Die Mommie Die! (2003)
Average Rating: 6/10
Reviews Counted: 59
Fresh: 38 | Rotten: 21
This stagy production has enough funny moments to work.
Average Rating: 6.5/10
Critic Reviews: 22
Fresh: 17 | Rotten: 5
This stagy production has enough funny moments to work.
liked it
Average Rating: 3.5/5
User Ratings: 2,718
My Rating
Movie Info
Playwright, performer, and drag queen Charles Busch appears in the leading role as aging pop star Angela Arden in the darkly comic melodrama Die Mommie Die. Based on Busch's own play, this film marks the directorial debut of Mark Rucker. In 1967, Angela's career has hit bottom and she's trapped in a loveless marriage to film producer Sol Sussman (Philip Baker Hall). She gets involved in an affair with unemployed TV actor Tony Parker (Jason Priestley). After Sol suddenly dies, Angela's daughter
Cast
-
Charles Busch
Angela Arden -
Natasha Lyonne
Edith Sussman -
Jason Priestley
Tony Parker -
Frances Conroy
Bootsie Carp -
Philip Baker Hall
Sol Sussman -
Stark Sands
Lance Sussman -
Victor Raider-Wexler
Sam Fishbein -
Nora Dunn
Shatzi Van Allen -
Stanley de Santis
Tuchman -
Sara Gilbert
Janice -
Jason Segel
Larry the Hippie -
Paul Vinson
Leather Daddy
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All Critics (65) | Top Critics (24) | Fresh (39) | Rotten (21) | DVD (4)
It plugs ahead on the stamina and sheer nerve of its author-star.
Top CriticYou quickly start to realize that there's not much of a movie here.
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.
This drag queen camp farce was an unfunny drag.
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.
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.
A loving homage to every movie Joan Crawford ever barreled her shoulder pads through.
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Imagine stepping back in time, going to the movies and catching a Bette Davis flick, only without Bette Davis. The actress might be missing, but the style, plot elements and acting are all very similar. Cross-dresser Charles Busch in the lead role is every bit as glamorous and classy, even if the humor is not. Everything is sensationalized, twisted and overly dramatic, and like most strong parodies, "Die Mommie Die!" doesn't wear out its' welcome.