Director John Waters tones down the camp and turns up the storytelling in this warm, funny look at a young photographer's accelerated voyage from Baltimore white trash to New York art-scene smash. Edward Furlong plays the titular Pecker (so named because of his eating habits) with heartbreaking vulnerability, and Christina Ricci co-stars as his laundromat-running girlfriend. Cameos by Lili Taylor, Patricia Hearst and Mink Stole are not to be missed.