YouTube actually recommended me a short clip from the film Cry-Baby (1990) — so much for the precision of algorithms. In every respect, this film bears the marks of the late 1980s and early ’90s, though it also carries plenty of director John Waters’s own distinctive flavor. The music in it has that feel of skipping class to fall in love. Of course, I imagine many people watch this film just to catch a glimpse of a young, handsome Johnny Depp, which is a perfectly natural visual craving. Depp really is handsome in it, especially when he cries. I imagine scenes like that must have swept quite a few viewers off their feet back then (see comments like this one).

What interests me more is where this film stands within John Waters’s body of work as a whole. Why this particular eccentric director would make a film like this genuinely puzzles me. If we go with the conventional critical line — that it’s a reflection on adolescent coming-of-age — didn’t Female Trouble (1974), from the ’70s, address that far more thoroughly? Perhaps that’s exactly why, in the eyes of most people, Cry-Baby comes across as nothing more than a lighthearted teen romp.

John Waters has admitted he enjoys watching “mainstream” films like Final Destination 2 (2003). When asked in an interview whether his style had changed since Polyester (1981), he gave an amusing retort: “Why would I be a 61-year-old faux-rebel asshole?” I now feel that I’ll never be able to guess what he’ll say next, what colored clothes or socks he’ll wear, or what his next work will even be about. But a person like that is certainly no asshole.