Truly Dreadful Film

Boring

When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Maybe because it wasn't about real life despised icons like Richard Nixon, or Senator Joe McCarthy, that a bio got trashed by critics before audiences turned MOMMIE DEAREST into a quotable punchline of bizarre biopic cinema. And yet, anyone who grew up watching this addictive, child-beating, temperamental show biz nightmare really did enjoy the damn thing...Dare it be said and agreeing with indie director John Waters on the DVD commentary: This maligned motion picture is solid entertainment as Director Frank Norris takes us back to the 1930's up into the 1970's with a colorful yet grainy, lived-in aesthetic as if we're there to suffer along with an incredibly talented child starlet, Mara Hobel as Young Christina Crawford who, grown up, wrote the bestselling tell-all novel that not only became a famous (if infamous) movie, but was her own final word to a rich mother who left her completely out of the will... Ouch!At one point, Hobel literally stands (stomps) her ground against Faye Dunaway, in a performance where the subtle stuff works better than unintentionally hilarious scenes like "No More Wire Hangers" and especially, "Christina, bring me the axe!"Which is right out of her William Castle drive-in exploitation STRAIT-JACKET as opposed to mentioning it as one of many films in her decade-spanning resume. Other than icing her face while leafing through the script for, ironically, ICE FOLLIES OF 1939, and rehearsing with long suffering maid Rutanya Alda for Joan's Oscar winning performance in MILDRED PIERCE, the timeline covered is completely off-screen, mostly taking place in her well-kept, anally dust-free mansion and, as her daughter ages into method actress Diana Scarwid, the intensity narrows into moments that really goads the viewer into loving-to-hate this woman who's blamed for both physical and mental abuse. When Scarwid's Christina smiles sweetly while ordering to a classy restaurant's gentleman waiter, Dunaway's snide, penetrating remark (pp),"It's not good to flirt, Christina," is far more effective than the noisy stuff...Scarwid... critic proof compared to Dunaway, who probably felt her career was stunted ala Tony Perkins in PSYCHO... injects eye-dagger expressions progressed from her younger self. After Christina is thrown out of a fancy private school, MOMMIE asks where she can fill up her flask and, after daughter answers too quickly, Dunaway provides her best line: "You know where to find the boys AND the booze!"Basically it's all a pulpy soap, including a third act marriage to the very sweet man who humbly ran Pepsi Cola, a nice change from mellow yet miffed, square-jawed, ascot-donning Steve Forrest, whose big brother, Dana Andrews, played opposite Joan in Otto Preminger's DAISY KENYON...What Joan does to "help" her daughter, after having finally gotten a role on a soap, is almost worse than the axe, the hanger, and a climactic, unbelievable beating and strangulation as Christina's legs are flipping and flopping on the expensive carpet while a reporter (Jocelyn Brando) is in the next room... Imagine getting away with that nowadays!According to John Waters, the studio had "plants" disperse hangers for the audience in order to chalk the entire venture as an "intentional comedy all along"...What's left out of the film's legacy is an immense fan-base that caught all the television and cable outlet screenings - even before the video boom of the mid 1980's in which, at that point, the cult status was already established: a sort of cult within a cult: Perhaps a combination of those who consider DEAREST a howler to others - the silent majority - who are mesmerized by Faye Dunaway's twisted yet natural, eerily and menacing performance as a psychopathic Hollywood A-list Oscar winner turned B-movie has-been... Say what you (they) will, no one else could have carried what critics and Crawford fans think is "pure fiction," but they didn't live with Joan like the true MOMMIE fans live again and again with Dunaway - with each and every viewing!

Despite "Mommie Dearest" being around for nearly a decade before I was born, I have only just now got round to watching it, and despite all the negativity surrounding the film, the leading lady Faye Dunaway disowning herself from the film, the film picking up the main prize at the Golden Raspberry awards, I actually found it to be quite charming. Indeed I must see something no one else can, as I thought "Mommie Dearest" was an awesome, powerfully moving retelling of the life of Joan Crawford and the upbringing of her two adopted children. Before watching this film, I knew very little about Joan Crawford, now I feel I've been inspired to go out and watch as many of her films as I can, it's gripped me like not many films can. The way the hair and makeup department managed to get Dunaway to look like Crawford as well as they did is pretty impressive, top marks for them..., and despite not actually being there to see whether the film and the sets are faithful to real life, it really does look legit, amazing-amazing truly.The acting is dazzling and hits you where it counts, astounding display of emotion that runs deeply throughout the duration of the film and never lets go for a single heartbeat, it hooks you immediately and refuses to relinquish its powerful grasp. I am shocked and appalled at how much bad press "Mommie Dearest" has received over the years, completely unjust and horrifically unfair, what do people really want huh? It's a good old film depicting the life and times of a good old actress, maybe the actress wasn't exactly good herself, but the film certainly is. My advice is ignore the reviews, ignore the press, and just sit down and enjoy a very stylish and exciting film, people who moan about it don't know what they're missing, for shame.

I'm not going to try to out-clever what's already been said about Mommie Dearest. I'm going to simply state the reasons why it's such a great film. At the top of the attributes is the name Faye Dunaway. As Andy Warhol said after watching this film, "if that's not acting what is?!" She IS Joan. They are officially one-in-the-same. The soul of Joan entered Faye's body on the day that the makeup was first applied to Faye's face. All the acting, in fact, is spot-on. Then we have the script. There are so many quotable moments to this film that one might as well just read the entire script - it's a non-stop quotable feast. The sets are gorgeous and I still claim that "the most beautiful house in Brentwood" set is one the greatest ever. Who can forget those crushed blue velvet sofas and that white bar? The STAIRCASE! The tree in the living room, accomplice in covering up so much "dirt"! How about the costumes? The gowns are spectacular. I could go on and on and on. In the DVD commentary Frank Yablans indicates that the director Frank Perry could have pulled Joan back a bit during the "bring me the axe" scene. I ask the simple question: WHY PULL HER BACK?! At the end of the day film is meant to entertain. That means many different things to many different people. In my case, this film entertains in spades and that is enough to merit a high rating in my book. You don't like Mommie Dearest? You're most likely a very sour person!

Mommy Dearest is a movie about Child abuse. It brakes down the wall that only "poor ghetto" people abuse their kids. Faye's performance of Joan Crawford is so real, right on and she nails it. People who are child abuse victims should see this movie. Christina's goal was to reach out to other child abuse victims and to confront child abuse head on as a victim.I have read the book Mommy Dearest . The film seems right on. Christina lives to tell her story. Some child abuse victims never make it out of their childhood alive. Ms Dunaway depiction of Joan Crawford is very believable . Child abusers are psychopaths,, cruel, evil monsters. Child abusers are in every economic class; even among the wealthy. Some Movie stars have publicly admitted to being an abusive alcoholic parent. And other stars have come out as child abuse victims. Christina was an anti child abuse advocate in LA CA . And now works with Native Americans. To read and see Christiana's story about her child abuse, has empowered many and will continue to empower child abuse victims to get help and get healing and to tell their story too. See this movie alone on DVD. I think you will be horrified. And see this movie in a totally different light.