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Overrated and overhyped

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

The writing is so hysterically crazy in this film that you can't help but burst from laughing from this very dark comedy.A dysfunctional California family hate each other. Some of the lines in the film talk about blintzes in the Sahara Desert and the father complaining of constipation since his trip to Madrid.There are some real good twists here such as the religious maid who isn't as great as she can be, and the ending shocker when it's revealed that the lady of the house pulled exactly what Bette Davis did in 1964's "Dead Ringer." People who are dead turn up very much alive and with it all, there is a pretty good song sung-"I'm Me!"This picture proves that there is a very thin line between genius and insanity.

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.

Former pop singer, now living in Los Angeles in the 1960s, is suspiciously defensive over memories of her now-deceased twin sister; she wages a series of battles with her estranged husband, hateful daughter, gay son, tippling maid and an overly-curious gigolo while bodies start piling up. Self-conscious, self-reverential camp comedy, based on the kind of play that brings down the house in hip urban dives, has its tongue too far in cheek. Playwright and star Charles Busch, a built-like-a-brick diva, gives himself the juiciest lines but doesn't seem to realize the funniest movies in the camp-genre are ones which don't realize just how over-the-top they are (camp, per se, is best served accidentally). This piece does have some very funny lines (such as Busch's Bette Davis-like "I'm clearin' out the deadwood!"), a great acid-trip sequence, but a reedy murder-mystery plot with a severe case of "Dead Ringer"-itis. **1/2 from ****

Angela Arden (Charles Busch) is just another washed up singing sensation of yesteryear. Although still quite a Diva in her own mind, she lives with her unloving husband Sol (Philip Baker Hall), her mentally challenged and emerging homosexual son Lance (Stark Sands), and her prententous Daddy's girl of a daughter Edith (Natasha Lyonne). The marriage and family are quite a sham, with mother and daughter bitter rivals, as well as father and son. Father and daughter couldn't be happier, and mother and son get along pretty splendidly as well. Angela appears to live the spoiled society housewife life- complete with well-endowed gigolo lover Tony P (Jason Priestley). When some explicit and nasty pictures surface of the Angela/Tony love tryst- Sol decides to take the marriage into his own hands by announcing that Angela will now be cut-off financially, and that's when the fun starts. Angela plots to kill Sol by shoving an arsenic filled suppository up his IL' woo-ha. Mother and son soon rejoice once Sol kicks the bucket, but poor Edith is left alone to her own devices. In steps Tony P to relieve some of the much needed pressure. And of course, keeping it strictly a 'family affair", Tony P also takes a shot at poor misunderstood Lance the first chance he gets. Of course Angela has had more than enough of being a role model and mother, but after being cut out of Sol's will entirely - decides it best to stick around for a while. There's lots of sub-plots and lot's of comedy throughout....but the real winner in "Die Mommie Die" is the performance of Charles Busch as the aging starlet Angela. At times outrageous but mostly subtle, Angela is a contradiction of love, motherhood, marriage, and sexuality!! "Die Mommie Die" isn't slapstick comedy, and the dialogue of the actors is somewhat "over-enunciated", as if they were acting in a play and not a film (the movie is based on the stage play). But, the comedy and movie is quite original and refreshing, and is definitely recommended for more mature audiences.