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Female Trouble

NC-17 Released Oct 4, 1975 1h 35m Comedy Drama List
90% Tomatometer 30 Reviews 85% Audience Score 5,000+ Ratings
An obese woman (Divine) gives birth to an obnoxious child and embarks upon a bizarre and violent life of crime. Read More Read Less
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Female Trouble

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Critics Consensus

Director John Waters' affection for camp brings texture to societal transgression in Female Trouble, a brazenly subversive dive into celebrity and mayhem.

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Critics Reviews

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Richard Brody New Yorker The resulting feast of sex, violence, cruelty, and frivolity mocks sentimental notions of family, work, and love, and turns the egomaniacal furies of pop culture inside out. Dec 17, 2018 Full Review Gary Dowell Dallas Morning News One of John Waters' best and most notorious movies. Rated: B- Apr 18, 2002 Full Review Dennis Harvey 48 Hills Probably the best of Waters' early "underground" features, even if it's a tad less famous than the preceding Pink Flamingos. Jan 2, 2024 Full Review Kyndall Cunningham The Daily Beast Observing Waters’ comedic genius always feels like a present to me. Dec 5, 2022 Full Review Trace Thurman Horror Queers Podcast John Waters' trashterpiece is just as hilarious today as it was almost 50 years ago. Just bring your pearls with you in case you need to clutch them. Rated: 4.5/5 Jul 25, 2022 Full Review Joe Lipsett Horror Queers Podcast Deeply offensive in virtually every way, this film is a trashy delight that is also a perfect introduction to John Waters' early work. Rated: 4/5 Jul 18, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Courtney K how do these movies get rated so high? lol - it's exactly what you'd expect from Divine & Waters. they're all the same, but they are intriguing. everyone is vile, naked, & yelling. i always wonder if everyone involved genuinely enjoys being involved or not. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/30/23 Full Review Audience Member A John Water’s cult classic! Hilarious, outrageous and even grotesque! Divine stills every scene. Throughly entertaining Rated 5 out of 5 stars 08/16/21 Full Review Audience Member Pretty good plot except for the extreme almost constant profanity to the point that it kinda gives me a headache. I'm really glad that this wasn't NC-17 due to pornographic reasons or else I probably would've stopped watching within the first 10 minutes. The movie starts off with some teenage girl cussing out her teacher it seems over like homework or something afterward when she's kinda worried about getting a detention and she gets home she cusses out and trashes the Christmas tree at her house and attacks her family and starts to run away. Her parents try to tell her to come back (tons of cusswords) and that they're going to put her in a home. She runs far away and hitch hikes and gets pregnant and starts crying about the person who got her pregnant not wanting to help out with the baby. This movie hooked me in real good and, she ends up having people take promiscious pictures of her committing crimes in the far future when her kid is like around 14 or so and doing really edgy stuff, including cutting someone's hand off. Until she kills someone in the name of 'art' and gets executed an the movie is over, I feel like she soundn't have gotten executed because the guy gave consent LOL. THIS MOVIE IS SUCH AN ADVENTURE, don't worry you'll eventually tune out the extremely heavy cussing. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member Although it's uneven and runs too long, no other filmmaker or studio came near the heights of film making that Waters' did. This is another film of genius by America's greatest filmmaker. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 01/14/23 Full Review joe m Hilarious, raunchy, at times disgusting, while also being way a head of its time, "Female Trouble" is a movie that must be seen at least once. John Waters does a fantastic job on a limited budget showing the descent of Dawn Davenport (Divine) from juvenile delinquent, to criminal, to murderer - all in the pursuit of 'art' and stardom. Divine gives an unbelievably over the top performance, as Dawn and as Earl Peterson, the man who takes her virginity and impregnates her. The rest of the cast, all Waters' regulars, give equally raunchy and histrionic turns. Waters does a great job of showing the grittier side of Baltimore and the lifestyle of the low and crass. "Female Trouble" is not for the faint of heart, so be warned. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 03/30/23 Full Review Audience Member While it's camp gold, it shouldn't be dismissed as just what's on the surface. It may be trash and it may seem like ridiculous nonsense, but it's actually a sharp, biting satire on fame and celebrity, and the lengths some will go to achieve it. This is also peak divine. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 01/08/20 Full Review Read all reviews
Female Trouble

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Cast & Crew

Mistress 88% 72% Mistress Matador 93% 78% Matador Orgazmo 48% 66% Orgazmo Last Tango in Paris 82% 75% Last Tango in Paris In the Realm of the Senses 85% 64% In the Realm of the Senses Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis An obese woman (Divine) gives birth to an obnoxious child and embarks upon a bizarre and violent life of crime.
Director
John Waters
Producer
John Waters
Distributor
Wizard Video
Production Co
Dreamland
Rating
NC-17
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Oct 4, 1975, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Feb 17, 2014
Runtime
1h 35m
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