Cry-Baby 1990

Gene Siskel, Chicago Tribune: For a while the actors seem intimidated by the '50s references, but the film eventually develops a musical energy that carries the day. Read more

Dave Kehr, Chicago Tribune: Cry-Baby doesn`t have a subject, but only a format-a rickety framework erected to support a few broad gags and a few indifferently filmed production numbers. Read more

Peter Rainer, Los Angeles Times: Cry-Baby is often sweet-spirited even when its crummy, but there's also something fetid in its foolery. Read more

Jay Boyar, Orlando Sentinel: I don't quite know how Waters did it (and I have absolutely no idea why he did it), but the fact that Cry-Baby is fun suggests that the filmmaker possesses an instinctive understanding of what made those Elvis pictures so successful in the first place. Read more

Carrie Rickey, Philadelphia Inquirer: If Cry-Baby has a message, it's that Cry-Baby and Allison deserve each other because they're young and they're beautiful, which certainly runs counter to Waters' affection for the grotesque, the bad and the ugly. Read more

Michael Upchurch, Seattle Times: It all adds up to zany, wide-eyed, quintessential Waters havoc -- the "kinder, gentler" 1990s brand, perhaps. But the genuine article, nonetheless. Read more

Janet Maslin, New York Times: Mr. Depp, who smolders naturally when he isn't trying so hard, acts this role about as well as Elvis would have; under the circumstances, that's fine. Read more

Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader: Waters's feeling for the mid-50s doesn't really match his sense of the early 60s, and his plot moves seem increasingly formulaic. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: There are some funny moments, but this may be the first time the director's scabrous, anarchic wit seems vaguely depressed. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: If there is one constant in recent social history, it is that we feel nostalgia for yesterday's teenage badness even while we fear today's. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The wizard of odd still runs amok. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: Waters' hole card is Johnny Depp, the winsome tough from TV's 21 Jump Street, who radiates big- screen grace and swagger as Cry-Baby -- no easy trick, since he is guying his own image. Read more

Mark Kermode, Time Out: Waters' finest film to date, a worthy successor to Hairspray which exudes teen angst and young lust from every pore. Read more

Variety Staff, Variety: John Waters' mischievous satire of the teen exploitation genre is entertaining as a rude joyride through another era, full of great clothes and hairdos. Read more

Rita Kempley, Washington Post: Basically the filmmaker reminds us of his affection for social misfits, but without much conviction. He's simply too hip to commit himself to his beliefs, and a relentless frivolity prevails. Read more