Beauty vs Beast: Only a Mother's Love
Monday, April 8, 2019 at 11:00AM Jason from MNPP here -- it's safe to say that there isn't a week (a day, an hour) where something having to do with John Waters doesn't drift through my happily polluted brain, but this week's really turning it out. (It's good to gear ourselves up for John's new book out in May, I suppose!) For one this upcoming Saturday the 25th anniversary of his last truly great film Serial Mom, starring a deliciously unhinged Kathleen Turner as the sunny recycling-prone Jekyll & Hyde of suburbia. And for another MoMA, as part of their "What Price Hollywood" series on cinema's transgressive sexual politics, is screening Female Trouble twice this month. So with Mother's Day already in the air (and by "in the air" I mean "on the seasonal shelves of my local CVS") I ask us for this week's "Beauty vs Beast" to turn our eyes upon these two of John's most loving mothers...
PREVIOUSLY Last week's Tully poll was relatively tight, which is as it should be with two characters so inextricable, but it was momma Margo who pulled it out at the end with 56% of the vote. Said JF:
"Charlize is straight-up one of the greatest screen actors of all time. Male, female, living, dead, any era, any genre, *tongue pop*. I have never been ready for how great she is an I hope I never am."
Reader Comments (11)
Will Kathleen Turner ever return to theaters with another kickass role?
Looking at you Todd Haynes or Quentin Tarantino
Hell, I'd settle for a Ryan Murphy FX series at this point.
Divine/Dawn all the way.
Beverly all the way in this pairing, although if she'd been up against Francine Fishpaw, then I just don't know.
Kathleen Turner should've WON that Best Actress Oscar in '94.
Beverly/Kathleen Turner all the way. Personally I would have given her all the awards for "War of the Roses", but "Serial Mom" was a fun outing for this gifted actress. At least at TFE she is remembered and revered appropriately.
I'm with LadyEdith. I love the Kathleen Turner and always will. War of the Roses, migod, so great.
Serial Mom of course... she's awesome. She's just standing for what is right and the fact there's rules in life that we have to pay attention to like to buckle our seat belts, listen to a doctor's orders, recycle, always rewind video cassettes that you rent, and to be faithful to your spouse.
Kathleen Turner should've gotten an Oscar for that film.
I saw Serial Mom in the theater in 7th grade! So awesome. Love that Sam Waterston is in it too
“Those aren’t Cha-Cha Heels!!”
“I’m Dawn, Dawn Davenport. I’m a thief and shit kicker and I’d like to be famous.”
To me War of the Roses is Turner's best. With all due respect to Pfeiffer, I would've given her the Oscar for that.
She definitely deserved nominations for Body Heat, Peggy Sue Got Married, Romancing the Stone, and Serial Mom, too.
If you haven't seen these films please do yourself a favor.
Beverly had me at "rewinds your tapes"