Mommie Dearest
Director: Frank Perry
Writer: Frank Yablans, Frank Perry, Tracy Hotchner, Robert Getchell
Based on: Christina Crawford‘s memoir
Cast: Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, Steve Forrest, Howard Da Silva, Mara Hobel, Rutanya Alda, Harry Goz, Michael Edwards, Jocelyn Brando, Priscilla Pointer
Seen on: 13./14.7.2026

Content Note: child abuse

Plot:
Joan Crawford (Faye Dunaway) has it all, or at least that’s what it looks like. She is a famous actress and people love her, even if the studios don’t love her as much anymore, now that she is getting older. Joan decides that she would like to have a child and soon adopts Christina (Mara Hobel). But Joan quickly proves to be a strict mother, and more as she frequently flies into rages.

I had heard about Mommie Dearest as a cult classic and therefore decided to watch it, despite having no real connection to Joan Crawford myself. And while I can see that its campiness would make it cult, I can’t say that I greatly enjoyed the film.

Mommie Dearest needs to be approached with care, I think. For one, it is about actual people, even if most (if not all) of them are dead by now. And secondly, it is about child abuse which is already a difficult topic, even when the veracity of the accusations are not called into question as much as they are surrounding this film and family. I am not here to decide that part.

But it is very clear that the movie is not interested in a careful examination, a layered portrayal maybe of either Christina or Joan (much less Christopher who is like a footnote here), or simply in any complexity at all. It is a sensationalist film that finds its pleasure in portraying a version of Crawford that is completely unlike her public persona. And this sensationalism made me very, very uncomfortable.

Faye Dunaway gives the role everything and more, and is probably the main reason why people still watch the film. Her Joan is cold and wild and pretty terrifying. If Dunaway had given any less, maybe the sensationalism of the film would have been a lot more alienating, but she pushes things over the top so much that it almost comes out the other side.

Only almost, though. Personally, I just couldn’t lean back and enjoy this larger than life performance that would have felt just as much at home in a B horror movie where Crawford turns out to be a knife-wielding slasher. For me, the topic is too sensitive for that.

Summarizing: campy, but uncomfortable.