Die, Mommie, Die!
Sundance Film Series | Release Date: October 31, 2003 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
54
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 23 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
7
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Village VoiceAlexis Soloski
Though Natasha Lyonne as bratty daughter and Philip Baker Hall as the disposable spouse impress, it's Busch's heartfelt Joan Crawford homage that enthralls. Busch can transcend even the smog, making hazy camp seem fresh. Read full review
80
Los Angeles TimesKevin Thomas
With his hilarious spoof Die Mommie Die! Charles Busch takes the melodramatic woman's picture of the '40s and '50s to delirious extremes. Read full review
80
The New York TimesStephen Holden
Makes a jolly absurdist stew out of its sources. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Busch combines French absurdist theater and American performance art with a drag queen's flamboyant wit. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Hotly hilarious. Read full review
75
Portland OregonianShawn Levy
Hilarious mixture of Greek tragedy and Aaron Spelling soap opera that spews nasty one-liners and winking '60 signifiers like a slot machine that's paying out. Read full review
70
VarietyDennis Harvey
Doing for the cheesier Ross Hunter-style bigscreen soaps of the early/mid-'60s what "Far From Heaven" did for the plush Douglas Sirk melodramas of a decade earlier -- albeit with tongue planted much further in cheek -- writer/star Charles Busch's Die Mommie Die! is an enjoyable genre homage-cum-parody. Read full review
70
Washington PostAnn Hornaday
It succeeds, with a big, false-eyelashed wink. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
Busch, looking like a depressed Stockard Channing, throws his tantrums with breathy ''aristocratic'' hauteur. Yet the movie winds up walking a line between put-on pastiche and kitsch passion, and Jason Priestley is perfect as a brooding lunkhead of Tab Hunter gigolo-osity. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJami Bernard
A brilliantly pitch-perfect sendup of a particular type of cheesy movie. Read full review
63
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Occasionally stagy and flat, "Die" is worth seeing for Busch's grand performance, which won him a Special Jury Prize at this year's Sundance Film Festival. Read full review
63
Baltimore SunChris Kaltenbach
Taken together, the sum of so many parts is too schizophrenic to be wholeheartedly embraced -- the movie is played for parody, but with a veneer of respectability that leaves the whole endeavor betwixt and between. Read full review
60
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
But fabulous though the allusions, sets and costumes are, Busch's performance is the movie's heart, and like the screen idols whose every gesture he's lovingly absorbed, Busch can pack a world of meaning into an arched eyebrow and a slight crack of the voice. Read full review
50
Dallas ObserverRobert Wilonsky
Busch, responsible for the similarly hit-and-miss-that's-a-mister "Psycho Beach Party," has a good idea; two in one movie would make him absolutely fabulous. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyChuck Wilson
Predictably, the jokes are raunchy, yet they're few in number, as if the writer's sleaze well is running dry. First-time director Mark Rucker has a nice feel for period detailing but fails to build on his star's rare flashes of high energy. Read full review
50
Seattle Post-IntelligencerSean Axmaker
A one-note farce that struggles just to remain on key. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Neither hilarious nor a credible spoof. Read full review
50
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This originated as a late-night play, and the humor is correspondingly sophomoric, but I loved Dennis McCarthy's melodramatic score. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The problem with Die, Mommie, Die, a drag send-up of the genre, is that it spoils the fun by making it obvious. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneAllison Benedikt
It's a screen adaptation of Busch's stage play of the same name, which never really went anywhere after its 1999 Los Angeles debut -- and doesn't go anywhere here. Read full review
30
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
What's strangest, though, about Die Mommie Die! is how material that was obviously so giddily irreverent in origin became so inert, so joyless and dull. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleMarjorie Baumgarten
Seems more like an amateur revue, perfectly all right for what it is, but not meant to be seen beyond an audience of friends and family. Read full review
20
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Mean-spirited and stagy where "Psycho Beach Party" was cinematic and charming, Die, Mommie, Die recycles gags from Busch's screenwriting debut--from transparently phony rear projection to a character's crippling constipation--and the law of diminishing returns kicks in pretty hard. Read full review
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