Relatable Raven Reviews

What’s it about?

A group of teenage, guerilla filmmakers, led by Cecil B. Demented, kidnap Hollywood actress, Honey Whitlock, and force her to star in their underground film condemning modern, mainstream movies.

Anyone I know in it?

Honey Whitlock is played by Melanie Griffith. She isn’t as well known now, except for maybe being Dakota Johnson’s mom, but she was kind of a big deal in the 90’s. She’s best known for the film Working Girl (1988).

Cecil B. Demented is played by Stephen Dorff who you may know as Vance Simkins in The Righteous Gemstones or Detective Roland West in the third season of True Detective, but I’ll always only see him has the sexy Vampire, Deacon Frost, from Blade (1998).

Maggie Gyllenhaal, famous sister of Jake Gyllenhaal and powerhouse actress in her own right, plays the satanist, Raven. If you don’t recognize her by name alone, you probably at least know her as Batman’s love interest, Rachel, from The Dark Knight.

Michael Shannon plays the driver, Petie. He’s one of those actors you probably don’t know off the top of your head but if you saw his picture you’d be like, “Oh yeah, I’ve seen that guy before”. He’s been in a ton of stuff, most notably as General Zod in Man of Steel (2013).

So, should I watch it?

Well… that really depends. The director, John Waters, is kind of infamous in the film industry. Not infamous like he’s some sort major criminal or anything, but infamous because of how raunchy and provocative his films tend to be. He’s not known as the pope of trash for nothing! Now, this is one of his tamer films but still very much in the realm of bad taste. This movie has everything! It’s got kidnapping, murder, terrorism, celibacy, art, satanism and there’s even a karate fight! Only watch this if you are a fan of capital C camp, of the ridiculous, the exaggerated, the gaudy, the violent. This is one of those types of movies where either you LOVE it and want to make it a permanent part of your personality, or you HATE it and hope the director gets drawn and quartered for even thinking of making it. I, for one, fucking LOVE it.

Anything else Like it?

If you liked this then you’ll like pretty much anything else by John Waters. Some of my favorites are Serial Mom, A Dirty Shame and Cry-Baby.