By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 2.5 cats
Director: Jeffrey Schwarz
Country: united_states
Year: 2013
Running time: 90
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1356790/combined
Chris says: “Divine was great and could unquestionably carry a film, but could Harris Glen Milstead do the same? Of course, Divine was Milstead’s outrageous drag alter-ego and left such a vivid legacy behind no one would dare argue against it. I AM DIVINE revels in its construction as a Divine-opedia of sorts, fleshing out all the expected classic clips from John Waters’ oeuvre with footage from 1970s stage and cabaret performances and 1980s gay club appearances (where Divine was briefly an unlikely hi-NRG dance diva), plus many entertaining interviews with everyone who knew and admired him.
“However, Divine was also Milstead, and he wanted to be perceived as a serious (read: male) actor. As he approaches his early, sudden death in 1988 at age 42, we see him increasingly out of drag, being interviewed on national talk shows, defending himself as a seasoned performer for whom Divine was but one tiny part of his range. Unfortunately, he’s not entirely convincing andin the end, neither is this film. It wants to make a case for Divine as containing multitudes but Milstead’s attempts at ‘respectability’shown here can’t help but pale in comparison to Divine eating dog shit, screaming about cha-cha heels and all the rest (curiously, we get no footage of Divine-as-Milstead’s most convincing and widely seen male turn as the dumpy, racist TV station owner in Waters’ HAIRSPRAY).
“Given how well-crafted his last film VITO (about The Celluloid Closet author Vito Russo) was, it’s disappointing to see director Jeffrey Schwarz’s name on something that looks so hastily assembled, complete with cheapo animation and narrative padding (the whole section on fellow Waters’ cast member David Lochary’s death belongs in another film). If Schwarz really wanted to convince that Divine was much more than just Divine, he should’ve balanced the endless kitsch on display with more depth and analysis. I haven’t seen it, but, from evidence of the clips procured here, I suspect the 1998 documentary DIVINE TRASH does a better job at this, for it seems to propose that (with the possible exception of Kathleen Turner in SERIAL MOM), Waters absolutely needed Divine and vice-versa—a key to understanding each artist’s worth, and something that this film barely acknowledges. 2.5 cats
“(This film screened at the 2013 Provincetown International Film Festival).”