Cry Baby

There are two main strengths to John Waters' lightweight Elvis era rock n' roll movie. One is the classic doo-wop soundtrack, the other the performance of Johnny Depp in his first major screen appearance after having established himself as a pin-up in the TV series, 21 Jump Street as Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker, a James Dean-ish high-school student and leader of The Drapes, rebellious teenagers who are sworn enemies of The Squares, sorority types led by Baldwin (Stephen Mailer).

The former is strictly ex-cinematic and that leaves Johnny and some celebrity cameos from the likes of Iggy Pop, Joe Dallesandro, Troy Donahue and Patricia Hearst (Willem Dafoe puts in a brief appearance as a prison guard) to provide some, at best, mild amusement. As one would expect from Waters, there’s plenty of razzle-dazzle, affected trashiness and offbeat fun with 50s fashion and squaresville values but with a thin story Cry-Baby is more (retro) style than content

 

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