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Mommie Dearest Play Trailer

Mommie Dearest (1981)

tomatometer

33

Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 6
Fresh: 2 | Rotten: 4

No consensus yet.

audience

76

liked it
Average Rating: 3.6/5
User Ratings: 18,381

My Rating

Movie Info

When her adoptive mother Joan Crawford died in 1977, erstwhile actress/author Christina Crawford and her brother Christopher were left out of Joan Crawford's will, "for reasons which are well known to them." Industryites have suggested that it may have been this posthumous act of rejection rather than an alleged lifetime of parental abuse that inspired Christina Crawford to pen her scathing autobiography Mommie Dearest. The 1981 film version of this tome was evidently meant to be taken

PG,

Drama

Christina Crawford, Robert Getchell, Frank Yablans, Frank Perry

Jul 17, 2001

Paramount Pictures

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Cast

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Mommie Dearest Trailer & Photos

Critic Reviews for Mommie Dearest

All Critics (31) | Top Critics (6) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (16) | DVD (17)

It's rich, stimulating thought in spite of itself.

October 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | Comment (1)
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Director Frank Perry, who collaborated with three others (including producer Frank Yablans) on the script, gives it all a certain crazed conviction.

October 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader
Jonathan Rosenbaum
Chicago Reader
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Dunaway does not chew scenery. Dunaway starts neatly at each corner of the set in every scene and swallows it whole, costars and all.

October 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Variety
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Really no dafter, perhaps, than some of Joanie's own Warner Bros melodramas; the trouble is, it thinks it's Art.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out
Time Out
Top Critic IconTop Critic

I can't imagine who would want to subject themselves to this movie.

October 23, 2004 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

There is nothing to string the episodes together into a coherent drama, and no insight into Miss Crawford herself.

August 30, 2004 Full Review Source: New York Times
Janet Maslin
New York Times
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Trashy soap opera drama on the private life of screen queen Joan Crawford.

February 20, 2013 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

Director Frank Perry simply sits back and lets Dunaway rip. He was either supremely untalented or he purposefully intended to sabotage her.

May 13, 2008 Full Review Source: LarsenOnFilm | Comment (1)
Josh Larsen
LarsenOnFilm

Wire Hangers!

February 28, 2008 | Comments (3)
Stefan Birgir Stefansson
sbs.is

Dunaway creates the benchmark for harridans the world over but never entirely loses sympathy for her subject. It's a constant blast of high melodrama and camp.

October 30, 2007 Full Review Source: Film4
Film4

'No wire hangers -- ever!' That this apparently banal phrase has now achieved something like immortality is a reflection of the unbridled extravagance of Faye Dunaway's performance.

October 30, 2007 Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide
TV Guide's Movie Guide

...relies almost entirely on Dunaway's histrionics to propel the story forward - resulting in a movie that's good for a few unintentional laughs but little else.

July 15, 2006 Full Review Source: Reel Film Reviews
David Nusair
Reel Film Reviews

A peculiar hybrid: a high-camp Hollywood bio flick about child abuse, elevated substantially above its sordid material by Faye Dunaway's obsessively committed interpretation of legndary star Joan Crawford.

June 20, 2006 Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Cult underground director John Waters (Pink Flamingos) is the perfect commentator on this high-camp biopic of legendary star Joan Crawford and on Faye Dunaway's ferociously brilliant performance.

June 20, 2006
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

You've gotta give Paramount credit for resisting the urge to call it the "No Wire Hangers Ever! Edition." They're aces. True class.

May 31, 2006 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Eric Henderson
Slant Magazine

Perry and Yablans fuse this formal schizophrenia with the cruelly episodic structure and fetishized period details of Hollywood biopics.

May 31, 2006 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine
Eric Henderson
Slant Magazine

Deliciously entertaining trash.

September 28, 2005 Full Review Source: FulvueDrive-in.com
Chuck O'Leary
FulvueDrive-in.com

High camp about child abuse... oy Faye!

September 9, 2005
Staci Layne Wilson
Fantastica Daily
View all critic reviews (31)

Audience Reviews for Mommie Dearest

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This film is the worst kind of exploitation flick possible, and it was taken seriously in production no less! Today billed as a camp classic, and advertised as such once it was discovered for it's ludicrous content, Mommie Dearest is synonymous with bad taste and over-acting. This goes especially for lead Faye Dunaway, who portrays screen legend Joan Crawford. Based off of Crawford's adopted daughter Christina Crawford's tell-all memoir of the same name, most of the film is comprised of scenes showing Crawford abusing her daughter physically and emotionally. The film centers on the tumultuous life of the actress, who suffered from alcoholism and may have also, had a bipolar disorder. Dunaway has complained that director Frank Perry didn't know how to rein in actor's over performing and how true that statement is. Dunaway is out of control throughout, and though many actions are cruel, villainous stages of abuse, at times you feel reviled for watching something so outrageous and unrealistic. It's certainly not laugh out loud funny, because the subject is so horrible and Dunaway does do a decent job of implying the actress' sullen manner. The movie also suffers from the fact that none of the events shown have true credibility, as friends, co-stars, and an ex-husband of the screen legend have argued against the claims of the book. The film itself is very cheap looking, sets and costumes looking second-hand, wigs and backdrops almost painted on. The performances from the children are actually laughable, and the scenes of the beatings often look like a madwoman pummeling a pillow. Bits of this are incoherent and often things aren't explained in a helpful manner, which makes it difficult to piece together the true nature of the film or its content. By the middle I and my boyfriend were betting on what atrocious act would come next. From Joan Crawford's beatings, to her impeccable housekeeping, to wielding a large axe to cut down a sapling, to yelling hoarse over wire hangers, there's just too much awkward tumult for anyone to take this seriously. Actually, one feels bad for the screen siren, her daughter, and Faye Dunaway, who went as far as putting on three hours' worth of makeup to look authentic for this film. (And does) It's just a sad waste, and a bigger waste of time.
July 23, 2010
FrizzDrop
Spencer S.

Super Reviewer

A narratively disjointed and episodic adaptation that is basically for those who are curious to know how was Joan Crawford's abusive relationship with her daughter, who wrote the book this film is based on. The exploitative story makes no effort in character development, but Faye Dunaway is great in a histrionic, over-the-top performance.
September 29, 2011
blacksheepboy
Carlos Magalhães

Super Reviewer

Mommie Dearest Quotes

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    1. Joan Crawford: No wire hangers, ever!
    – Submitted by Dutch E (2 months ago)
    1. Christina Crawford: There's a liquor store to the right.
    2. Joan Crawford: I should have known you'd know where to find the boys and the booze.
    – Submitted by Jed G (2 months ago)
    1. Joan Crawford: NO WIRE-HANGERS! EVER!
    – Submitted by Jed G (8 months ago)
    1. Christina Crawford: Fiqures you would know where to find the men AND the booze!
    – Submitted by Maureen D (9 months ago)
    1. Christina Crawford as child: Jesus Christ!
    – Submitted by Maureen D (9 months ago)
    1. Joan Crawford: Christina, bring me the ax!
    – Submitted by Maureen D (9 months ago)

Discussion Forum

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