Cry-Baby (1990) poster
1990 · musical · comedy · romance

Cry-Baby

Directed by John Waters1h 25m1990
ElsewhereIMDb6.567kRT72%Metacritic63TMDB6.52k
  • cosy
  • brisk
  • gentle
  • inventive
  • redemptive
  • intimate
Movie DNA

Cosy, kinetic, gentle musical / comedy, inventive in texture. Redemptive, intimate, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

A prim and proper schoolgirl goes against her society grandmother's wishes when she dates a motorcycle-riding juvenile delinquent.

Our read · Cry-Baby (1990) reads as a cosy, kinetic, inventive musical · comedy · romance entry — gentle in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, redemptive in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

Where the cast leads
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The shape of Cry-Baby

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want greaser-musical camp, Waters sweetness, and Johnny Depp crooning.

ends upliftingyou’ll feel glowing aftergrabs you earlygrips from the openattention 3/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around

Skip it tonightYou find broad retro parody juvenile or want serious drama tonight.

DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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