Serial Mom

This time the pope of poor taste and grandmaster of camp turns his attention to the middle-class idyll, or rather its gaudy Hallmark-style television image. Within John Waters’ filmography, Serial Mom falls into the group of subtly campy titles that are easy to condemn as shallow trash and accept as passably mainstream in equal measure, and therein lies their sophistication and subversiveness. In that respect, nothing surpasses Waters’ crossover success with the musical Hairspray. However, Serial Mom can also be impressive in how it subjugates the mainstream style and format. The tension between the film’s meticulous stylisation and warped premise makes Serial Mom one of John Waters’ most delicate and subversive projects. (11/06/2022)