Film

Hairspray

Name: Hairspray
Genre: Comedy, Music, Romance
Released: 1988
Cast: Ricki Lake, Divine, Debbie Harry, Vitamin C, Sonny Bono

Other titles called Hairspray: the 2007 film.

John Waters's 1988 musical comedy about a big-hearted Baltimore teenager who crashes a segregated dance show and uses her newfound fame to fight racism. It's joyful, campy, and genuinely moving—buoyed by Divine's transcendent performance and a infectious spirit that treats kindness as revolutionary. For anyone who believes pop culture can change the world.

TMDb rating

3.4

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like comedy that wears a candy-coloured, big-hair surface over a sincere argument, and you don't mind a crude joke landing next to a sermon.

Skip it if the performances are deliberately broad and the 1980s staging looks modest, so if you need polished musical numbers or subtle acting, the cartoonish energy may wear thin quickly.

What it asks of you: Ninety-two minutes, brisk and bright, with songs arriving regularly and a buoyant tone that holds even when the politics bite; it asks little beyond a willingness to be charmed.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Dreamgirls2006

Another music-driven story about talent, ambition, and racism in entertainment. It has the same DNA—the stakes feel real even as the glitz soars, and the performances will wreck you in the best way.

But It's much darker and angrier than Hairspray; there are no heroes here, only flawed people making terrible choices. The tone is closer to tragedy than joyful satire.

Singin' in the Rain1952

The gold standard of movie musicals: pure joy, ingenious choreography, and genuine pathos underneath. If Hairspray made you love musicals, this is where they started doing it right.

But It's in black and white, it's seventy years old, and it moves at the pace of its era. Patience required, but it rewards you completely.

Hairspray Live!2016

A live television musical event with a pitch-perfect cast led by Kristin Chenoweth and Harvey Fierstein. It captures the original's spirit while bringing the story to a new generation. The energy is electric.

But Live TV musicals are always slightly chaotic; if precision matters more to you than spontaneous joy, the wobbles will distract you.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Hairspray

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Paris Is Burning1991

Both celebrate outsiders using performance and style as weapons of self-determination. Both insist that joy is political.

A documentary about New York's Black and Latino ballroom scene—the drag houses, the voguing, the chosen families, the dreams. It has Hairspray's DNA: marginalized people creating beauty and joy as an act of resistance, with real stakes and real love.

But It's not fiction, and it's not always easy. Some of the people you meet don't survive the film. It's anthropology, not entertainment, and it requires respect rather than camp distance.

Grease1978

Another '50s-set musical comedy about outsiders crashing a social hierarchy. John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John; infectious songs; that perfect balance of satire and sincerity.

But It's longer, more romantic than comedic, and the ending has some pretty regressive ideas about conformity. Not Waters—more mainstream and less weird.

Little Shop of Horrors1986

A scrappy, trashy musical about a man-eating plant and the meek florist who loves it. Full of theatrical energy, dark humor, and songs you'll hum for weeks. Waters would recognize its kindred spirit.

But It's campier and has less heart than Hairspray. The romance at its center is genuinely grim when you think about it, and that's almost the point.

Torch Song Trilogy1988

Released the same year as Hairspray and equally defiant: a three-part drama about a drag queen in New York navigating love, identity, and acceptance. It's hilarious and devastating in equal measure, with real bite.

But It's a stage adaptation that feels theatrical rather than cinematic. Also, it's twice as long and gets progressively darker. Not everyone's ready for that tonal shift.

Mommie Dearest1981

Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford: unhinged, glamorous, and utterly committed to the bit. It's camp of a different flavor—so earnest it loops back to comedy. Divine would recognize a kindred spirit.

But It's a grotesque portrait of a real woman's abuse of her children. Watching it as 'so bad it's good' is ethically complicated, and the film doesn't wink at you about that.

Hedwig and the Angry Inch2001

Both use music and transformation to interrogate identity and belonging. Both are love letters to people the world tried to erase.

A rock musical about a transgender punk rock icon and the messy love story that made her. It's got Hairspray's theatrical energy, its defiance, and its utter refusal to let the mainstream story be the only story. Funny, furious, cathartic.

But It's weird, sexually explicit, and uninterested in flattering anyone. The humor is dark and the pain is real. You need to meet it halfway—it won't meet you.

The Gospel According to André2018

Both insist that art made from identity and love is never just entertainment—it's a statement about who deserves to take up space.

A documentary about André 3000 of Outkast, structured around three songs. It's painterly, meditative, and about creativity as a form of spiritual resistance. Completely different form from Hairspray, but the same belief in music's redemptive power.

But It's short, oblique, and assumes you know Outkast. It's more essay than narrative. Some will find it pretentious; others will find it transcendent. No middle ground.