DVD Double Feature
Mommie Dearest meets Running With Scissors
Who needs Frankenstein when you have mothers? In two of the best screen-monster performances from the past 25 years, Annette Bening and Faye Dunaway take bad parenting to new heights in Running with Scissors, out on DVD this week, and the classic Mommie Dearest, respectively. Many may already be familiar with Dunaway’s infamous portrayal of Hollywood legend Joan Crawford, with her over-the-top delivery of such classic lines as, “Christina, bring me the axe,” and, of course, “No. Wire. Hangers. EVER!” Yet, Bening matches Dunaway’s commitment to scenery-chewing and scene-stealing by crying, screaming, and, yes, even dancing her way to a place in the pantheon of awful screen mothers, putting her somewhere between Dunaway’s Crawford and Betty Buckley’s Margaret White from Carrie. While Bening is in the same league as these women, the movie in which she appears does not, unfortunately, offer half as much campy fun as Mommie Dearest. Still, if you need a reminder that there’s no place like home, this double feature will leave you crying for your mommy.