Role Models

Role Models is filmmaker John Waters's self-portrait told through intimate profiles of favorite personalities—some famous, some unknown, some criminal, some surprisingly middle-of-the-road. From Esther Martin, owner of the scariest bar in Baltimore, to the American playwright Tennessee Williams; from the atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair to the insane martyr Saint Catherine of Siena; from the English novelist Denton Welch to the timelessly appealing singer Johnny Mathis—these are the extreme figures who helped the author form his own brand of neurotic happiness. Role Models is a personal invitation into one of the most unique, perverse, and hilarious artistic minds of our time."The essays in Role Models meander pleasantly around personalities, recollections and ideas, always finding glory in the flaws.... Within [Waters'] jokes and winks and countercultural jabs, he is striving for real human emotion." ---Los Angeles Times