Hairspray (1988)
The movie follows Tracy Turnblad, a 'pleasantly plump' teenager who teaches 1962 Baltimore a thing or two about integration after landing a spot on a local TV dance show and wins the coveted 'Miss Auto Show' crown.
12 September 1971, Washington, District of Columbia, USA
19 January 1948, Reidsville, North Carolina, USA
12 January 1928, Portsmouth, Virginia, USA
January 23, 1974 in Baltimore, Maryland, USA
8 June 1927, New York City, New York, USA
17 February 1965, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
1934, Monroe, Louisiana, USA
15 September 1971, Baltimore, Maryland, USA
22 January 1971, Dover, New Hampshire, USA
16 July 1974, Whittier, California, USA
March 10, 2014
While it's corny by design, Hairspray also aims to get at something truthful, about the various kinds of prejudice [...] and how youthful optimism and music made a difference [...].
July 16, 2007
Not only Waters's best movie, but a crossover gesture that expands his appeal without compromising his vision one iota; Ricki Lake as the hefty young heroine is especially delightful.
January 01, 2000
The movie is a bubble-headed series of teenage crises and crushes, alternating with historically accurate choreography of such forgotten dances as the Madison and the Roach.
December 18, 2010
A kitschy teen fantasy you can dance to.
July 10, 2016
Waters tones down his usual excesses, but his mischievous black sense of humour is still very much to the fore in this affectionate salute to Z-grade teen movies.
May 28, 2008
When Divine's Edna Turnblad is on-screen in the sleeveless dresses she's partial to, the movie has something like the lunacy of a W. C. Fields in drag.
June 30, 2007
John Waters' appreciation for the tacky side of life is in full flower in Hairspray, a slight but often highly amusing diversion about integration, big girls' fashions and music-mad teens in 1962 Baltimore.
September 03, 2015
Perhaps Waters' best known movie.
September 12, 2007
The Waters film for your grandma, who will probably be only a little bit freaked out by it.
May 20, 2003
The actors are best when they avoid exaggeration and remain weirdly sincere. That way, they do nothing to break the vibrant, even hallucinogenic spell of Mr. Waters's nostalgia.
August 08, 2009
The shock Waters's cinema offers, then, is not transcendent, but almost reflexive, implicating the viewer in the awkward complexities of his own humanity and forcing him to either celebrate it or run screaming away.
June 24, 2006
Waters' most hygienically commercial film is a Retro schlock-fancier's delight.

