Cry-Baby (1990)
Directed by John Waters
A prim and proper schoolgirl goes against her society grandmother's wishes when she dates a motorcycle-riding juvenile delinquent.
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What critics compared Cry-Baby to
Of the myriad high-cheekboned Calvin Klein models, the main trio consists of the blandly heroic Christopher (Tye Sheridan, “Ready Player One”), a manically glossy-eyed Zac (Fionn Whitehead, “Dunkirk”) and the dour Sela (Johnny Depp’s daughter, Lily-Rose Depp, who channels dad’s “Cry-Baby” sullenness here).
And so we have 21 Jump Street, which is based on the Fox series of the same name that ran from 1987 to 1991 and is now best known as the launching pad for Johnny Depp, who spent his early film career purposefully choosing oddball roles in films like Cry-Baby (1990), Edward Scissorhands (1990), and Benny & Joon (1993) to distance himself from the teen pin-up idol the industry was trying to turn him into.
Now Waters is back, once more drawing from the same well, with "Cry-Baby," hoping for even more commercial success this time by giving the lead to the teen heartthrob of the moment, Johnny Depp, of TV's "21 Jump Street."
In 1952, rockabilly greaser Cry-Baby (Johnny Depp, gently poking fun at his own 21 Jump Street teen idol status as a Wild One-inspired leather-and-Brylcreem stud) falls in love with blonde WASP Allison (Amy Locane), sparking a war between Cry-Baby’s gang of delinquent “drapes” and Alison’s former boyfriend’s group of “squares” For its first half, the film amusingly ridicules preppies, racists, devout religious zealots, and homophobes.
Depp is game to go where Waters leads, and his commitment to the part (boosted by a desire to shed his "21 Jump Street" teen dream label) is exactly what "Cry-Baby" needs to achieve a balance between cartoon and crazy.
This was the movie that convinced me, after months of ridiculing him for "21 Jump Street," that Johnny Depp could actually act.