Mommie Dearest (1981)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:29
Fresh:16
Rotten:13
Average Rating:5.6/10
Runtime: 2 hrs 9 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: Based on the book by her adopted daughter Christina, MOMMIE DEAREST is the now-legendary tale of Hollywood superstar Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) and the lengths that she went to in order to... [More]
Starring: Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Steve Forrest, Howard Da Silva
Director: Frank Perry
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Reviews for Mommie Dearest
| Tomatometer | Critic | Review | Category |
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 1.5/4 |
Director Frank Perry simply sits back and lets Dunaway rip. He was either supremely untalented or he purposefully intended to sabotage her. Full Review |
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 4/4 |
Wire Hangers! Full Review |
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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. Full Review |
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It's rich, stimulating thought in spite of itself. Full Review |
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Director Frank Perry, who collaborated with three others (including producer Frank Yablans) on the script, gives it all a certain crazed conviction. Full Review |
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2.5/4 |
'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. Full Review |
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Dunaway does not chew scenery. Dunaway starts neatly at each corner of the set in every scene and swallows it whole, costars and all. Full Review |
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1.5/4 |
...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. Full Review |
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Really no dafter, perhaps, than some of Joanie's own Warner Bros melodramas; the trouble is, it thinks it's Art. Full Review |
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3/4 |
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. Full Review |
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4/4 |
Perry and Yablans fuse this formal schizophrenia with the cruelly episodic structure and fetishized period details of Hollywood biopics. Full Review |
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B+ |
Deliciously entertaining trash. Full Review |
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4/5 |
High camp about child abuse... oy Faye!
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1/4 |
I can't imagine who would want to subject themselves to this movie. Full Review |
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3/5 |
Both sadly terrifying (child abuse to the max) and a cult classic laughfest.
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2/5 |
There is nothing to string the episodes together into a coherent drama, and no insight into Miss Crawford herself. Full Review |
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3/5 |
No review available.
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Mommie Dearest features an intense and bold performance by Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford. Full Review |
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2/5 |
No review available.
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3/5 |
No review available.
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