72
Metascore
12 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- Polyester is a liberatingly crude satire of suburban mores.
- Long before Mel Brooks, trash aesthete John Waters was making movies dedicated to the proposition that life stinks.
- 80The New York TimesJanet MaslinThe New York TimesJanet MaslinPolyester is not Mr. Waters's ordinary movie. It's a very funny one, with a hip, stylized humor that extends beyond the usual limitations of his outlook.
- 80NewsweekDavid AnsenNewsweekDavid AnsenA rancidly hilarious slice of Americana. [01 Jun 1981, p.91]
- 75The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottThe Globe and Mail (Toronto)Jay ScottWaters uses the tawdry in satirical celebration of itself - he's the red satin tassled plush pillow of filmmaking. [17 Sep 1981]
- Polyester isn’t quite up to the low standards of Pink Flamingos, but it’s still a worthy effort by Waters.
- 63Washington PostGary ArnoldWashington PostGary ArnoldThe new film, a fitfully amusing and perfectly harmless spoof of the morbid and masochistic cliches that sustain the typical soap opera, represents a mellow, spruced-up turn toward the mainstream. [06 Jul 1981, p.C3]
- 60Time OutTime OutLikely to be criticised for being less than murky Waters, even with its 'Odorama' card to scratch for olfactory pleasures/displeasures; but then it's clear from an opening helicopter shot that bad taste has found the budget to go middle of the road.
- 50TV Guide MagazineTV Guide MagazineThe biting satire and absurd situations in Waters' movies always dwell self-consciously on how media images and stereotypes affect viewers' notions of reality. Polyester is much more cliche-ridden than his other films, however, and so is less successful as satire.