Reviewers who complain that Charles Busch is not believable as a woman - comparing him unfavorably with Divine, et al - miss the point. Busch is in a class all his own, and comparing him to ANYBODY else limits the viewer's ability to enjoy what he offers.He's not SUPPOSED to be a believable woman. He's like a precocious kid who loves to dress up and act like glamorous movie stars from the long-gone days when EVERYBODY overacted, when ALL stars were hams, before Marlon Brando changed the nature of screen acting forever.Unless you can enter Busch's unique world on HIS terms, you won't like his movies. He's letting us watch him act out his glamorous fantasies, the same delightful fantasies he's been acting out since he was a child.He's not a drag queen, he's not a female impersonator, he's not a cross-dresser or a transvestite. He is a MAN - but with the sweet, innocent, wide-eyed, starstruck heart of a little boy - who has a whole lot of fun dressing up like and acting like Bette Davis or Joan Crawford or Olivia de Havilland. He invites us to join in the game.It's fun, unless you're trying to fit it into some mold it doesn't belong in.

i really don't think you have to be queer to like this comedy. i mean you do have to be "queer", but in the oddball sense not in the gay sense. i mostly have known more straight people in my life than gay people, and i definitely know that a lot of those straight persons had a sense of irony and liked off the wall things.and this film is pretty off the wall. and it's also pretty gay. unlike his more repugnant counter part John Waters, Charles Busch definitely promotes gay lifestyle and a gay agenda. as long as you're cool with it, you probably won't mind. although a lot of this movie feels imitative of John Waters, John Waters films are not necessarily openly gay. movies like 'Crybaby' and 'Hairspray' actually center around straight characters and heterosexual lifestyle and relationships. no John Waters films are actually gay thinking or about being gay. John waters is actually more perverse than gay, and i'm sure a good many in the gay community wouldn't necessarily want perversity associated with being gay. Charles Busch's brand of filmmaking seems almost tailored for the Logo channel (which is incidentally, for those who don't know, literally a network aimed at a gay audience).even though Charles Busch aims at a mostly gay audience with gay themes, he's so incredibly funny and imaginative that it crosses over into mainstream comedy and entertainment. what adult couldn't appreciate the mature audacity of Busch's humour.Busch is also not just a funny actor, but seriously a good actor in general. it's pretty good drag too. i find myself willing to suspend a certain amount of disbelief for Busch's attire and appearance as a woman. even Busch's voice sounds like a woman who's chords have been tarnished by years of cigarette abuse. Charles Busch's women are convincing enough and oddly a little attractive. he also carries out his performance with a interesting amount of conviction and sincerity. well after all he is representing his own material.this film is also efficient and competent in all departments. acting, writing, costume and production design as well as photography. and it's very adept at humour. especially where "mommie" sings a round of songs at the piano during a funeral reception.even if you're homophobic (who isn't these days), you should probably lighten up enough to appreciate good comedy. comics from Uncle Milty to the guys from 'Saturday Night Live' have often dressed in drag. this is a really funny film and shouldn't be discriminated against for it's outrageousness.do i think drag dressing is outrageous weirdness? well i'd be lying if i said i didn't think so. it kinda freaks me out and gets me uptight and kinda strung out. but that's part of the fun. outrageous ideas are often adventurous, daring and often take precedent. and there's nothing here too hard to handle except maybe a "doggie style" sex scene with "mommie" and two twins. which actually just made me laugh.like 'Rocky Horror', this movie requires you too relax your mores somewhat to accept it. and that's a good thing. i don't think that there is really anyone out there that really wants to be a uptight prude, and Charles Busch and his devious imagination can help.

I seem to be in the minority in my opinion of this movie. I love the films that DMD was referencing & supposedly parodying (40's & 50's womens films/ 60's drug flix)but was quite disappointed with the final result. It looks great, has some funny lines "The cuisine in Hades must be top notch", and a good performance by Stark Sands but in general the film's direction, pacing and performances are utterly lackluster. Apparently this is the director's first film & unfortunately it shows. Part of the problem also lies with the star. While Charles Busch might be a fabulous drag actor on stage, he is completely unbelievable as a woman on the big screen. I never forgot that I was watching a man in drag during the movie, which is what a really good drag performer (such as Divine or Varla Jean Merman)is able to do. As another reviewer at IMDb succinctly put it: "He manages to be believable in character without being believable as a woman". I don't think better, kinder cinematography would've helped, because to be perfectly honest, in spite of the fabulous wigs & wardrobe, I don't think he has a face for the big screen, nor a strong screen presence. Also I heard someone say on the DVD commentary that Busch toned down the theatricality of his stage performance for the movie which I think was a big mistake. His performance is too subdued & understated, too much of a sincere homage & not enough of a parody of that style of acting. He should've been more Norma Desmond and less Olivia de Havilland. It's only in the last 15 min. or so(starting with Angela's acid trip) when we get to see him playing both sisters, that his performance comes alive a bit. A much better, funnier drag film called "Girls will be Girls" came out the same year as DMD and stars 3 actors in drag all of whom are amazing, hilarious and completely convincing as women. And the direction of the film and tone of the performances hit just the right notes between camp & believability. Had the director of "Girls...", Richard Day, and the wonderfully talented & funny drag actor Varla Jean (aka Jeffrey Roberson)from the same film been the director and star of Die Mommie Die...now THAT would've been a spoof worth watching.

After noticing that the star of this film is a drag queen than you start to wonder what else this story has to offer and that's where the main problem of this satiric effort lies. Story is set in the 1960's (I think so, anyway) where we see a faded former singing star named Angela Arden (Charles Busch) and she wants to divorce her husband Sol Sussman (Philip Baker Hall) who's a has-been Hollywood producer. Their children are virginal Edith (Natasha Lyonne) who loves her father but hates her mother and homosexual pothead Lance (Stark Sands) who has the opposite feelings towards his parents.*****SPOILER ALERT***** Sol won't give Angela a divorce so she decides to kill him by dipping a suppository in arsenic and inserting it! Sol dies and the authorities consider it just a heart attack but Edith and Lance start to think that their mother was up to it. The local gigolo Tony Parker (Jason Priestley) is bisexual and has slept with both Edith and Lance and he starts to investigate the death of Sol but when the maid Bootsie Carp (Frances Conroy) pops up dead than it seems just a matter of time to find proof that Angela is behind things. After drugging Angela with LSD she admits not only to Sol's death but also the circumstances involving her twin sister Barbara.This is directed by Mark Rucker who makes his debut and though he has to somehow get around the minuscule budget the films weakness has nothing to do with the production values. The script is a campy send-up of the older melodrama's from both the 50's and 60's and as I watched this several films came to mind like "Peyton Place", "Valley of the Dolls", "Sunset Boulevard", "Straight Jacket", and many of Douglas Sirk's efforts. The main joke in the film is Busch in drag resembling Joan Crawford but with the characters last name of Arden I couldn't help but think of actress Eve Arden whom Busch also resembles. But that part of the films humor wears out so quickly that everything else seems thrown in to try and fill out the script to a near 90 minutes and the ridiculous ending doesn't help either. The film has many in-jokes and the characters all display silly behavior but even die hard camp lovers will find this effort (at best) a tedious offering.