Beyond the Valley of the Dolls · reception & legacy
1970 · Russ Meyer
How Beyond the Valley of the Dolls has been received, argued over, and remembered.
The arc
Savaged by critics on release in 1970 (Fox executives were reportedly horrified by their own X-rated studio picture), it's since been fully rehabilitated as one of the great camp artifacts of Hollywood — John Waters famously called it, 'beyond a doubt, the best movie ever made,' and Criterion gave it a release in 2016.
What's debated
The eternal fan debate: is it a knowing, razor-sharp satire that's fully in on the joke, or glorious trash that became a masterpiece by accident — and does the distinction even matter?
Its footprint
'This is my happening and it freaks me out!' escaped the film entirely — Mike Myers lifted it for Austin Powers — and Z-Man's dialogue gets quoted wholesale in reviews and lists to this day.
Where it stands
A cornerstone of the camp/cult canon and a reliable Letterboxd five-star-with-a-screaming-review favourite — the studio-made midnight movie par excellence.