiere by Cecil B. Demented (Stephen Dorff), a militant independent filmmaker leading a collective whose members include the porn star Cherish (Alicia Witt), a Satanist (Maggie Gyllenhaal) and a compulsive masturbator (Eric M. Barry). These freaks speak almost entirely in 1960s inspired political slogans—“Death to those who support mainstream cinema!,” “Hey, hey MPAA, how many movies did you censor today?,” “Your Hollywood system stole our sex and co-opted our violence!”—and have vowed to “stay celibate for celluloid.”
Cecil is determined that Honey star in his currently-in-production feature, a semi-documentary called RAVING BEAUTY. To this end Cecil drags her along with his crew as they terrorize a movie theater showing a PATCH ADAMS director’s cut (“PATCH ADAMS does not deserve a director’s cut, the first one was long enough already!”) and a Baltimore Film Commission shindig. The latter gambit concludes with Honey, who finds herself becoming increasingly sympathetic to Cecil’s aims, taken away by police. Cecil and co. rescue her but get confronted by a mob of outraged family movie viewers, with chop-socky movie patrons coming to Cecil’s aid.
The gang’s next target is the set of GUMP AGAIN, a FORREST GUMP sequel starring Kevin Nealon (playing himself). This requires another intervention by moviegoers, this time at a porno theater playing a movie starring Cherish. It all concludes at a drive-in where Cecil’s gang, into which Honey has now fully integrated herself, make their final stand.
The film’s sense of humor is quintessentially John Waters-esque, meaning it’s shot through with film nerd references and in-jokes (such as the line “Keep repeating it’s only a movie”) that belay a sophistication not evident in the constant profanity and sex gags. There’s also a healthy sense of self-parody that extends from Waters, an indie pioneer whose early films were made in a manner not dissimilar to those of Cecil B. Demented, to Melanie Griffith, whose role as a snooty starlet didn’t represent much of an acting stretch—as well as co-star Patricia Hearst (yes, that Patricia Hearst), playing the uptight mother of one of Cecil’s followers.
Speaking of Waters’ earlier films: as with HAIRSPRAY, CRY-BABY, SERIAL MOM and PECKER, CECIL B. DEMENTED feels like it was conceived in the no-budget guerrilla filmmaking aesthetic of MULTIPLE MANIACS or PINK FLAMINGOS, but had a quasi-professional R-rated gloss imposed on it that didn’t fit with Waters’ underground sensibilities (a fully clothed orgy?). Numerous cast and crew members from Waters’ early films—casting director Pat Moran, production designer Vincent Peranio, costume designer Van Smith and actors Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce and Susan Lowe—are present, as are the Baltimore locations where those films were shot. They’re paired with the more Hollywood friendly likes of Griffith, Stephen Dorff, Ricki Lake, Michael Shannon and Maggie Gyllenhaal, whose presence makes for a film that’s fun but ultimately neither here nor there.
Vital Statistics
CECIL B. DEMENTED
Artisan Entertainment/Artic Productions
Director: John Waters
Producers: Joe Caracciolo Jr., John Fiedler, Mark Tarlov
Screenplay: John Waters
Cinematography: Robert Stevens
Editing: Jeffrey Wolf
Cast: Melanie Griffith, Stephen Dorff, Alicia Witt, Adrian Grenier, Larry Gilliard Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Jack Noseworthy, Mink Stole, Ricki Lake, Patricia Hearst, Mike Shannon, Kevin Nealon, Eric C. Barry