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I Am Divine (Documentary)

By Golu
Ok, I have to admit that I knew nothing about the documentary going in, but it all started to make sense when I realized that Divine is none other than the 300 pound drag queen and lead of film "Pink Flamingos", a film that I hated. But now having seen this documentary and a whole lot of background behind the director and the lead, it is all starting to make sense. The image of a 300-pound drag queen wearing a skin-tight red dress with candy-colored wig, bombastic face make-up, and pointing a gun at everything society consumes to be beautiful has been burnt deep enough into the culture to be instantly recognizable.

We are here to know more about Divine aka Glenn. Talking head interviews with family, friends, and colleagues; most notably John Waters, Glenn’s mother Frances, childhood friends, members of The Cockettes, and fellow performers from the off-Broadway show “Women Behind Bars,” paint a vivid picture of the kind of influence and impression Divine had on the people closest to him. We see Glenn's growing up years, interviews of his first and possibly only girlfriend, his meeting with the now famous director John Walter, and most intimate with his mother, who is torn between her love for son and his over flamboyance. The rough childhood he had growing up in Baltimore, his first encounter with a 17-year-old John Waters and their bonding over LSD and Bergman movies, working on ridiculous short films; we see and hear it all. There is definitely more to this loud potty mouth oversized drag queen. His lifelong struggles as a homosexual man who loved to dress up in women’s clothing, a pothead who wanted to devour everything in front of him, and an actor desperate to make Hollywood appreciate his talents, are carefully balanced by his emphatic energy, altruistic love for people and all-encompassing generosity for those dear to him. We learn how he eventually got respect and was taken seriously as an actor after the very famous "Hairspray" film. Andjust when things were starting to look up for Divine, he quietly passed away in his sleep.

"I love everything that's bad about America" and that's what I make movies above," John Waters states in I Am Divine, and with that, we realize why Divine was such a great person to use for his movies. Divine had enough charisma and force to make an entire scene her own, with the loyal costume and makeup designer of Van Smith, who helped Divine make his makeup look spot on and the sets on John Waters' films look equally incredible.The documentary dares to explore every part of not only Divine, which we learn was a character not a lifestyle, but also Glenn, who we learn struggled with weight issues all his life and was a constant over-eater. This 90 minute documentary effectively establishes a character and a cinematic force that still finds himself far too unrecognized in a mainstream sense. This is beyond a doubt one of the more interesting documentaries I have seen and that's probably thanks to a very interesting central character. (7/10)
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