A Dirty Shame
Fine Line Features | Release Date: September 24, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
56
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 34 Critic Reviews
Positive:
16
Mixed:
11
Negative:
7
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
88
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
A Dirty Shame is certainly dirty, and maybe it's even a shame. But this is the John Waters we've come to know and cherish, and that alone is cause to celebrate. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
This raucously gritty and high-spirited film could scarcely be bluer in terms of the language, but from Waters it comes as a gust of fresh air. Read full review
80
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
Returns to the wicked mix of transgression and positivity epitomized by "Pecker" and "Hairspray." Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
John Waters may not be a great filmmaker, but he's usually onto something, and A Dirty Shame is onto something big. Read full review
78
Austin ChronicleMarc Savlov
A genuine cri de couer in the director’s long-running battle against the forces of censorship and a banal societal (and cinematic) status quo. And for those reasons along it deserves to be seen. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
A Dirty Shame is Waters unleashed, and wicked, kinky fun for anyone except the twits who rated it NC-17. Read full review
75
Miami HeraldRene Rodriguez
Fabulously perverted comedy. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
It may not be art, but A Dirty Shame is shameless fun. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
A big, lascivious punch line about America's peculiar, embarrassed, hypocritical relationship with sex. Read full review
75
PremiereGlenn Kenny
Shame is a welcome reminder that sex is sometimes too ridiculous to take so seriously. Read full review
70
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
John Waters has returned to trashy form with what is unquestionably his most outrageous film since those heady "Pink Flamingos" days. Read full review
70
SalonStephanie Zacharek
With big Hollywood movies getting glossier and more mechanical, and indie movies increasingly mistaking drabness for seriousness, we need Waters' sub-B-movie aesthetic more now than ever. Read full review
67
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
You can only kick against it so long before you succumb to its sheer energy and verve. Waters and company simply have too much fun for some of it not to reach out and touch you through the movie screen. If you can stand the pace, you'll likely leave happy. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie Rickey
Raunchily entertaining farce. Read full review
63
New York PostLou Lumenick
Tends to run low on steam well before the end, though Waters gamely tries to pump things up with filthy novelty tunes and clips from old stag films. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
All trash, all all the time, a run-on burlesque of lust. Read full review
60
New York Magazine (Vulture)Peter Rainer
Despite its exuberant perversities, Waters’s take on erotomania is almost quaint. Read full review
60
VarietyDavid Rooney
Frequently hilarious but ultimately is a protracted one-joke affair that strays into undisciplined chaos. Read full review
60
Village VoiceJ. Hoberman
Waters's far-from-phallocratic sexual democracy is not so much hilarious as goofy and more rousing than arousing. Read full review
60
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Embracing ugliness, lousy production values, and borderline hysteria as virtues, A Dirty Shame is one for the cultists, a proud retreat back into the sandbox of sexual juvenilia, a potty-mouthed manifesto from an elder statesman of shock. Read full review
60
L.A. WeeklyElla Taylor
I love what his films stand for -- inclusivity, tolerance, liberation and fun -- but I’ve always felt about his movies as I do about Monty Python: Half an hour is a riot; an hour and half starts to be a chore. Read full review
50
NewsweekDavid Ansen
Never mean-spirited, A Dirty Shame has some big laughs, but it's a one-joke movie that shows its strain well before the finish line. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
A Dirty Shame isn't dirty fun. It's the perv "Footloose." Read full review
50
Christian Science MonitorDavid Sterritt
The humor is more childish than raunchy, but it's interesting to see that becoming a big-time Broadway impresario hasn't led Waters to sell out his affection for gross-out gags. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam Lacey
Waters's rude, lewd and occasionally nude extended skit takes a simple idea and beats it limp. Read full review
40
The New York TimesDana Stevens
I object to A Dirty Shame not because it is offensive - to do so would be another way of congratulating Mr. Waters for his bogus daring - but because it is boring. Beyond offering a catalog of interesting practices and lampooning their dedicated practitioners, the movie has very little to say about sex. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
It can hardly help but outrage at least some of the people some of the time. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
John Waters is back with this awfully bawdy, never sexy, rarely funny, actually boring, one-note sex comedy. Read full review
30
Film ThreatPhil Hall
Easily the most surprising comedy of his career. The surprise: it's not funny. Read full review
30
Dallas ObserverMelissa Levine
The very best thing about A Dirty Shame, a giddy sex farce from John Waters, is the credits. Read full review
30
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
Predictable outrage. Read full review
25
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
Monotonous, repetitive and sometimes wildly wrong in what it hopes is funny. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleSteven Winn
Squanders its comic capital on redundant bits about her perplexed family and secret society of fellow sex addicts. Read full review
25
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
Tracey Ullman is a bright spot in an otherwise sordid, murky production. Read full review
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