For "I Am Divine", the majority of Waters' existing Dreamlanders (his Baltimorean 'pose' that served as the cast and crew for his 'glory years' of cinematic debauchery) explain Milstead's confused childhood as an extremely effeminate fat kid being bullied in school, to his awkward teen years when he would style his mom's friend's hair. It was all just killing time until Glenn discovered the exciting gay nightlife and a freakshow legend was born. How can you look at an obese cross-dresser and NOT smile? It is said that his choice in garments was what gave Divine his/her 'edge' in the '70s drag-show circuit as well as his/her attitude toward performing the already ludicrous gay pageant routine. This allowed for a undeniably unique character for the then young suburbanite misfit, John Waters, to further mold into an on-screen menace for his nonconformist brand of irregular sex films. With each subsequent film, Milstead's notoriety in queer culture grew significantly, relocating him to homo-hub, San Francisco, and leading him to live theater gigs in New York. As time went on, Milstead grew weary of his typecasting and greatly wanted to be accepted as a man in the mainstream acting community. As his head grew, so did his waistline and Milstead died in his sleep just prior to an appearance on the FOX sitcom, Married... With Children...
This film does a good job of covering the details of the performer's life through interviews with close friends, family and old drag queen colleagues. Though, I can't help but feel that their representation of Divine was a bit overblown, concerning the extent of his apparent widespread success. The 1985 western-comedy "Lust in the Dust" was mentioned as a project that Milstead was featured in aside from Waters' 'porno-chic' outings, although it's nothing credible as any kind of deviation from Divine's usual transvestite roles, nor do I think any of Divine's performances are commendable in terms of his acting. And his singing career was a joke, contrary to how this film represents it. He had a carnival freakshow appeal that withstood the tedium that progressed with each ever-so familiar flamboyant appearance. The only person that truly gave Milstead the respect he didn't deserve was John Waters', who attempted to turn the Divine character from a loud-mouthed shit-eater into a dramatic leading "lady" in films like "Polyester" and the PG-rated hit, "Hairspray". I don't think it's any coincidence that Water's film-making career went on the decline and eventually ended after Divine's death. The 'gross out', anti-hippie movie 'magic' the two turned out prior to 1980 will live on in the annals of underground cinema for many years to come as the completely corrupt products of a sleazy bygone era. "I Am Divine" offers the deceased drag queen monstrosity the reverence he may or may not entirely deserve, but there's no denying that he was an entertainingly vile and crude, as well as important, icon in the realm of transgressive movie madness.
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