That was an excellent one.

It was OK. I don't see why everyone loves it so much. It wasn't very smart or deep or well-directed.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

For those unfamiliar with Charles Busch, he is an actor who almost always plays highly dramatic female characters, inspired by the great Hollywood stars of the 1920s through the 1950s, in plays or movies he writes himself. He first found success in the early 1980s on the far fringes of New York's East Village; from there he moved gradually to more mainstream theatrical venues, movies and television.Although he's often called one, he's not actually a drag queen. He's an actor who happens to play female characters, but his makeup and costumes are never any more outlandish than those of the great female stars who inspire him. Although he's also often called "camp", he really is a serious actor and writer. There is nobody else like him.This movie is a documentary of his life up to about 2004. A typical online review of it says, "You will laugh and you will cry as you follow Charles Busch's path to the bright lights on Broadway!" Well... no. I did enjoy this movie, though; and I guess it's not surprising that his fans would gush like that about him. It fits.I wasn't a Charles Busch fan before I watched this movie, and I'm still not a fan, but I'm very glad there are people like him in the world. I'm also glad he has found productive venues for his eccentric talents.I greatly admire anybody - and he is a PERFECT example - who fits nowhere in the world and so makes a place just for himself where nobody was before. Good for him. And everybody who knows him evidently truly loves him (even his own family!), which is remarkable for anybody in any field. Although I neither laughed nor cried a single tear, I'm very glad I watched this movie.I actually liked the silent-movie short included on the DVD (Her Royal Escape to Love, filmed in and around Central Park's wonderful Belvedere Castle after a snowstorm) better than any of his speaking performances. His acting style, which is far too hammy for me, is absolutely perfect for silent movies. He is a terrific silent-movie actor, and if he did more such movies I would become a big fan fast.

Other than having heard the title Die Mommy, Die, I was aware of neither Charles Busch nor his work until I caught this film on IFC 6 or 8 months ago. This morning I saw it for the third time, and it's still excellent.As a child I was not as...off the beaten path, shall we say, as young Master Busch, but I definitely felt myself to be outside the main stream of my suburban home town. Even at what is now a late point in life, it's refreshing and vindicating to see someone succeed by being true to himself and having fun. The spontaneity and talent of Busch and his troupe are impressive, and I'm thankful that films of the Limbo Lounge shows exist. It must have been some experience to see those early shows live. This film made me a Charles Busch fan, even though it's the only thing in which I've ever seen him. I'm a fan of the person as much as the performer, and an admirer of his perseverance through quite a stack of obstacles and adversities. Go Chuck! P.S. After reading Julie Halston's filmography I realized that I have seen her before, as Nathan Lane's unexpected bride in Sex and the City. She's terrific, too.

Sometimes being 'too gay' can be an asset. In a world that celebrates clones and a sheep mentality, there are those who from the get-go march to the beat of their own drum and decide to make something useful of their own existence, even when they may be moving counter-clockwise and well aware of it. THE LADY IN QUESTION IS CHARLES BUSCH introduces us to -- who else -- Charles Busch, a performer I was until DIE MOMMIE DIE unfamiliar with. Without being too self-promoting (even though it's logical that Busch be in nearly every frame of this documentary, being the central subject), the movie details how as a child Busch became obsessed with movies from Hollywood's Golden Age. He quickly identified with the heroines of such features such as NOW VOYAGER, LADY IN BURLESQUE, and THE WOMEN, competed with his siblings for the attention of his father, and later moved to San Francisco to make something out of his life as a performer only to return to New York City at the middle of the AIDS crisis where he became introduced to the Limbo lounge via a performance artist. It would be there where he would create what has now become a massive following, displaying the wild excesses of camp that has been elevated to a near art form. Seeing snippets of "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom", "Kiss the Blood Off My Castanets", and "Theodora -- She Bitch of Byzantium" were immense treats, but in revealing the powerhouse performer Meghann Robinson was in "The Lady in Question", it becomes a mini-tribute to this incredible actress with a voice and personality that went beyond what I've seen in movies. THE LADY IN QUESTION IS CHARLES BUSCH, despite dragging just a tad with the opening night of "Taboo", doesn't over-stay its welcome but is a fantastic glimpse into the life and times of this great actor and playwright. I only would have wished to have been there when it all happened at the Limbo lounge. At least, with this movie, as with DIE MOMMIE DIE, I can see his mannerisms capturing acting styles from an era gone by (and he has them down pat to perfection, especially seen in a silent-movie clip where he plays the heroine in her dying moments holding a glass ball in a tribute to CITIZEN KANE). It's enormously entertaining to a fault. I loved it.

During the last quarter of the 20th century, New York saw the arrival of artists of the caliber of Charles Ludlum and Charles Busch. These men's love for the movies that had shaped their youth, started their own views of those idols when they established companies that capitalized on the type of 'ridiculous' theater where they, in turn, reinterpreted the way those larger than life figures influenced them.While Charles Ludlum, the creator of the Theater of the Ridiculous, passed away at the peak of his creative years, Charles Busch went on to establish himself as one of the best exponents of this genre. Charles Busch's humble beginnings can be traced to his days at the Limbo Lounge where he and his friends would perform for his followers, most of whom were gay, and who really appreciated Mr. Busch's humor. It wasn't until the Establishment press, by way of a New York Times reporter, wrote about what Charles Busch and his clan were creating, that New Yorkers embraced this new type of hilarious insanity.Charles Busch's biggest hit was "Vampire Lesbians of Sodom", a play that established him and his collaborators as legitimate exponents of this new form of theater. All this is the basis of this wonderful documentary shown recently on the Sundance Channel. As directed by John Catania and Charles Ignacio, we are taken to hear first hand by Charles Busch and his close friends and members of his group what it was all about.Mr. Busch is a kind man whose contributions have brought joy and entertainment to theater lovers. In the film we hear first hand accounts by Theresa Aceves, Kenneth Elliott, Julie Halston, Carl Andres, and others about what it was to be associated to Mr. Busch from those obscure days to the present. We also see interviews by such personalities as Boy George, Michael Musto, Paul Rudnick, Rosie O'Connell, Kathleen Turner, and B. D. Wong, among others where they give praise to an unique voice in the New York scene: Charles Busch!