Pecker *** (1998, Edward Furlong, Christina Ricci, Bess Armstrong) – Classic Movie Review 1048

An amiable if rather obvious 1998 satirical comedy from writer-director John Waters, who tones down his trademark bad taste and doesn’t have quite enough big laughs or big charm to put in its place.

Edward Furlong stars as Pecker, who is poor and white, and living in Baltimore but all he wants to do is take weird pictures. He’s working in a sandwich shop and takes photos of his loving but peculiar family and friends.

Nobody thinks anything of his ugly pix of everyday life until an art dealer from New York discovers his work and turns him into a media star. Though success brings money, fame begins to ruin everything. Pecker is one the road to losing his friends and Shelley (Christina Ricci) the street-smart girl he loves.

Furlong and Ricci are both fine, there are some winning characters and some good gags, but the story is pretty weak – and the satire of the New York art scene is surprisingly very stale and feeble.

Bess Armstrong, Mark Joy, Mary Kay Place, Martha Plimpton, Brendan Sexton III, Mink Stole, Lili Taylor and Patricia Hearst are also in the cast.

It contains sex, nudity, language and drug use. Waters said the TV network his friend Ricki Lake (who played Tracy Turnblad in his 1988 Hairspray) was working for with her talk show wouldn’t allow her to appear in a film called Pecker.

© Derek Winnert 2014 Classic Film Review 1048 derekwinnert.com