courier-journal.com – By Carla Meyer – McClatchy Newspapers
John Waters achieved infamy with low-budget 1970s films starring garish transvestite Divine and other horrifying/lovable misfits.
Adding heart and movie stars over the years, Waters’ freak-show movies morphed into cockeyed calls for understanding. “Hairspray,” in its 1988 film, Broadway-musical and 2007 movie-musical forms, replaced exploitation with sincerity, promoting racial harmony, chubby-teen empowerment and a man’s right to pad up to play a nurturing mom.