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Serial Mom

1 disc
Region 1 USA/CA (info)

Happy homemaker Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) has a charmed life--a beautiful suburban home, a successful dentist husband (Sam Waterston), and two normal teenagers, Misty (Ricki Lake) and Chip (Matthew Lillard). But she also has a good deal of underlying rage waiting to escape....Just be sure to follow her rules: Be polite to your neighbor, always recycle, rewind your videotapes, and never, ever wear white shoes after Labor Day. When one of her son's teachers speaks disparagingly of the boy at a parent-teacher conference, Bev runs the instructor over in the school parking lot. Suddenly she has an insatiable taste for murder. Six homicides later, the cops get wise to her crimes, which are committed with weapons ranging from a leg of lamb to a fireplace poker. A media frenzy ensues, turning an unrepentant Beverly into a media celebrity.

A serial-killer comedy mixed with courtroom-drama social satire, the raunchy SERIAL MOM was John Waters's return to R-rated fare after the sweet-natured duo of HAIRSPRAY and CRY-BABY. Suburban life is duly skewered here as the serenity of Beverly's upper-middle-class surroundings are continually sullied by her comedically disturbing acts of violence. Turner appears to relish the opportunity to play such an over-the-top role, and the usual Baltimore-based supporting players make welcome appearances.
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Additional Info

Manufacturer Part Number (MPN): 62103472
Credits

Kathleen Turner, Sam Waterston, Ricki Lake, Suzanne Somers, Matthew Lillard, Scott Wesley, Mink Stole
Critic Reviews

"...Polite, perverse, sublime..." - Recommended
Premiere
"John Waters and Kathleen Turner bring out the sicko best in each other in SERIAL MOM. It's a killingly funny spoof of crime and nonpunishment..."
Rolling Stone
"...Turner leaps into the most delicious role she has had in years....[Waters] concocts a cute suburban satire, a warmly funny movie that even a mother could love..."
New York Times
"...There's a martini dryness to Waters's sick sense of humor that's perfectly embodied in Turner's performance." -- Rating: B+
Entertainment Weekly
"...This is a high Waters mark....The renegade director/writer kicks the nation smack in its collective groin, marvelously mocking the oh-so-current mania over crime figures and tabloid scandals..." -- 3 1/2 out of 4 stars
USA Today