"Life is nothing if you're not obsessed." (Pecker (DVD))

Name: mmintfresh

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Product:	Pecker (DVD)
Date:	31/07/02 (123 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Good film

Disadvantages: Ending

Pecker (Edward Furlong), so named because of his eating habits, likes nothing better than taking pictures of the more seedier side of Baltimore. He spends his times snapping everyone and everything he sees with his old camera he brought at a thrift shop. Pecker loves his pictures although most other people don't see them as anything but pictures. One day Pecker persuades his boss at the restaurant he works at to let him have a showing of his work. He does and most people come in, look around and leave. However a New York art dealer, Rorey (Lili Taylor), shows up and thinks Peckers pictures are amazing. Soon all the New York art world are admiring his work, think Pecker has an eye for capturing the raw and controversial side of life. Pecker is soon famous and his friends and family (except his girlfriend)seem thrilled at first. Fame, however, does have it's downside and starts to ruin their lives. Firstly Peckers sugar obsessed little sister Chrissy(Lauren Hulsey) gets put on tablets because she is hyperactive, his other sister, Tina's (Martha Plimpton) gay bar gets shut down after he captures some snaps of the dancers illegally teabagging the customers. Then whilst away in New York their house is broken into. To make matters worse everyone in the neighbourhood knows Pecker and doesn't let him take pictures of him. Fame has changed Pecker and he doesn't like it.

Pecker is directed by 'king of trash' John Walters. I'm not really familiar with his work and apart from this the only other film I've seen is Serial Mom. He has a reputation as being a shocking filmmaker and if that is what his fans are used to they are sure to be disappointed by this. Pecker is a light hearted morality tale about fame and how it can change people. This run of the mill plot is basically a vehicle to allow Walter's to make fun of New York and the art world and also display a host of weird and wonderful characters.

This film definitely
takes a swipe or two at New York and art critics, many of whom stand starring profoundly at Pecker's pictures trying to pry out some non existent, deep and meaningful message. Secondly they are all fonies and seen to be uncaring, especially shown in Lili Taylor's Rorey, who phones up to find out Pecker's family has been robbed and then tells Pecker she has great news in her most cheerful voice. New York is also shown to be a fake city, where everyone is seemingly normal but are really weird and freakish underneath whereas Baltimore are loud and proud about their strange behaviour. Fame itself is also shown in a bad way. It ruins Pecker's art and his families life and he is forced to change.

The highlight of this film is definitely the eccentric characters found within, firstly Pecker's family, his dad (Mark Joy) runs a failing bar across the road from a strip bar and is convinced that the rival bar is the root of all evil and crime in Baltimore. His mother (Mary Kay Place) runs a thrift shop where homeless people can get a whole outfit for 25 cents. His Grandmother (Jean Schertler), affectionately known as Memama has a virgin Mary puppet that she says is a miracle because it can talk but really it's just her. His sister Chrissy (Lauren Hulsey)is obsessed with sugar and sneaks downstairs at night to sneak some sugar and his other sister Tina (Martha Plimpton) works at a gay bar and proudly performances corny lines as the strippers perform. The other really weird character is Shelley (Christina Ricci) who is way to obsessed by her Laundromat and frets whenever she is away from it. Pecker is probably one of the more normal characters in the film. What makes it all the more better is the fact that everyone does a good job in their roles making the characters more convincing.

Overall the film does deliver some laughs but mostly the film is just amusing to watch. My only moan about this film is the ending that just seems to happy
and obvious and is a bit unlike the rest of the film with all it's oddball characters. However a good watch.

Summary: