Pecker

Pecker (1998) is John Waters' Baltimore comedy — watch online on iFILM for the most cheerful takedown of the art world Waters ever put on film. Edward Furlong plays Pecker, a teenager who works at a sub shop and photographs everything around him: his shoplifting best friend, his sugar-addicted little sister, his grandmother who talks to a Virgin Mary figurine, the regulars at a local go-go bar. He has no agenda. The pictures are just honest.

A Manhattan gallerist (Martha Plimpton) stumbles on his work and stages a show. The New York crowd decides Pecker is a genius — which is really just their word for someone who hasn't learned to be self-conscious yet. Fame arrives, and suddenly Pecker's neighborhood and the people in it become content. Christina Ricci plays his girlfriend Shelby, who runs a laundromat and has less patience for the whole circus than Pecker does. Lily Taylor, Mink Stole and Patricia Hearst fill out the cast in the way only a Waters film gets staffed.

The satire is gentle by Waters' standards — nobody ends up covered in anything, and the ending is almost sweet. But the point lands: authenticity is what the market devours first. Stream Pecker online on iFILM.