Cry-Baby

4.00
    Cry-Baby
    1990

    Synopsis

    A prim and proper schoolgirl goes against her society grandmother's wishes when she dates a motorcycle-riding juvenile delinquent.

    Your Movie Library

    Cast

    • Johnny DeppWade 'Cry-Baby' Walker
    • Amy LocaneAllison Vernon-Williams
    • Susan TyrrellRamona Rickettes
    • Iggy PopBelvedere Rickettes
    • Ricki LakePepper Walker
    • Traci LordsWanda Woodward
    • Stephen MailerBaldwin
    • Darren E. BurrowsMilton Hackett
    • Kim McGuireMona 'Hatchet-Face' Malnorowski
    • Polly BergenMrs. Vernon-Williams

    Recommendations

    • 100

      Time Out

      Replete with a thumpingly good soundtrack mixing old standards with modern pastiches, this is Waters' finest film to date, a worthy successor to Hairspray which exudes teen angst and young lust from every pore...Seriously sexy stuff.
    • 80

      Empire

      Peppered with fun-to-spot cameos (can you spot Williem Dafoe?), the parody-satire script works well with Depp's adept handling of the titular bad boy. A delinquent joy-ride, though without the Hard-core distaste of previous Waters flicks, which may or may not be a bad thing.
    • 80

      Rolling Stone

      In Cry-Baby, Waters has created a crackpot jamboree that captures the Fifties, then parodies and transcends the period; any resemblance to Nineties greed, prejudice and repression is intentional. At forty-three, Waters remains unrepentantly juvenile. It’s his saving grace. What he can’t fight, he ridicules. The mirror Waters holds up to the world is distorted, turning everyone into a grotesque. But we can still see ourselves in it And laugh.
    • 75

      Chicago Sun-Times

      It is only now that I am in a condition to appreciate the 1950s.
    • 75

      TV Guide Magazine

      Underneath the numerous entertaining cameos, not much is going on, and it shows. The film's terrific first half-hour can't sustain itself. Depp is nice to look at, but too diminutive to bring much force to his sexy biker. Locane is well, okay, but she's eclipsed at every turn by the marvelously vulgar Lords, who embraces the genre with the energy and anarchy of the much-missed Divine.
    • 75

      Chicago Tribune

      For a while the actors seem intimidated by the `50s references, but the film eventually develops a musical energy that carries the day. Amy Locane shows promise as the virtuous girl who falls for juvenile delinquent Johnny Depp.
    • 60

      Washington Post

      Basically the filmmaker reminds us of his affection for social misfits, but without much conviction. He's simply too hip to commit himself to his beliefs, and a relentless frivolity prevails. Still Cry-Baby is not without its spit-curled charms, its amusing lines and its funky famous-name cameos.
    • 50

      Los Angeles Times

      Watching it is a bit like checking out a grade-school talent show on parents’ night. The eagerness of the performers, their flat-out verve and innocence, wins you over. For a while at least...Finally, the film wears you down.

    Loved by

    Seen by

    Lists