Picture for event

This Mother's Day, don't forget

Mommie Dearest (1981)

a special screening feat. drag performances by DGA Collective

Dir: Frank Perry, 1981, USA, 129 mins, cert: 12A

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Sun 22 March 2020 // 19:00 / Cinema (cancelled)

Tickets: £7/5

On this Mother's Day, make sure you don't forget those five important words: I love you, Mommie Dearest!

Based on the harrowing memoir of child abuse written by Joan Crawford's daughter Christine, Mommie Dearest is a high melodrama about Crawford's life as a star and mother. Widely derided by critics on its initial release, it has since become embraced by fans worldwide as a camp classic. With her mesmerising arched eyebrows and fabulous costumes, Faye Dunaway's outrageous performance as Crawford dominates every scene. While the film's most beloved moments come from Dunaway at her most unhinged ('NO WIRE HANGERS EVER!'), the film also manages to poignantly convey Crawford's deep-rooted fears of poverty, rejection, and ridicule, as well as the very real terrors for a child of living with an unpredictible and abusive parent.

But there is also a sheer joy and delight to be found in the high camp of Mommie Dearest: we see Joan Crawford as a true Hollywood star, as a powerful woman fighting a male-dominated studio system, and as an aging diva driven by a desparate need to be loved and turned into a violent monster by her own self-loathing. 

Join us for this very special screening of Mommie Dearest, featuring a new performance from the DGA drag collective before the film!