Review of Hairspray by Misshapen_Steed

An extremely fun musical movie with (just almost) nothing but bangers, however I feel that it falters terribly in its approach to the politics of the original. If you haven't seen the original, I get where people are getting the eye-rolling white savior shit, but as someone who just watched the original, I feel like its refusal to not go as far as the original John Waters film puts it in this kind of uncomfortable zone of maybe not understanding it, or just simply not wanting to go there. It feels like rather than saying "This is all a little ridiculous, isn't it?", it's just ridiculous. The movie does feel pretty self aware though to me, so I don't know. And obviously, this is an adaptation of the musical, and I don't know what changes were made between the original, the musical and this movie, but that is ultimately irrelevant. Mrs. Pingleton's hilarious venture into a black neighborhood was sorely missed.

I was expecting to despise Travolta's take on Divine's Edna Turnblad, but I kinda fuckin loved him AND Christopher Walken as Tracy's parents. Seeing Jerry Stiller was a treat too. Really fun movie that in the end left me a little confused.