Hey, Happy!

DJ Sabu's overactive libido leads him into teenaged pregnancy. His mythic quest for two thousand boys ends with Happy, a paranoid UFO-ologist to whom aliens promise to appear (as his love child). Spanky is an evil hairdresser trying to foil Sabu's mission, he is the self-proclaimed 'biggest bitch in the world.' The action unfolds at a series of raves on old garbage hill in an industrial Antonioni landscape peopled with characters right out of vintage John Waters. I was made giddy watching this film, and I think the more tuned into this specific type of camp you are the more you'll enjoy it. The movie is certainly not for everyone, and like an early John Waters movie it relies quite heavily on gross-outs -- like intestine-eating and rape with a dildo -- for its effect. A lot of the acting teeters on the edge of self-mockery. (Though I think the main over-the-top performance of the Spanky O'Niel character, reminiscent of Cathy Moriarty in "Casper," is deliciously psychotic.) However, unlike a Waters movie there isn't a lot of political subversion in the film -- unless a character who wants to sleep with 2,000 men is meant to be taken as a jab at gay promiscuity. The soundtrack is pretty entertaining, some of the cinematography is quite striking, and I liked the way it incorporated the Great Flood of Winnipeg into its storyline.