DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

Izzy Adkins The movie is surprisingly subdued in its pacing, its characterizations, and its go-for-broke sensibilities.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Raymond Sierra The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

MartinHafer Here's a little background information about the film's director, John Waters. In the late 1960s and 1970s, he was cult film director with a small but devoted following. The earliest of these films were exceptionally perverse but oddly charming (such as the almost impossible to watch PINK FLAMINGOS--which features the eating of feces, among other revolting things). A bit later, his films were a bit less offensive, though they still had a bizarre home-made quality to them. These are the films I love the most, such as FEMALE TROUBLE and POLYESTER, which are still offensive but manage to be a bit more palatable to the average viewer AND still feature the John Waters touches, such as horrible over-acting and a cast of lovable weirdos (such as Divine and Edith Massey--the only woman uglier than the cross-dressing Divine). Then, in the mid-80s onward, Waters actually made quite a few relatively "normal" films that were quite mainstream--culminating in his most mainstream film, HAIRSPRAY.Now, with PECKER, it seems that Waters is trying to combine his earliest style of films with the newer commercially attractive films. The film features material that is at times much more offensive than what you'd recently seen in CRY BABY, SERIAL MOM and HAIRSPRAY--and it would have resulting in this film receiving an X rating had it been made in the 70s or 80s--a close up "beaver shot" like you see repeatedly in PECKER was highly reminiscent of the early style. However, at the same time, the production values are very high and the story amazingly conventional despite the language and crotch shots. As a result, the film left me pretty cold. Plus, this is NOT a film I could let my kids watch--though I did have no problem with my oldest watching POLYESTER.As for the plot, it's obviously intended as a form of autobiography by Waters. While he had become more mainstream by 1998, the film's message is be true to your tacky and garish roots and the evils of being discovered by "the right people". Perhaps the extremes in the film was his attempt to regain this original flavor, though without Divine, Edith Massey AND high production values, the effort comes up very short. I guess Waters never can truly go back!By the way, this film once again featured a small role for Patty Hearst and for her age, she was quite "hot". Way to go Ms. Hearst!

Lee Eisenberg Going for something far away from the deliberately gross stuff that he usually makes, John Waters (happy birthday, John!) made this parody of the celebrity/art world. Edward Furlong plays the title character, a working-class teenager in Baltimore who loves to photograph things. When a New York agent (Lili Taylor) discovers his work, she offers him his big break, which he accepts. But once he hits it big, he has to reconsider everything.Basically, "Pecker" looks at how he loses his friends and his normal life once he becomes a celebrity. The sort of thing that we might expect, sure, but with Waters directing, there's always a few things to shock us (you'll know them when you see them). I certainly recommend it. Also starring Christina Ricci, Mink Stole and Patty Hearst.

Coventry John Waters became a cult-cinema hero in the 70's instantly after delivering the bad-taste milestone "Pink Flamingos" and he continued pleasing his trash-horny fans (including me) with extraordinary and incomparable movies like "Female Trouble", "Desperate Living" and "Polyester". True, Waters' movies were offensive, shocking and often repulsive but they simultaneously were unique outsiders in an overall politically correct American film industry. Nearly twenty years later, there's very few ingeniousness left inside Water's mind and it also looks like he has developed morality and grew a consciousness. He still pretends to be controversial by portraying his beloved Baltimore as an antipathetic wasteland where the people are shameless and eccentric, but he sure ain't provoking anybody. The plot of "Pecker" is very ordinary and basically just a reworking of two of the oldest 'lessons' in storytelling. 1) success and wealth do not equal happiness and 2) home sweet home... even if it is Baltimore! Pecker works in a snack bar but he merely is obsessed by photography and spends his days stalking friends, family and neighbors with a camera as the extension of his eyes. During a local presentation, he's discovered by a fancy New York art dealer and, all of a sudden, every eminent art critic is interested in Pecker's portrayal of the 'culturally challenged' (like described beautifully in the film) models. The dialogs are dull, the script is unoriginal and most gags are so tasteless that they seem to come straight out of a Farrelly-brothers movie (sex in a cubicle?). The acting isn't very good neither and especially Christina Ricci was a bad choice to play the neurotic laundry-shrew. Thank God there also are some positive things to mention! The little Chrissy character, for example, Pecker's hyperactive and sugar-addicted kid sister. Or the "shopping for others" game, which really looks like fun.

paul_mampilly This movie is one of those which I saw by pure chance. We have all seen one of these before, whether flicking through the channels through insomnia, or through plain boredom and seem to catch the first five minutes of the film. So I could not get any sleep, since my circadian rhythms is gone to pot, and the TV was my only source of entertainment of that day, due to the lack of motivation of going out and money I have. What can i say, I am a university student? Watch out for Spoilers.The main character Pecker, is a amateur shutterbug, who would take any pictures of his humdrum but quirky life. He takes pictures of his bizarre family, which would consist of a ADHD little sister, a female sibling who is an MC for a gay strip club, a grandma who is seems to hear the Virgin Mary speak to her, even though it is her who provides the voice for her, a philantrophic mother and a father who wants to boycott the lesbian strip club next door to his bar. The little world that he lives in gets the camera treatment and the local people get involved as well. Pecker decides to hold his photographs on show in his work place, whereby a high profile art collector sees his work and absolutely loves it. This is where the roller-coaster of Pecker's life begins. The art collector begins to show Pecker's work in the big art galleries, and he is a darling in the modern art scene, to the dismay and disgust of his townsfolk.The story is pretty basic with some gaping plot holes and a pretty easy ending to tie it up. However it is not the plot which gives it the enjoyment, but the characters and the predicaments that occur with them. I think Edward Furlong is perfect as the main character, however this is not a career defining movie for him, but somehow he did enjoy it. The indie darling Christina Ricci did not have enough to play on this role of Pecker's annoyed girlfriend, but she did what she could. The other characters were a little bit bizarre but seemed to fit into the movie quite well. Though there is one character I liked a lot, which was little Chrissy. She may have had probably one of the funniest scenes in the movie, where she is off the sugar and chocolate and onto the vegetables. She just snorts a piece of vegetable. That got me in stitches that no one can imagine.In conclusion, I think this movie does have to get some recommendation for at least trying hard to be funny, and the characters are quite amicable. However I wish they did not have a really fluffy ending. That was a let down.