Mommie Dearest (1981)

Mommie Dearest is a slow, overacted, boring biopic about a fairly uninteresting person. I understand why this may have camp value, but I don't plan on watching it ever again. With the exception of the "wire hangers" scene, this movie wasn't even worth the first watch.

This film has become a cult classic. Generations of gay men quote lines and even straight people know the line "No Wire Hangers". In this film we learn the story of Joan Crawford told from the eyes of her daughter Christina. Christina and her brother claimed that Joan was a very abusive mother and that is shown here. What is also told in this story is how "Hollywood" treated their stars after they had a couple of box office failures. The one thing nobody can argue about in this film is that Faye Dunaway was great in this film. She however will never talk about this film. That is too bad. She has lost out on work because if she would just embrace this film for what it is then maybe she might become a happier person. Watch this film but be prepared to laugh when you really don't want too!

Mommie Dearest is a film based on the book of the same title written by Joan Crawford's daughter, Christina Crawford. This film and the book it is based off of tells the story of how Joan Crawford behaved behind closed doors with her children, how she abused them, had crazy/wild outbursts, which sometimes turned violent. In my honest opinion, mommie dearest is very well acted, Faye Dunaway blew me away in her brutally honest portrayal of Hollywood legend Joan Crawford. In the beginning, we are introduced to ms Crawford as a young actress, at the height of her career, working at Metro Goldwyn Mayer, no children, and two divorces. She applies to an adoption agency, but her application is denied, so she goes through some loopholes, pulls some strings, and adopts her daughter, Christina, and then her son Christopher. Throughout the film Joan is depicted by Dunaway as a self obsessed, selfish, child abusing alcoholic that never really gives her love to her children. In many scenes, a teenage Chrisrina tries desperately to gain her mothers love, but she never really receives it. The chemistry between Joan and Christina is good here and the acting is very dramatic and very intense, as it should be. I don't exactly understand some of the negative reviews this movie has received both when it first came out and over the years. I think mommie dearest is a well made and well acted film telling the very sad true story of actress Joan Crawford and her private life and strained relationships with her children with with whom she woefully mistreated. 8/10 for mommie dearest.

Due to all the negativity surrounding this film, I did not know what to expect, but wow this was really good! Faye Dunaway is extremely over-the-top and absolutely explosive to the point that you never notice anyone else but her on screen, and so is unbelievably entertaining. The film was entertaining to watch, it gave us this idea of what can go in inside the houses of even the richest of people. However, this is certainly not an accurate depiction of the events, and is extremely exaggerated, but nevertheless, I loved it! It was hilarious, without intending to be so. Crawford was a very complicated woman, and a great disciplinarian, but there was something else going on with her that caused her to crack. The "NO WIRE HANGERS" sequence was hilarious and creepy, and I can see why this film and this scene became camp, with Joan screaming like a madwoman over and over again and spanking her daughter with the hanger. The ending was sad; Joan watching her daughter honor her on television. This film definitely has to be one of the most quotable films ever, because several of the lines have been memorized and cherished (still not in the way intended, because the film can never be taken seriously). All in all, a deliciously entertaining (even if historically inaccurate and unevenly directed) underrated classic!