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Stephen Dorff plays an independent and extremist director, Cecil B Demented, who kidnaps Hollywood star Honey Whitlock (Melanie Griffith) to make her star in his anti-Hollywood picture. The director advocates an anti-commercial cinema without make-up, chooses very real targets that his actors (or his faithful) attack for real under his camera's eye. The arrogant Hollywood actress will find her vocation and join, body and soul, the group that will carry out its convictions to the end. The film continually oscillates between reality and fiction. Demented's film rapidly glides into reality since its targets and attacks are quite real. So real, in fact, that the film turns into a documentary about the terrorist actions of a band of extreme movie lovers. Demented's film in fact turns into cinéma-vérité the moment Griffith's character switches camps. As long as Griffith plays the role of a terrorist group ringleader in these very real attacks, we are indeed watching Demented's film. However, as soon as she succumbs to the ideology of the group, she takes possession of her actions and her dialogue joins her convictions. She is no longer acting, she is one of them, and Demented's film now becomes a documentary. From this moment Demented and his camera's eye no longer have reason to be. Demented's camera becomes that of John Waters, and Demented is nothing more than an actor in a film by director John Waters. There is no more film within a film, only Water's film about a group of young terrorist cinephiles. By appropriating Demented's role and film, Waters satisfies his anti-Hollywood fantasies and clearly shows his true convictions. Director Cecil B Demented serves him as a substitute for his own settling of scores. And the fact that Cecil B Demented is the name of both the director and the film only confirms that he is a creation on film and Waters's puppet. Waters's story is inspired by a true story, that of William Heart's (who inspired Citizen Kane by Orson Welles) granddaughter Patty Hearst who was kidnapped and then took the side of her abductors. In the spirit of further disrupting the limits between fiction and reality, the real Patti Hearst plays the mother of one of Melanie Griffith's kidnappers in the film. Thus John Waters attacks Hollywood. From the opening titles he lays his cards on the table. His targets are commercial productions, successful third-rate films, and family movies (the antipodes of his own efforts, obviously), as well as dubbed films and remakes of foreign films. So one is not surprised by allusions to ; Star Wars, Star Trek, The Postman and other third-rate films. It's interesting to note that many of the third-rate films mentioned are proud winners of the Golden Raspberry Awards, of which John Waters is a member. Though it's obviously easy to make fun of this movie genre, the film becomes more audacious when he attacks major films of popular movie culture. Beginning with Patch Adams (also nominated for the Raspberry Awards 1999!)-though it had certain popular success, the film symbolizes the hypocritical and indigestible vapidity of Hollywood, for whom nice cheesy feelings and cheap humor always make a good recipe. We cannot forget Robin Williams, who since The Dead Poet's Society has foundered into self-caricature and the grotesque. He has managed to link cheesy roles into the same mold- whether he's a teacher, doctor, or robot. Waters is easily understood, given what he's up against. Next comes Gump Again, his Bostonian sequel to Forrest Gump. A film considered a masterwork and crowned with an Academy Award, that nonetheless uses the same ingredients as a Patch Adams but with a better budget (Plus, anything with Tom Hanks spells Academy Award, guaranteed.). The attack scenes during the Director's Cut showing of Patch Adams or the filming of Gump Again are absolutely hilarious. Waters's film is double-edged. Though Hollywood is the obvious target, neither independent nor underground cinema is spared. One easily notes that Demented's cinematic rules are inspired by the famous rules of Dogma, while the style and manner of film making go back to Troma and Waters himself. Through the members of Demented's group, from the trashy to the pseudo-intellectual, everyone is stripped down and shown for what they are. When they reclaim art, Waters puts them back in their place through a group of concerned mothers who scream: "You're going straight-to-video!". Thus Waters practices self-derision and makes fun of those he has influenced. As for the film itself? It's very entertaining—a treat for those who delight in the second degree and scathing humor. Cecil B Demented is much more biting than Waters's last films (Pecker, Serial Mom). Provocation is still there, even if it's lighter than his debut years. As for the characters, they are caricatures, certainly, but obviously to the profit of satire. The terrorists all belong to minorities and wear tattoos of cult directories. The choice of minorities is justified as they are ones precisely opposed to mainstream cinema and the majority. But the fact that they claim these cult directors, that they're trashy, and don't necessarily make good pictures intentionally serves Waters: namely the satire of independent or underground cinema that self proclaims its own quality. Waters also pokes gentle fun at porn and karate-action films who are also in the same category as he is. Melanie Griffith is a judicious choice. In line with Celebrity, she is a star who's searching, and clearly Cecil B Demented brings to her career what Demented's film brings to her character: rebirth and respect. Her acting is charming and far from catastrophic (unlike her previous movies), which her character refers to in the film. Also, Waters winks again: one notes that her ex-husband, played by Eric Roberts, is a B-movie king, just like her real life ex, Steven Bauer. Stephen Dorff also finally finds a certain credibility and successfully takes on the air of someone demented. The rest of the group stays in Troma's register-which they represent. Cecil B Demented is a jubilant film that will make right-thinking people and those with blinkers on grind their teeth. Terrorist cinema that does some good in the current cinematic landscape.
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