Taglines: He never realized how far 35 millimeters would take him.
Pecker movie storyline. Set in a Baltimore neighborhood known for having the thickest local accent, Pecker tells the story of an unassuming 18-year-old who works in a sandwich shop and takes photos of his loving but peculiar family and friends on the side. Pecker, so named for his childhood habit of “pecking” at his food, stumbles into fame when his work is “discovered” by a savvy New York art dealer, Rorey Wheeler. Pecker’s pictures, taken with a cheap Canon Canonet 28, are grainy, out-of-focus studies of unglamorous subjects, but they strike a chord with New York art collectors.
Unfortunately, instant over-exposure has its downside. Rorey’s efforts to turn Pecker into an art sensation threaten to ruin the low-key lifestyle that was his inspiration. He abandons his trusty old rangefinder camera for a new, full-featured Nikon N50. Pecker finds that his best friend, Matt, can’t shoplift anymore now that Pecker’s photographs have increased his profile. Shelley, Pecker’s obsessive girlfriend who runs a laundromat, seems especially distressed when the press dub her a “stain goddess” and mistake her good-natured “pin-up” poses for pornographic come-ons.
When his family is dubbed “culturally challenged” by an overzealous critic, they begin to feel the uncomfortable glare of stardom. Pecker’s mother (Mary Kay Place) is no longer free to dispense fashion tips to the homeless clientele at her thrift shop. Pecker’s grandmother, Memama, endures public ridicule when her experience with a talking statue of the Virgin Mary is exposed on the cover of a national art magazine.
Tina, Pecker’s fag hag older sister, is fired from her job emceeing go-go dancing at a gay bar because Pecker’s edgy photographs chronicle the sex practices of the club’s patrons. Even Little Chrissy, his six-year-old sister, feels the pressure of celebrity when her eating disorder is exposed, bringing unwanted attention from nosy child welfare agencies (she’s mistakenly diagnosed with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and prescribed Ritalin.)
Pecker is a 1998 American comedy-drama film written and directed by John Waters. Like all Waters’ films, it was filmed and set in Baltimore; this film was set in the Hampden neighborhood. The film, starring Edward Furlong, examines the rise to fame and potential fortune of a budding photographer. Co-starring Christina Ricci, Lili Taylor, Mary Kay Place, Martha Plimpton, Brendan Sexton III, and Bess Armstrong, the film received mixed reviews from critics and was a commercial failure, grossing over $2 million[4] from a $6 million budget.
Film Review for Pecker
The hero of John Waters’ “Pecker” got his nickname as a kid, we are told, by pecking at his food. Uh, huh. And guys named Studs had fathers in the tuxedo business. Pecker (Edward Furlong) works in a Baltimore sandwich shop and takes photos of the seamy side of life. He has an exhibit in the restaurant, a famous New York art dealer (Lili Taylor) happens to see it, and she mounts a show of his work in her gallery.
Of course all Manhattan is soon agog at the young genius, providing Waters with easy targets in the world of modern art. “Pecker’s like a humane Diane Arbus,” one critic gushes, when in fact he’s more like just plain Diane Arbus. But “Pecker” isn’t really about art so much as about the way that fame and fortune upset Pecker’s little world.
There is a strong streak of domesticity in Waters’ plots (even the characters in “Pink Flamingos” have home lives, although you might need to leave the room if I described them). Pecker’s dad (Mark Joy) operates a failing bar. His mom (Mary Kay Place) runs a thrift shop and sells the homeless “a complete Easter outfit” for 25 cents. (Pecker assures one of her potential customers that a winter coat is “flameproof–in case someone tries to set you on fire.”).
His sister Tina (Martha Plimpton) is the emcee in a male go-go bar, issuing dire warnings against such misbehavior as “tea-bagging.” His grandmother (Jean Schertler) has a stand in front of the house to sell something called “pit beef,” and has a Virgin Mary statue that talks uncannily like one of Conan O’Brien’s speaking TV pictures. And there is a kid sister named Little Crissy (Lauren Huilsey) who stuffs candy into her mouth as if she only feeds on payday; she continues the Waters tradition of at least one addictive character in every movie.
Pecker is the most normal member of the family, I’d say. His girlfriend Shelley (Christina Ricci) runs a laundromat, is an expert on stains, and sometimes slightly unzips the top of her jumper so Pecker can snap off a few quick shots. His best friend, Matt (Brendan Sexton III) is a compulsive shoplifter who poses while committing crimes and suffers the most from Pecker’s fame; he complains, “If I can’t shoplift, I don’t want to be an artist!”
Waters follows these characters through their 15 minutes of fame without ever churning up very much interest in them. One problem is that Furlong’s performance doesn’t project much heat or charisma, while the girlfriend played by Ricci seems constantly to be dampening her own. A simple casting switch, making Ricci the photographer and Furlong the boyfriend, might have improved the movie considerably.
There’s also a certain tension between the gentler new Waters and his anarchic past. In the scenes in the male strip bar, for example, we keep waiting for Waters to break loose and shock us, and he never does, except with a few awkward language choices. The miraculous statue of Mary could have provided comic possibilities, but doesn’t. In the early scenes it’s clear that the grandmother is a ventriloquist, but in the later scenes, when the statue actually does talk, the best it can come up with are some disconnected phrases; one is reminded of HAL 9000 as the memory is being disconnected. Better if Mary had become an art critic.
Some scenes are so flat we squint a little at the screen, trying to see why anyone thought they might be funny. After Shelley the girlfriend thinks she sees Pecker kissing the art dealer, for example, she flees broken-hearted into a voting booth, and Pecker follows her into the booth, where they have loud and active sex. This is supposed to shock the bourgeoisie, but it plays like a bad idea.
The movie is filled with cameos, of which the most suggestive is the artist/photographer Cindy Sherman. She eyes the pit-beef grandma as a possible subject and started me thinking maybe that would have been a better approach: Every member of the family is taken up by a different artist, and the Virgin Mary examines the results and says she doesn’t know much about art, but she knows what she likes. After all, she’s been in a lot of good paintings herself.
Pecker (1998)
Directed by: John Waters
Starring: Edward Furlong, Christina Ricci, Bess Armstrong, Mary Kay Place, Martha Plimpton, Brendan Sexton, Mink Stole, Lili Taylor, Kennen Sisco, Susan Duvall, Cindy Sherman
Screenplay by: John Waters
Production Design by: Vincent Peranio
Cinematography by: Robert M. Stevens
Film Editing by: Janice Hampton
Costume Design by: Van Smith
Set Decoration by: Patty Burgee
Art Direction by: Scott T. Pina
Music by: Stewart Copeland
MPAA Rating: R for sexuality, graphic nudity, language and brief drug us.
Distributed by: Fine Line Features
Release Date: September 25, 1998
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