Directed by John Waters • 1988 • United States
Starring Ricki Lake, Sonny Bono, Divine

John Waters scored one of the biggest commercial and critical successes of his career with this affectionately outrageous musical satire that found the filmmaker bringing his outsider vision into the mainstream. In 1960s Baltimore, where the bouffant rules and every week a new dance craze is launched, rebellious, self-described “pleasantly plump” teenager Tracy Turnblad (Ricki Lake) becomes a local dancing sensation on “The Corny Collins Show”—and uses her newfound celebrity to become a crusader for civil rights. In a delightful double role as both Tracy’s mother and a racist TV station owner, the ever-brilliant Divine (in his final collaboration with Waters) steals the whole glorious, retro-schlock shebang.