Movie Review for Die Mommie Die!

Summary: When the curtain rises on Angela Arden--ex-pop singer, mother, lover, and an amalgamation of every screen diva from 1940 to 1968--she is trapped in a hateful marriage with movie producer Sol Sussman. Her affair with out-of-work TV actor Tony Parker comes to a grinding halt when Sol returns from Europe earlier than expected. And when Daddy Sol suddenly dies (some confusion with a poisoned suppository), everyone gets into the act and almost everyone gets a piece of Tony, including Angela's Electra-esque daughter and twisted son.

                         Reviews of Die Mommie Die!
By Marjorie Baumgarten of Austin Chronicle (7/0)
            Die Mommie Die! seems more like an amateur revue, perfectly all right for what it is, but not mea...

By Wesley Morris of Boston Globe (7/0)
            Busch is such a tenaciously subversive entertainer that you appreciate the movie despite Mark Ruc...

By Allison Benedikt of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            I kept hoping for something ridiculously over the top to grab my waning attention...

By Allison Benedikt of Chicago Tribune (7/0)
            Busch muffles his drag performance, suffocating the humor, and the cleverness of the plot is give...

By Harvey S. Karten of Compuserve (7/0)
            Charles Busch is a mighty attractive woman.

By Oz of eFilmCritic.com (7/0)
            If you thought Rocky Horror was 'okay, but not all that' then Die Mommie Die is not for you. But ...

                         Reviews of Die Mommie Die!
By Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly (7/0)
            The movie winds up walking a line between put-on pastiche and kitsch passion, and Jason Priestley...

By Eric D. Snider of EricDSnider.com (7/0)
            Would be hysterical in a series of five-minute sketches. But with a flimsy plot and a reliance on...

By David Noh of Film Journal International (7/0)
            Director Mark Rucker has the right intentions, but unfortunately, not enough skill in terms of co...

By JoBlo of JoBlo's Movie Emporium (7/0)
            Major kudos to Busch for playing this lady as hilariously real, yet over-the-top as possible.

By Kevin Thomas of Los Angeles Times (7/0)
            Die Mommie Die! has great fun demolishing pretense and the facade of respectability while never h...

By Gabriel Shanks of Mixed Reviews (7/0)
            Part tribute, yes, and part genderf**k too, but DIE MOMMIE DIE! is first a surprisingly smart, en...

                         Reviews of Die Mommie Die!
By Frank Swietek of One Guy's Opinion (7/0)
            Bad camp...despite the stylistic similarity, about as far from 'Far from Heaven' as you can get.

By Timothy Knight of Reel.com (7/0)
            A wickedly funny parody.

By Laura Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            like "Far From Heaven" as imagined by John Waters

By Robin Clifford of Reeling Reviews (7/0)
            The most notable aspect of “Die, Mommie, Die” is the great female impersonation performance by Ch...

By Ruthe Stein of San Francisco Chronicle (7/0)
            Die Mommie Die! winds up neither hilarious nor a credible spoof of a genre intent on spoofing its...

By Moira MacDonald of Seattle Times (7/0)
            The reason to watch Die Mommie Die! isn't for its story, but the zing in its actors' eyes.

                         Reviews of Die Mommie Die!
By Rich Cline of Shadows on the Wall (7/0)
            Soapy and trashy, and more than a little bit ludicrous. But there's quite a bit of subtext if you...

By Cherryl Dawson and Leigh Ann Palone of TheMovieChicks.com (7/0)
            For the select audience that likes The Rocky Horror Picture Show and just wishes that it had more...

By Maitland McDonagh of TV Guide's Movie Guide (7/0)
            Busch's performance is the movie's heart, and like the screen idols whose every gesture he's lovi...

By Alexis Soloski of Village Voice (7/0)
            Busch can transcend even the smog, making hazy camp seem fresh.

By Michael O'Sullivan of Washington Post (7/0)
            All this probably worked much better as a stage production.

By Stephen Holden of New York Times (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            Although the supporting performances are carefully shaded caricatures, Die Mommie Die! is really ...

                         Reviews of Die Mommie Die!
By Stephen Holden of New York Times (3/5) Login Required (Login Required)
            The fun of Die Mommie Die! flows out of its caricatures and camp references...

By Marcy Dermansky of About.com (3/4) No reference
            The best thing about "Die, Mommie Die" is the title.

By Emily Blunt of Blunt Review (3/4) No reference
            Die Mommie Die is one of the funniest films of the year! Mind you it sure isn't the usual toilet-...

By Thomas Delapa of Boulder Weekly (5/2) No reference
            ...Busch drags his campy send-up of Hollywood melodramas to the screen, and honey does it drag.

By Annlee Ellingson of Boxoffice Magazine (3/4) No reference
            The film's greatest asset is Busch himself in a performance so finely tuned that ultimately one a...

By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (3/4) No reference
            ...it didn't work...

                         Reviews of Die Mommie Die!
By Roger Ebert of Chicago Sun-Times (3/4) No reference
            Drag queens are no longer funny just because they're drag queens; we've lost the nervousness abou...

By Erich Scholz of Citysearch (3/4) No reference
            Busch is actually pretty great as Arden, but with nothing to hang his wig on, it all gets tiresom...

By Michael Booth of Denver Post (3/4) No reference
            How can you not like a movie where characters spout ridiculous dialogue such as, 'You can't disca...

By Robert Denerstein of Denver Rocky Mountain News (3/4) No reference
            Aside from meeting a memorable character -- an aging pop diva with self-dramatizing flair -- this...

By Terry Lawson of Detroit Free Press (6/1) No reference
            What could have been a one-gag movie turns out to be one of the funniest comedies John Waters nev...

By David Foucher of EDGE Boston (3/4) No reference
            Charles Busch channels Joan Crawford, Bette Davis, Lana Turner and Susan Hayward in the lovingly ...

                         Reviews of Die Mommie Die!
By Don Willmott of filmcritic.com (3/4) No reference
            If Far From Heaven had had any sense of humor, it might have looked a little like this.

By Kent Turner of Film-Forward.com (3/4) No reference
            An extended skit on The Carol Burnett Show with fleeting full frontal nudity.

By Kirk Honeycutt of Hollywood Reporter (3/4) No reference
            It's diva worship done more tastefully than John Waters, more adroitly than 8 Women but less flam...

By Andrea Chase of Killer Movie Reviews (3/4) No reference
            [Busch] is a performer who is more diva than most of the ovary-packing portion of the population ...

By Chuck Wilson of L.A. Weekly (3/4) No reference
            First-time director Mark Rucker has a nice feel for period detailing but fails to build on his st...

By Josh Bell of Las Vegas Weekly (3/4) No reference
            This is such a smug, self-satisfied film that it will leave a bad taste in your mouth, whether yo...

                         Reviews of Die Mommie Die!
By Evan Henerson of Los Angeles Daily News (3/4) No reference
            Nobody wears a frock like Charles Busch and, as it happens, nobody writes like him either. Which ...

By Jeff Strickler of Minneapolis Star Tribune (3/4) No reference
            Cheesy, corny and cheap. In other words, it's everything writer-star Charles Busch wanted his spo...

By Jami Bernard of New York Daily News (3/4) No reference
            A brilliantly pitch-perfect sendup of a particular type of cheesy movie.

By Megan Lehmann of New York Post (3/4) No reference
            Tart with heart.

By Shawn Levy of Oregonian (3/4) No reference
            It's a tawdry, silly and self-satisfied film, but in the best ways.

By Jay Boyar of Orlando Sentinel (3/4) No reference
            You quickly start to realize that there's not much of a movie here.

                         Reviews of Die Mommie Die!
By Jon Popick of Planet Sick-Boy (3/4) No reference
            Tart enough to curl the ends of John Waters' moustache.

By Dawn Taylor of Portland Tribune (3/4) No reference
            ... an over-the-top pastiche of John Waters-style raunch, Greek tragedy and weepy Sirkian soap.

By Peter Travers of Rolling Stone (3/4) No reference
            Picture Far From Heaven done as a farce with a drag queen in the Julianne Moore role. Or don't pi...

By Joe Baltake of Sacramento Bee (6/1) No reference
            It plugs ahead on the stamina and sheer nerve of its author-star.

By Sean Axmaker of Seattle Post-Intelligencer (3/4) No reference
            A one-note farce that struggles just to remain on key.

By Ann Hornaday of Washington Post (3/4) No reference
            In the midst of all the double-entendres and genre sendups, Busch disappears so completely into A...

                         Reviews of Die Mommie Die!
By Chris Hewitt (St. Paul) of St. Paul Pioneer Press (3/4) Not Reachable
            A loving homage to every movie Joan Crawford ever barreled her shoulder pads through.

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