Die Mommie Die!
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Movie Reviews of Die Mommie Die!
Movie Review: Good satire
Summary: 3 Stars
Why is it that the most banal and straightforward films get lauded by the Motion Picture Academy, while films that push boundaries and take risks, especially if comedies, get ignored? And why is it that there is no separate category for comedies and musicals for the Oscars? In watching the DVD of the 2003 Sundance channel film Die Mommie Die! I could not help but have these thoughts. It's a truly brilliant film, with an Oscar caliber performance by Charles Busch, playing a Joan Crawford/Susan Hayward/Gloria Swanson/Bette Davis/Doris day-like hybrid character in a spoof of the Grand Dame Guignol classic films of the 1960s that inspired such 1980s television soap operas as Dynasty and Dallas. What makes it so brilliant, aside from the dominant performance by Busch, is that it works both as camp, in the vein of the films it parodies, and also as a lampoon or satire of camp. Achieving excellence in one of these veins is difficult enough, but to go two for two in the same film is damned near miraculous. And given that the Grand Dame Guignol genre is so campy to begin with, it's even harder to achieve than in parodying other stock forms, such as science fiction, in the recent The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra, itself a terrific spoof of 1950s sci fi, but far easier to pull off than this film's aims were. The moments that are the most memorable, and which make this film soar, are the not quite sure if one should laugh moments, because there is a sense that there is genuine emotion being felt by the ridiculous characters within. This is brilliance, and it all goes back to a terrific screenplay written by Busch, a renowned drag queen, who adapted the screenplay from a late 1990s one man show. Busch, in a red wig, also looks remarkably like Eve Arden, and although it's been years since I saw 1960s sitcom The Mothers-In-Law, which starred Arden and Kaye Ballard, I'm sure that Busch loaded a few sly references to the actress upon whom both the name and look of his character is derived.
The basic premise of the film is that Busch is washed up actress/singer Angela Arden, in a loveless marriage, who takes on many lovers. Her twin sister Barbara died years earlier, her movie producer husband, Sol Sussman (Philip Baker Hall), is failing in health and business and manipulates their maid Bootsy (Frances Conroy), who is in love with him, her daughter Edith (Natasha Lyonne) is a bitch who hates her, and her son Lance (Stark Sands) is a mentally unbalanced homosexual. Add in Lothario tennis pro Tony Parker (Jason Priestley), who also wickedly savages his own tv soap opera persona, and the makings of a fun film abound. He also seems to be channeling a poor man's Peter Lawford in his brim hat, tennis shorts and penny loafers.
There are numerous greatly funny sex scenes.... This is a film that never, in a billion years, would get nominated for an Oscar, the way Brokeback Mountain has, but it represents everything artistically that Brokeback Mountain is bankrupt of- originality, daring, humor, humility, and terrific writing. The same sad fact of neglect also unfortunately applies to Busch's great performance. There will come a time, though, when injustices like this even out, and when film lovers who are speaking of this film draw a blank when Brokeback Mountain is mentioned. Let's hope that we're all alive and kicking when that day comes.
Movie Review: Fun and well made.
Summary: 3 Stars
"Die Mommie Die" is defintely a "gay interest" movie, but it is so well produced that it stands head and shoulders above most films of it's type whose audiences are usually limited to film festivals and fringe interest cinemas. Charles Busch is the talent responsible for writing and creating the project, and it's safe to say that his portrayal of the central characte of Angela Arden is what brings the film alive.
As Angela Arden (in drag but played straight), Busch gives us a glamorous former cabaret star, now living in the shadow of her past success, and surrounded by a wealth, but also a family full of deceit, hate and trouble. Angela is herself haunted by her own past, and the entry into her life of a young male lover who also seduces both her son and daughter seems to provoke a chain of events with very melodramatic and tragic consequences. All par for the course really as the film is intended to evoke the golden age of Hollywood melodrama as made famous by Bette Davis, Joan Crawford et al, and it does this pretty well, with it's own modern agenda creeping in, of course.
This is undoubtedly a vehicle for Charles Busch, and he makes a stunning job of it in my book. The photography, lighting, costumes and hairdos are all spot on, creating the perfect vision of a star every time he/she appears on screen. He even manages to deliver a great script, with plenty of brand new quotable lines for any aspiring screen goddesses out there, such as: "The only part of this house that I don't hate is that door, because that's how I'm getting out of this dump!" (ok that's not verbatim, but you get the idea!).
The fact that Busch keeps the camp element quite low key means that the film is capable of acheiving the valuable trick of pulling you into the plot, which, although based quite blatantly on certain star vehicles (if I say which films, I risk revealing the films twist ending!), still manages to hold your attention all the way through. Actually if there are any histrionics in the film, they come from the other cast members (especially the younger ones) rather than Busch, although Frances Conroy (from Six Feet Under) does a great job as the loyal maid, Bootsie, and so does Philip Baker Hall as Angela's tyrannical husband.
Above all, everyone involved in the film seems to be having a great time, and it's clear from the luxurious photography and design that a considerable amount of talent was working behind the camera as well. There are many stunning shots and some quite fun and novel compositions (one shot of Jason Priestly unzipping his fly fades perfectly into a shot of a cocktail glass on a tray - well, you probably have to see that to understand what I mean there!). I enjoyed watching this film immensely, and the twist ending surprised me (even though as soon as it happened, I remembered immediately which famous star movie I had seen it in before)
Put aside any preconceptions and you might just find that you have a lot of fun watching this. That said, if your preconception is of seeing an unashamed parody/homage to the great Hollywood women's pictures - with a modern slant - then keep it and you should be rewarded!
Movie Review: Not bad at all, but not really great either
Summary: 3 Stars
Poor Angela Arden. Her career as a famous songstress but a dim memory, and her family life falling apart (a gay son (Sands), a bitch daughter (Lyonne) and an unloving husband (Phillip Baker Hall), she turns to mysterious gigolo Tony Parker (Priestly) for comfort, as one by one, the people closest to her are brutally murdered. Suspecting her of their collective demise, daughter Edith eventually wins over loyal brother Lance and, with a little help from Tony, concocts a plan to serve revenge, very chilled. Is Angela innocent? And why is she so guilty over the apparent suicide of her talentless twin sister Barbara?
Charles Busch is awakwardly paced here, you can't help feeling that the sanitised dialogue could have contained more wisecracking and vitriol than it does, and he looks like he's itching to give it. Although the supporting cast is very, very good (particularly Lyonne, who has proven her talent with comedy on more than one occasion), this is all Busch's show, and he seems almost uncomfortable with the nearly-memorable quips and cracks. Still, his mannerisms and visual performance are excellent, and a really great reflection of the legacy left to Hollywood by the heyday of Misses Crawford, Davis and Turner.
Direction's pretty clever; it's a little disjointed for a while until you realise that Mark Rucker's obviously tried to go back to a time when styles and techniques were very different, and the sweeping interior panoramas and over-long closeups are, in themselves, visual in-jokes for fans of the original melodrama/soap-movie genre.
This isn't an outrageously funny drag movie a la Priscilla, nor is it a purely escapist fantasy like To Wong Foo (the sense of tongue-in-cheek here sees to that), but it's an entertaining sort of movie nonetheless. Watch for blink-and-you-miss-it visual gags like Tony's huge member in the potting shed and the dead hamster flashback sequence towards the end of the movie. It's the little quirks like these that lift "Die Mommie Die" out of average and plant it squarely in the mode of success, and it's a real recommendation for anyone who loved all that excessive melodrama of the fifties and sixties.
Movie Review: Campy & Clever, but better on stage
Summary: 3 Stars
Charles Busch is a deserved icon of the Off-Broadway theatre scene. Anyone lucky enough to have seen him triumph in his works such as THE LADY IN QUESTION, PSYCHO BEACH PARTY and VAMPIRE LESBIANS OF SODOM just adore him! He's so talented, bright, funny and witty.
That's why I was disappointed with this no-budget version of the very clever comedy DIE MOMMIE DIE. Production values and casting made a muddle of what should have been clever and campy. It's the "safe" median between his raw original and a slick Hollywood version---so consequently, it falls flat into the middle zone without a real POV. I remember feeling this way about John Waters' SERIAL MOM...it lacked the punch of his early, unabashed "screw Hollywood" work, but wasn't the high gloss feature film it was trying to spoof.
Jason Priestley is worth noting for being a good sport and turning in an earnest performance although being grossly miscast.
Diehard Busch fans will enjoy themselves, but this is one better scene in its stage incarnation.
Movie Review: "Why not me-eeee?/ It's my moment!"
Summary: 3 Stars
Too enamored of itself--and campy, tongue-in-cheek humor in general--"Die Mommie Die!" is still very inventive on a tight budget and gives drag-extraordinaire Charles Busch another chance (after "Psycho Beach Party") to strut his inimitable stuff. Self-cast as a 1950's singing star retired in the '60's and battling with her crotchety husband and kids, Busch gives himself the most salacious lines (and even the ones which aren't so saucy are still pretty funny, like the way he breathily tells the husband, "You do seem to be holding all the cards..."). The murder mystery plot isn't well organized and ends on an iffy note (with one character killed for no particular reason), but the black-and-white flashbacks are a hoot and the film, based on Busch's stage play, has a mordant, comically-jaded ambiance that is curiously friendly and enjoyable. Oddly, Busch is very awkward lip-synching to the theme song "Why Not Me?", yet Stark Sands (as the star's mixed-up son) gets to do his own drag interpretation of the tune and is fabulous.