Die Mommie Die!
by Mark Rucker
List Price:
Our Price: $7.38
You Save: $7.60 (51%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $6.75 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD details
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD details
Actor: Angela Paton, Charles Busch, Frances Conroy, Jason Priestley, Natasha LyonneDirector: Mark Rucker
Brand: Hart Sharp Video
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Color, Dolby, DVD, NTSC
Picture Format: 1.33:1
Running Time: 90 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2005-04-26
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: Arts Alliance Amer
DVD Reviews of Die Mommie Die!
DVD Review: Good satire
Summary: 3 Stars
Why is it that the most banal and straightforward films get lauded by the Motion Picture Academy, while films that push boundaries and take risks, especially if comedies, get ignored? And why is it that there is no separate category for comedies and musicals for the Oscars? In watching the DVD of the 2003 Sundance channel film Die Mommie Die! I could not help but have these thoughts. It's a truly brilliant film, with an Oscar caliber performance by Charles Busch, playing a Joan Crawford/Susan Hayward/Gloria Swanson/Bette Davis/Doris day-like hybrid character in a spoof of the Grand Dame Guignol classic films of the 1960s that inspired such 1980s television soap operas as Dynasty and Dallas. What makes it so brilliant, aside from the dominant performance by Busch, is that it works both as camp, in the vein of the films it parodies, and also as a lampoon or satire of camp. Achieving excellence in one of these veins is difficult enough, but to go two for two in the same film is damned near miraculous. And given that the Grand Dame Guignol genre is so campy to begin with, it's even harder to achieve than in parodying other stock forms, such as science fiction, in the recent The Lost Skeleton Of Cadavra, itself a terrific spoof of 1950s sci fi, but far easier to pull off than this film's aims were. The moments that are the most memorable, and which make this film soar, are the not quite sure if one should laugh moments, because there is a sense that there is genuine emotion being felt by the ridiculous characters within. This is brilliance, and it all goes back to a terrific screenplay written by Busch, a renowned drag queen, who adapted the screenplay from a late 1990s one man show. Busch, in a red wig, also looks remarkably like Eve Arden, and although it's been years since I saw 1960s sitcom The Mothers-In-Law, which starred Arden and Kaye Ballard, I'm sure that Busch loaded a few sly references to the actress upon whom both the name and look of his character is derived.
The basic premise of the film is that Busch is washed up actress/singer Angela Arden, in a loveless marriage, who takes on many lovers. Her twin sister Barbara died years earlier, her movie producer husband, Sol Sussman (Philip Baker Hall), is failing in health and business and manipulates their maid Bootsy (Frances Conroy), who is in love with him, her daughter Edith (Natasha Lyonne) is a bitch who hates her, and her son Lance (Stark Sands) is a mentally unbalanced homosexual. Add in Lothario tennis pro Tony Parker (Jason Priestley), who also wickedly savages his own tv soap opera persona, and the makings of a fun film abound. He also seems to be channeling a poor man's Peter Lawford in his brim hat, tennis shorts and penny loafers.
There are numerous greatly funny sex scenes.... This is a film that never, in a billion years, would get nominated for an Oscar, the way Brokeback Mountain has, but it represents everything artistically that Brokeback Mountain is bankrupt of- originality, daring, humor, humility, and terrific writing. The same sad fact of neglect also unfortunately applies to Busch's great performance. There will come a time, though, when injustices like this even out, and when film lovers who are speaking of this film draw a blank when Brokeback Mountain is mentioned. Let's hope that we're all alive and kicking when that day comes.
Description of Die Mommie Die!
When fallen pop diva angelas husband sol discovers that shes having an affair with failed actor tony angela calculatedly offs him with a poisoned suppository or does she? what follows is a hilarious mix of whodunits & double crossings involving the maid the vampy daughter & the boy toy son. Studio: Arts Alliance America Release Date: 02/26/2008 Run time: 90 minutes Rating: RBestsellers in DVD
![The Story of Jeremiah [VHS] Image](/images/noimg.gif)
The Story of Jeremiah [VHS]Vision Video; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Wresting With God [VHS]by Vision Video
Vision Video; Published: 1990-10-01; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
Study Bible Video with Workbook [VHS]Spring Arbor Distributors; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $7.95
Price in other shops:
Tempo:Childrens TV Favourites Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $9.17
Price in other shops:
Tempo.Herbs:Parseley'Sb/ Party Video [VHS]HarperCollins Audio; VHS Tape; VHS Video
![Strike the Original Match [VHS] Image](/images/Strike-the-Original-Match-VHS-0001374079-X.jpg)
Strike the Original Match [VHS]New Liberty Films; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Price in other shops:
![Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS] Image](/images/Medjugorje-The-Miracles-and-the-Message-VHS-0001373293-X.jpg)
Medjugorje The Miracles and the Message [VHS]JPN Film Production; Release date: 1995-12-15; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Best price: $29.99
Mayo Clinic Echocardiography Review Course for Boards and Recertification DVD 2008by Mayo
DVD
Price in other shops:
Pediatric Diagnostic Imaging DVD: Single Userby Oakstone
DVD
Price in other shops:
Cost Accounting [VHS]by Charles T. Horngren, George Foster, Srikant M. Datar, Howard Teall
Pearson Canada, Toronto; VHS Tape; VHS Video
Similar DVDs, VHS Video, Audio CDs
Strait JacketSony; Release date: 2002-03-12; DVD
Best price: $8.17
Price in other shops:
Tale of the Allergist's Wife and Other Plays: The Tale of the Allergist's Wife, Vampire Lesbians of Sodom, Psycho Beach Party, The Lady in Question, Red Scare on Sunsetby Charles Busch
Grove Press; Published: 2001-02-27; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.49
Price in other shops:
KaboomMPI; Release date: 2011-05-31; DVD
Best price: $10.52
Price in other shops:
Sordid LivesFox; Release date: 2003-03-18; DVD
Best price: $3.56
Price in other shops:
The Adventures of Priscilla Queen of the Desert (Extra Frills Edition)TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX HOME ENT; Release date: 2007-06-05; DVD
Best price: $10.31
Price in other shops:
John Waters Collection #2: Polyester/ Desperate LivingNew Line Home Video; Release date: 2001-09-04; DVD
Best price: $9.66
Price in other shops:
Serial Mom (Collector's Edition)UNI DIST CORP. (MCA); Release date: 2008-05-06; DVD
Best price: $11.95
Price in other shops:
The Lady in Question Is Charles BuschNew Video; Release date: 2006-09-26; DVD
Best price: $10.54
Price in other shops:
Girls Will Be GirlsPLOTNICK,JACK; Release date: 2004-03-16; Published: 2004-03-01; DVD
Best price: $17.46
Psycho Beach PartyRelease date: 2001-04-10; DVD
Best price: $10.43
Price in other shops: