Simply A Masterpiece

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

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

It’s sentimental, ridiculously long and only occasionally funny

You gotta admit it, you were either shaking around dancing or just sway your head around for the music you hear on this movie. Although you might be aware, Johnny Depp and Amy Locane aren't singing in this which is a total shame because it would've made it more natural! This would definitely remind you of Grease and Hairspray, it is such an inspiring love story that will make you feel like you're in a different universe. Man, it would be better that way any day! You will also laugh at this too. I have to say, my favorite scene was definitely where the rat giggled when he showed Crybaby the wrong way to escape the prison, it was hilarious! There are other scene's as well that were so slapstick!If you loved Grease or Hairspray, you gotta watch this!

In 1954 Baltimore bad boy Cry Baby (Johnny Depp) falls for sweet and innocent Allison Vernon-Williams (Amy Locane). She also falls for him to the horror of her mother (Polly Bergen perfectly cast) and her boyfriend who will do anything to get her back.This movie was obviously made to recreate the success of John Waters' earlier film "Hairspray" which was a huge hit. It didn't even come close and it's easy to see why. It's not a bad movie at all. It has a great soundtrack and the song and dance numbers are incredible (especially the ones in the prison). The cast is all good. Depp is fun in his first movie; Locane is very sexy; Ricki Lake is having a great time; Traci Lords wisely kids her porn star image. The problem is the script. It's very scattershot and rambles all over the place. It moves around so much I was lost at a few points. The movie never pulls itself together. There are tons of great moment's but it never works as a whole. So--it's worth seeing just for the music numbers alone but it's no "Hairspray".

When I see a film like John Waters' Cry-Baby it almost whispers to me that there should be no such thing as a "parody movie." There should only be homages to clichés, genres, and eras. Cry-Baby is an homage to the era of the fifties where greasy hair, tight jeans, leather jackets, and rock 'n' roll was the norm. While not being alive in the fifties but knowing a lot about the lifestyle, culture, and politics of the era, I can say that from my own knowledge it seems like it knows what it's doing.John Waters is a provocative film director, which makes him the perfect, yet unexpected director for a film of this magnitude. It's an odd, yet delightful film that would be misunderstood by a mainstream audience, but a scrumptious bowl of delight to his cult following. For that reason is why it most likely didn't do well at the box office. Like all of Waters' films, it developed a cult following years later, but has always been unfairly compared to his more successful musical Hairspray.Cry-Baby and Hairspray are two different films. Hairspray follows a chubby teenage girl who wants to become a dancer in a town divided by racial segregation. It wasn't trying to pay homage to anything, but was trying to be a fun and energetic musical with a message. Cry-Baby is the exact opposite. It's a film that follows the rebellious rocker Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker, played fantastically by Johnny Depp, who occupies a strange ability to cry one single tear from his left eye.This ability woos all the girls, including Alison Vernon-Williams (Locane), a good girl who finally wants to cut loose and shy away from her cutesy image. She wants to join Cry-Baby and his gang of Drapes (a pun on the name "greaser)." She herself is a square, taken in by her grandparents after her parents' death. The problem is that she can't totally rely on Cry-Baby because his rebellious lifestyle tends to get him in a lot of trouble.Like a lot of good campy films, there is no real plot. Just very interesting characters. What Cry-Baby is too is a delightful social commentary on new generation trends and the old ones' response on them. Every decade comes with trends; the sixties for their peace, the seventies for their rebellion, the eighties for their wackiness, and the nineties for their laid back style. Each trend receives shocked looks from adults and natural ones from the teens involved in them. Cry-Baby shows how different lifestyles are taken by each generation and then bashed by people who went through that same rebellious state when they were younger. It's hypocritical, sure, but it's natural. After all, we all want the best for our youngins. So we want them to stay away from the rebellious lifestyles. But we also want them to be unique. What a paradox.I'm making the film sound too serious, when in fact, it's subtle in its commentary. It's a high-energy film all around. The musical numbers are catchy and addicting, and the actors do a great job with the material that has been handed to them. Especially Depp who basically tells us "whatever I act in you'll have to accept." Cry-Baby floats in a sea of innocence and isn't at all cocky with its material like some films are in the same genre. It simply wants to show us the paradox of generations, a well done character study on multiple different people, a mixture of Elvis films, Grease, and others of the leather jacket-generation, and just a fun musical as well. Its campy style will be disliked by some, questioned by many, but loved by the true cult-cravers.Starring: Johnny Depp, Amy Locane, Susan Tyrrell, Polly Bergen, Iggy Pop, Ricki Lake, Traci Lords, Kim McGuire, Darren E. Burrows, Stephen Mailer, Troy Donahue, Patricia Hearst, and Joey Heatherton. Directed by: John Waters.

First and foremost, this is a spot on parody of 1950's juvenile delinquent films. If you've never seen any of the old movies it's making fun of...or if you just don't get satire...then you may not like Cry Baby. But if you're fan of Rebel Without a Cause, The Wild One, The Deliquents, etc...well, then you simply shouldn't miss this film.Wade 'Cry Baby' Walker is the bad boy who is, in reality, not so bad. He has a soft side and is in love with the squeaky clean good girl, Allison. Their affair causes a rift between the two social factions of Baltimore, the rich kid 'Squares' and the cool kid 'Drapes'. The characters are way over the top, the dialog is oh so clichéd....and that's what makes it fantastic! The soundtrack doesn't hurt either! Just like Waters' Hairspray, the soundtrack is almost a lead character itself. Even the choreographed, production numbers (which is something I'd normally hate) are extremely enjoyable because they're such obvious jabs at Elvis movie song sequences.The cast of this film is just amazing. Johnny Depp is supremo hot and Amy Locane is great considering she was only 19 and just starting her career. Iggy Pop is PERFECT and absolutely adorable as Uncle Belvedere. Ricky Lake, Traci Lords and the rest of the 'gang' are a hoot! And of course there's Patty Hearst, Willem Defoe, and the legendary Polly Bergen and lovely Joey Heatherton (you'll find her unrecognizable as Milton's sourpuss, bible thumping mother!) The best thing about the cast though, was the inclusion of some of the actual old teen stars from the '50s in cameos: David Nelson, Troy Donahue. Fun script, fun cast...just FUN all around! 9/10