Pecker review

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Hold all thoughts about this being about a walking penis. Instead it's another oddity from the movie brain of John Waters, a story that traces the rise and fall of burger-flipping Baltimore kid Pecker (Edward Furlong). He spends his free time photographing the freakish locals (lesbian strippers, a granny practising ventriloquism with a statue of the Virgin Mary), and eventually his snaps are discovered by a New York art dealer (Lili Taylor) who hails him as a creative genius.

The social satire rolls onwards from here, skewering the excesses of high art with hit 'n' miss effectiveness. It's fun for a while, but the message is constantly overshadowed by Waters' peculiar characters, especially Christina Ricci's bitchy laundrette manager, who goofs about to the sound of a Stewart Copeland soundtrack.

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