Saints And Soldiers Review
by Jon Popick (jpopick AT sick-boy DOT com)September 18th, 2003
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Die Mommie Die is more than a little like Far From Heaven, the critically lauded update of melodramas from the '50s and '60s in which moderately unpleasant situations were blown grotesquely out of proportion in order to let people like Bette Davis and Joan Crawford strut their stuff. But Todd Haynes kept things relatively serious in Heaven, and serious is something you're just not going to find in the big-screen adaptation of the Charles Busch play of the same name.
That's not a bad thing, either - at least if you're a fan of camp that goes way over the top in the same manner as, say, Psycho Beach Party (also adapted by Busch from his own play). Then again, your enjoyment may depend upon your knowledge of pictures from this genre and time period. Mine is extremely limited, and I'm sure there were more than a few gags and homages that went way over my head, but I still liked Die a lot.
The story centers on a rather dysfunctional Hollywood family in 1967. Patriarch Sol Sussman (Philip Baker Hall, Bruce Almighty) is a movie producer who has been off in Spain trying to secure financing for his latest venture, while wife Angela Arden (drag legend Busch), a washed-up singer-actress, has been busy shagging the python-sized Tony Parker (Jason Priestley). Sol catches wind of the affair, but instead of divorcing Angela, he vows to make her a prisoner of their failed marriage. The two have never really gotten along since the last film they made together essentially ended both of their careers.
When Sol cancels Angela's upcoming singing engagement in the Poconos, she flips out and kills him with an arsenic-laced suppository. This does not bode well for Angela's relationship with her daddy's-girl daughter (Natasha Lyonne, Kate & Leopold) or the family's maid (Frances Conroy, Six Feet Under), though it does bring her a bit closer to pot-smoking son Lance (Stark Sands), who has just been kicked out of school for inciting a gay orgy. In one priceless heart-to-heart conversation between mother and son, Angela not-so-delicately asks Lance, "Son, are you a cocksucker?"
So, yeah - the humor isn't exactly subtle, but it's not supposed to be. There are plenty of other scenes that are just as much of a hoot, but I don't want to give them all away. I'll just say Die is tart enough to curl the ends of John Waters' moustache. Everything is appropriately sensational, twisted and overly dramatic, and like most strong parodies, Die doesn't overstay its welcome (even though it could have been tightened up a tiny bit by director Mark Rucker).
Busch's performance, which won a Special Jury Prize at Sundance earlier this year, is insanely fun, featuring the same soft "Doris Day" focus and the same hysterically flattering lighting we're supposed to swallow as legitimate when it's done to Madonna (The Next Big Thing) and Kate Hudson (How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days).
1:30 - R for strong sexual content, language and a drug scene
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