Controversial, contested and now considered a camp cult classic, Mommie Dearest adapts Christina Crawford’s incendiary tell-all memoir about life with her adoptive mother, Hollywood megastar Joan Crawford.
Away from the bright lights of movie stardom, Crawford is painted as a damaged alcoholic whose internal torments find expression in a home life governed by toxicity, mania and abuse.
Deliriously untethered from cinematic convention and the seriousness of its subject matter, Mommie Dearest managed the unusual feat of informing the legacies of both its subject and its star. Faye Dunaway’s maximalist portrayal of Crawford completely dominates the film and has entered the pantheon of way-out-there big screen performances.