Movie Review – Die Mommie Die! (2003)

Overall Quality 4.0 / 5.0 (recommended)
Gay Content 2.5 / 5.0
Gay Positivity 4.0 / 5.0

A fresh and funny film that offers an over-the-top presentation without taking itself too seriously.

Scriptwriter Charles Busch plays Angela Arden, a former singing sensation, whose voice and family life are cracking. Her husband Sol (Philip Baker Hall) and daughter Edith (Natasha Lyonne) hate and abuse her; only her son Lance (Stark Sands) offers support, but even that turns out to be conditional. Then Sol dies, and a clever, endearingly melodramatic whodunit follows, with a surprisingly clever twist ending.

Busch plays Angela to perfection, with a strong supporting cast including Hall and Frances Conroy as housekeeper Bootsie. Sands and Lyonne are a bit more inconsistent, but both offer strong moments. Lyonne in particular enjoys some of the movie’s best one-liners, impeccably delivered. Jason Priestley, as the mysterious and sexually freewheeling Tony Parker, didn’t quite get the memo for the movie’s tone, though. The movie as a whole succeeds in part because it parodies Old Hollywood without condescension or too much self-seriousness. Priestley didn’t quite manage that balance; his performance could have been just fine; but in this case was jarringly out of sync with the rest of the cast.

Regarding gay content, Arden’s son Lance is gay, and Tony Parker could perhaps be described as omnisexual trending toward hetero.

On the surface, the treatment isn’t terribly positive. Lance ain’t exactly a role-model and incorporates a number of derogatory stereotypes. He’s kicked out of the school for allegedly inciting a homosexual orgy among the math professors, with himself on a lazy susan. And in the scene where he comes out to his mother, Angela asks, “Son, are you a cocksucker?” He also dresses as Angela at one point. And yet, it all fits into the movie, and in the context of the ridiculousness of the characters and the plot, this treatment of the gay content becomes part of the spoof and satire.

In fact, it’s really not a gay movie at all. Rather, it’s an extremely gay-friendly movie, with a drag queen at the lead playing an over-the-top femme fatale (which gay men seem to adore in droves), with some minor but clear gay content. Oh, and throw in a little full-frontal nudity, and we have a film tailored for a gay audience.

You have to take this film for what it is, but if you can manage that, it’s a terrific 90 minutes.