Die Mommie Die! (2003)
Runtime: 90 mins
Theatrical Release: Oct 31, 2003 Limited
Synopsis: Angela Arden (Charles Busch) is a former cabaret singer whose career has long since hit the skids and crashed to an abrupt halt. Her marriage to producer Sol Sussman (Philip Baker Hall) is rapidly heading the way of her career, but with Sol unwilling to agree to a divorce Angela gets busy with a... Angela Arden (Charles Busch) is a former cabaret singer whose career has long since hit the skids and crashed to an abrupt halt. Her marriage to producer Sol Sussman (Philip Baker Hall) is rapidly heading the way of her career, but with Sol unwilling to agree to a divorce Angela gets busy with a bottle of arsenic and terminates the marriage in a less-than-legal manner. Now free to carry on her illicit affair with hot young stud Tony (Jason Priestley), Angela first has to deal with a suspicious daughter, Edith (Natasha Lyonne), and equally suspicious family maid Bootsie (Frances Conroy). Son Lance (Stark Sands) also plays a crucial role, especially when it turns out that both he and Edith are also bedding Tony. First-time director Mark Rucker has successfully created a camp classic by working closely with his talented star and screenwriter Busch, who gloriously hams it up for the cameras throughout, delivering a constant barrage of pithy one-liners. Priestley, Lyonne, and Sands provide deliciously silly support throughout, culminating in a movie that resembles a version of FAR FROM HEAVEN produced by trashy cult director John Waters. [More]
Genre: Comedies
Starring: Charles Busch, Frances Conroy, Philip Baker-Hall, Jason Priestley, Natasha Lyonne
Screenwriter: Charles Busch
Producer: Dante DiLoreto, Anthony Edwards, Bill Kenwright
Composer: Dennis McCarthy
Buy It On DVD
Reviews
If Far From Heaven had had any sense of humor, it might have looked a little like this.
An extended skit on The Carol Burnett Show with fleeting full frontal nudity.
Soapy and trashy, and more than a little bit ludicrous. But there's quite a bit of subtext if you need it.
...Busch drags his campy send-up of Hollywood melodramas to the screen, and honey does it drag.
Die Mommie Die! seems more like an amateur revue, perfectly all right for what it is, but not meant to be seen beyond an audience of friends and family.
It plugs ahead on the stamina and sheer nerve of its author-star.
You quickly start to realize that there's not much of a movie here.
This is such a smug, self-satisfied film that it will leave a bad taste in your mouth, whether you're a fan of old melodramas or not.
It's a tawdry, silly and self-satisfied film, but in the best ways.
... an over-the-top pastiche of John Waters-style raunch, Greek tragedy and weepy Sirkian soap.
A loving homage to every movie Joan Crawford ever barreled her shoulder pads through.
Cheesy, corny and cheap. In other words, it's everything writer-star Charles Busch wanted his spoof of B-movies to be.
Aside from meeting a memorable character -- an aging pop diva with self-dramatizing flair -- this comedy thrives on arch melodrama and movie smarts.
How can you not like a movie where characters spout ridiculous dialogue such as, 'You can't discard me like one of your false eyelashes!' and believe every word they're hissing?
Picture Far From Heaven done as a farce with a drag queen in the Julianne Moore role. Or don't picture it -- Die is still hotly hilarious.
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