Desperate Living (1977)

dir John Waters

Five minutes in and I was blown away. Mink Stole is a superstar. She’s a camp masterpiece in Multiple Maniacs, Female Trouble, and Pink Flamingos, but her delivery in Desperate Living is a level of earnestness that I haven’t even seen from Hollywood’s actors of today. I could jump up outta my seat and kiss her on the mouth!

Flashback to my introduction to Mink Stole: I wish I could say the first time I saw her was in a Waters film, but no. The year was 2015. The town? Irvine, California. I was cramped into my friend’s tiny one room apartment that we lovingly referred to as The Casita. I was an absolute menace back then. Any free moment we had, I would beg and barter and fight to put on any horrible early aughts gay movie found on Netflix. This began with Were the World Mine, a modern adaptation of A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream, then my perverse desires found something to really sink my teeth into. The series was called EATING OUT and it was NO GOOD. Well, turns out Miss Minky is a reoccurring character (somebody’s gay aunt I believe) in the Eating Out series! So here we are.

Shhhh now don’t tell anyone who doesn’t have BPD (and if you’re someone who doesn’t have it and you’re reading this yourself? Shame on you, snoopy. I know what you’re doing and the authorities are on their way over to remove you from the premises) but this right here is the sacred text. Shhh, it’s okay, I’m crazy. If my parents had only showed me Desperate Living when I was a troubled youth instead of threatening to send me off to boarding school! In Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Water, he talks about showing this film to incarcerated folks in a prison he was visiting. Apparently even they were horrified, claiming they’d rather stay locked up than risk entering the world of Waters. In that way, it’s the perfect piece of Scared Straight media. I only wish I could go back in time and see if watching this at age 10-16 would’ve fixed me. I guess it’s never too late.