Collections/Adventures

John WatersAdventures in Moviegoing

A sui generis icon of counterculture cinema and style, John Waters upends traditional notions of “good taste” and heteronormative social conventions with a gleefully transgressive mix of camp humor, outrageous provocation, and daring empathy. In this edition of Adventures in Moviegoing, he sits down with film critic Michael Koresky to discuss his formative moviegoing memories in both his beloved hometown of Baltimore, where the shock cinema of B-movie meister William Castle made a lasting impression, and in New York City, where he was influenced by the uncompromising underground scene championed by critic and filmmaker Jonas Mekas. The films Waters has chosen to present—including Samuel Fuller’s THE NAKED KISS and Barbara Loden’s WANDA—are connected by their focus on complicated women who defy moral and social norms, as portrayed by iconoclastic filmmakers who also challenge and subvert the status quo.