Pecker (1998)

Pecker lives in Baltimore and works as a chef in a fast-food restaurant. He constantly takes pictures of those around him. When he puts on a small show in his workplace a New York agent buys the lot and offers him a show at her NY gallery. The show turns him famous for his honest photos of his `culturally challenged' family and friends. But fame has a price and soon he must turn the tables on the art crowd who look down on his family.

I approached this with a certain amount of good feeling. From the very start we have wonderfully camp music and small town trashy characters – we're in Waters-ville. The actually story is quite simple and doesn't quite hang together as a narrative. However it's all done with a nice charm that makes it fly by, only occasionally does the film drag and the plot weaknesses are revealed.

Waters used to have a niche market in camp and bad taste, however with so many people doing bad taste comedies nowadays he seems to have toned it all down a bit. However he still can do this in his sleep, although the story could have been stronger and he needed to direct with more focus and direction.

Furlong is really good in the lead – you have to admire his role choices (Little Odessa, American History X, this and others) as he could have just tried to be a heart throb after T2. Similarly Ricci is pretty good in a role that isn't quite trashy but isn't mainstream either. The support cast are also good as they have more of the characters that we expect from Walters as well as some famous faces (Lilli Taylor, Martha Plimpton, Patty Hearst) – Brendan Sexton III as Matt is really good but the award for funniest role goes to Hulsey for angry sugar junkie Little Chrissy.

Overall I found this enjoyable despite the story not really moving anywhere fast. Fans may find this to be Waters-lite but even then he can put out a good film.

Fmovies: I thought this was an utterly charming film. The story seems to be a thinly veiled autobiography of John Waters: Pecker's greatest gift is his ability to find beauty in unexpected places. Edward Furlong does well in the lead, but the best performances are by his grandmother, Mink Stole (a hilarious cameo) and, of all people, Patty Hearst. I think the reviewers are way off base on this one. They seem to be taking Pecker's worst valuation of his work as gospel, when I think the film pretty clearly states that he is indeed a promising artist.

Pecker is another John Waters tribute to the less fashionable side of his native city of Baltimore. Unlike previous films Pecker is set in modern Baltimore of 1998.

And it's centered around a young man named Pecker. Lest you think it describes him anatomically or behaviorally, what it really does describe is his way of eating as a child, sort of pecking at his food. Of course it wouldn't be John Waters without the double entendre.

Pecker as played by Edward Furlong was given a camera as a kid and it's become an obsession with him, to photograph life and find art in it. Art's everywhere, in his girlfriend's laundromat, in the sandwich shop where he works, in his grandmother's obsession with her talking Virgin Mary icon, even in the garbage where two rats are mating.

Soon his pictures attract attention from the art world. But when that happens Pecker's own world starts to crumble around him. How and will he get it back is the story of Pecker.

John Waters surrounds Furlong with a nice cast of supporting players with the usual Dickensian names for their characters. Best are Christina Ricci as Pecker's girl friend, Baltimore's laundromat Queen, and Brendan Sexton as his best friend and professional kleptomaniac.

Pecker is another of John Waters's lighthearted look at life and some of the strange things we find in it. I think only the most hidebound of rightwing people will not find something amusing in Pecker.

Pecker fmovies. John Waters most accessible film to date is one of his better ones, considering it cut down on all of the campiness and outright vulgarity which seem to litter most of his previous work. Sure, the nudity and the sexual references are still there, at least it is presented in a fashion

that cannot be deemed too foul or disgusting. Due to some great casting choices, this film really brought out the silliness associated with modern art and the subjective nature of your modern artist. Funny and somewhat lighthearted (if that is possible for Waters), this is one of those films I would watch on a rainy day.

Well, with the right amount of censors, I'm sure anyone would like this. While diehard John Waters fans will be disappointed (There's no obese transvestites that eat dog feces or hilariously hideous trailer park characters) it was still an uplifting film with good performances and several laugh-out-loud scenes. An uplifting John Waters film? Yes. He's also known for dark humor; but this film relied on harmless shock value.

Edward Furlong plays the title character, a kid who takes pictures of everything he encounters in his sleazy Baltimore neighborhood. A NY art agent (Lili Taylor) observes his work and he finds he has the choice between either rising to fame (which he loses his friends and family) or keeping his original lifestyle as a poor suburban dweller.

Give this one a try: Expect nothing, and you won't be disappointed.

I´m from Germany and I love the mvovies. I go 200 times a year. Tonight I saw "Pecker", it was a wonderful evening. Thank you, Mr. Waters. Everybody who has a chance to see the movie, go!!!