limit or refuse advertising for NC-17-rated films, thus severely limiting distribution. When Waters asked what he would need to cut for them to give his film an R rating, he was told that the ratings board "stopped taking notes." After Waters unsuccessfully attempted to appeal the rating, the film was released with the NC-17 classification. Reception A Dirty Shame received mixed reviews from critics, with its unashamed vulgarity being both lauded and lampooned. On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 53% based on 117 reviews, with an average rating of 5.6/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "John Waters casts his provocative eye towards libido in a sex satire that won't leave audiences feeling too Dirty, but this sophomoric farce doesn't strike a nerve like his best work – a real Shame." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 56 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". One of the more positive reviews came from Kevin Thomas of the Los Angeles Times, who wrote A gross-out pioneer, Waters has always had more on his mind than delirious, sex-crazed silliness. By allowing people to speak freely about their sexual urges and practices with a bluntness that is jaw-droppingly hilarious, Waters has drawn deeply upon comedy's liberating power. The more the sex addicts talk about their hang-ups the more comically harmless they seem, and thus it's all the more absurd for the puritanical to try to punish them for their various pursuits of pleasure. Waters has always harnessed poor taste to lampoon attempts to limit freedom of expression. This raucously gritty and high-spirited film could scarcely be bluer in terms of the language, but from Waters it comes as a gust of fresh air. Also enthusiastic was Peter Travers of Rolling Stone, who wrote A Dirty Shame is Waters unleashed, and wicked, kinky fun for anyone except the twits who rated it NC-17...You may even shed a tear when Sylvia bonds with her daughter by confessing, "I'm a cunnilingus bottom." OK, the jokes are hit-and-miss and the plot is nonexistent, but the Waters spirit stays consistently and sweetly twisted. When the cast takes to the streets singing, "Let's go sexin'", you want to cheer them on. On the other end of the spectrum was Roger Ebert, who gave the film one star out of a possible four, elaborating