Mommie Dearest (1981)
Directed by Frank Perry
Renowned film star Joan Crawford's abuse towards Christina, her adopted daughter, intensifies as her professional and romantic relationships turn sour.
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What critics compared Mommie Dearest to
But without an experienced director brave enough to tell the Oscar-winner when to say when, she chews the scenery at a rate so voracious you can’t help recalling Faye Dunaway’s shameless vamping in “Mommie Dearest.”
When an actress goes this far out on a highly theatrical ledge—think Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest —critics are usually waiting with their penknives, ready to skewer the performance as camp.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Director Aneesh Chaganty nurtures some good Baby Jane / Misery / Carrie / Mommie Dearest vibes here.
Not since Faye Dunaway immortalized the phrase "No more wire hangers!" in "Mommie Dearest" has an actress delivered as delirious a line at as high a decibel level and with as much sincerity.
Diana Scarwid (1981's "Mommie Dearest") is vibrantly unconventional, but sorely underused, as Claire's best friend, Jody.
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Or maybe it's in every single moment that Theresa Russell, as Kelly's alcoholic mother, shows up to impersonate Kathleen Turner playing Joan Crawford in a Miami Mommie Dearest.
You have to go back to Faye Dunaway screaming “No more wire hangers!” as Joan Crawford in “Mommie Dearest” to get a line reading like Lawrence’s “You sent me to whore school!”
Easily one of the nastiest matriarchs in cinema history, Crystal is as ruthless as Jacki Weaver's Mama Smurf in Animal Kingdom , and as imperious as Faye Dunaway in Mommie Dearest , but way nastier than either.
Once in Wonderland (whose real name is the more appropriate Underland), Alice comes across all the familiar characters, including Tweedledee and Tweedledum (both played by a heavily CGI-ed Matt Lucas), the grinning Cheshire Cate (voiced by Stephen Fry), Absalom, the hookah-smoking blue caterpillar (voiced by Alan Rickman), and, of course, the Mad Hatter, who is played by Johnny Depp in bizarre yellow contact lenses, white pancake make-up, and a fright wig of shockingly red hair (he looks like a truly nightmarish version of Faye Dunaway at her worst in Mommie Dearest).
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Mila Kunis is the real surprise, nearly stealing the whole movie with only a handful of scenes, while Barbara Hershey (doing her best “Mommie Dearest” impression) and Winona Ryder are equally effective in limited roles.
But she can also pop by at just the right moment — as when Nina is having a Mommie Dearest run-in with her mother and Lily offers her an opportunity to escape to a wild night of roofies and girl-on-girl sex.
Erica’s psychotic tendencies are barely repressed behind a veneer of motherly caring that frequently cracks into Mommie Dearest-style tantrums and attempts at total control.
That these feelings are probably closer on the movie moms spectrum to "Mommie Dearest" or "The Manchurian Candidate" than "Almost Famous" or "Terms of Endearment" doesn't diminish their legitimacy.
Eat your heart out, “Mommie Dearest”!