Movies to stream: The art of filth

John Waters is leading the charge in this week's singularly nasty streaming picks

There will always be a special place in my heart for a movie covered head to toe in grime; a movie with subject matter or aesthetic sensibilities that are so unapologetically disgusting that recommending them sometimes feels wrong. Not this week, though!

This kind of filth is essential to the art of cinema. I love a Frank Capra classic or Spielberg blockbuster as much as the next person, but there must always be space to violate good taste.

When done well, a movie that defiantly pushes the bounds of respectability can make you feel alive in a way that a rigid, austere arthouse picture can. (Not to knock those films, either).

What I’m trying to say is, that there must be space for all kinds of films— dirty and clean, long and short, those embedded in realism and those untethered from reality.

As the holidays approach, I have the urge to ignore the spirit of warmth and generosity and instead honor the art of filth. Here are movies that are hilariously unrefined, filled with unseemly bodily fluids, or dispatches from an alternate, unsanitary dimension.

(Unless otherwise noted, all movies are available to rent from Apple, Amazon, etc. in addition to the listed streaming services. But if you watch them and like them, I’d consider buying physical copies 😃).

Double feature: Desperate Living (1977) and Anatomy of Hell (2004)

Both films are streaming on The Criterion Channel.

Of course, I couldn’t write a newsletter about the art of filth without including John Waters, and Desperate Living is his (rarely streamable) masterpiece.

It begins with Mink Stole’s unhinged housewife Peggy Gravel being released from a mental institution. Her son and his friends are playing baseball outside, and a ball shatters one of her bedroom windows.

In one of the single funniest moments in a Waters film (and by that logic, in any film), she unleashes a seemingly endless reserve of hate on the children.

“Go home to your mother! Doesn't she ever watch you? Tell her this isn't some communist daycare center! Tell your mother I hate her! Tell your mother I hate you!” she shouts.

Not long after, she and her maid Grizelda (Jean Hill) go on the lam after the two of them kill Peggy’s husband. They stumble on Mortville, a grotesque, fascistic village of miscreants hidden in the woods. Peggy and Grizelda must find a way to endear themselves to the ruler, Queen Carlotta (Edith Massey), so that they can remain hidden from the authorities.

Desperate Living is my favorite Waters film. While Stole typically shines in supporting roles in his work, here she takes the lead, and gives one of my all-time favorite film performances. The movie is pure, unwashed madness from start to finish.