47
Metascore
10 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 100Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanEntertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanIn Pink Flamingos, Waters did something subversive and, in its gross way, quite spectacular: He created his own hell-bent, sick-joke Oz, with Divine as its wicked-witch queen.
- 80CineVueAdam LowesCineVueAdam LowesPink Flamingos remains a delightfully repugnant cinematic treasure. Watching Divine as she struts her stuff amongst the genuinely dumbfounded residents of downtown Baltimore, perfectly encapsulates with Waters was reaching for with the film.
- 75TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThe improbable star of this ultra-low budget cinematic gross-out is 300-pound transvestite Divine, whose willingness to do virtually anything in front of the camera, along with an undeniable screen presence, made Pink Flamingos a favorite on the campus and midnight-movie circuits.
- 67The A.V. ClubKeith PhippsThe A.V. ClubKeith PhippsAlmost anyone could dig up and film someone with the ability to lip-synch using his a**hole, but it takes genius to set the scene to Surfin' Bird.
- 67Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovAustin ChronicleMarc SavlovPink Flamingos is, in its own unique way, the quintessential American Family Film. Not my family, certainly, and probably not yours, but a family nonetheless. So here's to family values. And shock values, too.
- One thing you can say for Pink Flamingos, it has a frat party chumminess, even at its most repulsive. In the late '60s and through the '70s, Waters used the same gang of pals for his ensemble, and that created a kind of "let's get down and dirty together" camaraderie.
- 20Time OutTime OutWaters raids de Sade in pursuit of extremes, but the difference between him and Warhol (or that other arch-exponent of extreme disgust, Otto Muehl) is that Waters' grotesquerie is decidedly trivial.
- 0Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertChicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertJohn Waters' Pink Flamingos has been restored for its 25th anniversary revival, and with any luck at all that means I won't have to see it again for another 25 years. If I haven't retired by then, I will.