It’s no Pink Flamingos or Female Troubles (that one’s my favorite), but like all of John Waters’ films, it has his distinct mark which means it’s worth seeing. Every moment of every film he has ever made are clearly his. I can’t think of many other directors for whom that can be said. Serial Mom is not among his best, but there was enough to make this worth my time: most notably Sam Waterston, going completely against-type. I had walked past this flick in the video store hundreds of times. (Maybe even thousands - I did work in a video store for more than three years) But I never picked it up. I don’t know why, really… I guess there was always something I wanted to see more. The film was re-released as a Special Edition DVD recently. There is a great new making-of on it, which catches up with Waters and pretty much all of the cast and crew. Even Sam Waterston. The only person missing: Kathleen Turner, but she does turn up with Waters for a commentary.
2/5