Rating: 4/5 
No matter the medium, Waters has always pulled the most interesting stories of intrigue by rummaging through the mundane and the disdained. The proud product of a Baltimore upbringing, Waters’ films show off the city’s penchant for trash culture and lifestyles so alternative they make most reality TV shows look like “The Waltons.” Waters is entering his fifth decade of turning his local interests into international amusement, and with Role Models he has revealed the muses who make his brand of good-bad taste possible. It’s 11 chapters of candid interviews and character studies of the people and things that inspire him. In many ways, his subjects are the best Waters character that he himself never came up with.
The “role models” in question range from the famous (Little Richard, Johnny Mathis) to the infamous (Manson family member Leslie Van Houten) to the inflammatory (“outsider pornographers” Bobby Garcia and David Hurles) and each one is celebrated with the love and admiration of a soccer mom. While Waters is mostly known for his films, the disarming tone of his writing in previous books such as Shock Value has always been him at his most accessible and Role Models is no exception. Along with being the tour guide to his world of discomforting fashion designers (Rei Kawakubo) and bizarre local bar legends (“drag freak” Pencil), his un-ironic glee makes Role Models seem like an other-side-of-the-tracks “Sesame Street.” There’s nothing sarcastic or vindictive about the title, these are truly the examples Waters tries to lead different aspects of his life like.
Perhaps the most shocking revelation about Role Models is how intimate and open Waters becomes about himself. While he at no point makes an effort to steal the show or hog the spotlight, the sides of Waters we see revealed are enough to surprise even the most devoted of die hard fans. The highlight might be the Van Houten interview which stands among the absolute best of Waters’ work. Here he gives a balanced non-exploitive portrait of a woman who had her life by one grizzly mistake. Waters discusses her time in prison, her parole hearings, and thoroughly covers every aspect one could imagine of her existence. Regardless how you feel about Van Houten by the conclusion, it’s an eye-opening glimpse into the world of prison.
After such dazzling one-of-a-kind real life profiles, the book ends with a comparatively underwhelming manifesto for what life would be like under a cult that Waters himself would lead. As a stand alone piece it’s funny, especially Waters’ own visit to the Vatican and musings on Catholicism, but after such powerful profiles it doesn’t quite fit. Still, the rest of Role Models ranks among Waters’ best works. Essential for even casual fans, I’d go as far as to recommend it to fans of bizarre biographies and the generally weird. It’s the most fun you’ll ever have at a rogues gallery.
