The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom

In 1975, director Michael Ritchie's `Smile,' a ripe, witty, stinging send-up on the backstage mechanisms of beauty pageants proved a real sleeper with critics. Not a box-office hit by any means, it completely went over people's heads. But not surprisingly, word of mouth eventually spread and the public took a second look. Today the movie is considered a cult classic.

I predict that lightning will strike twice for director Ritchie. He finds gold again in them thar hills with 1993's ridiculously titled `The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom,' an hysterical and highly perceptive tabloid mini-movie that parodies itself! This TV-movie will find it's own cult audience in years to come for there is absolutely nothing else like it. "Positively True..." never lets up for a moment, never loses steam, never loses its sting, and never runs out of people to crucify -- attacking not only the perpetrators of the crime, but their hapless victims who suddenly start seeing dollar signs, the money-grubbing news media and reality-based talk shows that wring every lurid bit of drama out of it--fact or fiction--for ratings points, and, of course, the vulturous, tabloid-hungry public who feeds off this trash. No stone is left unturned or unscathed. If you're Southern, if you're small town, if you're a MOM, be prepared!

`Positively True...' is not just for the curiously-challenged who starve for these ridiculous, hackneyed, one-dimensional TV crime reenactments that feature such tabloid "stars" as the Menendez Brothers, John and Patsy Ramsey and Amy Fisher, it's especially for those who despise them. In truth, both sides will be well served here. There's plenty on this gourmet plate to whet everyone's appetite. Jane Anderson's ripping, perceptive, Emmy-winning script make this so overwhelmingly fascinating that you never want it to end. It's twice as much fun than had it been played straight, and this WAS (of course!) played straight a year earlier in the banal TV-movie `Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story' starring Lesley Ann Warren.

For those who may have been visiting Mars at the time of this incident, `Positively True...' is based on an actual Texas incident in which a jealous suburban housewife and mother of a high school teenager was arrested for attempted murder after she hired a hit man to rub out her daughter's main cheerleading rival at school. Amazing and preposterous as it all sounds, it was BIG, BIG news in the early 90s.

Holly Hunter is simply phenomenal as Wanda Holloway, the surly, tough-minded, overly ambitious, delightfully drawling Texas mom who treats the cheerleading as social climbing status for her and her less-than-agile daughter, to the point where she deems it necessary to eliminate her daughter's main competition when it looks like she won't make the team. Beau Bridges is equally terrific as the trailer park trash crackpot who may or may not be up to the job. Both deservedly won Emmys for their remarkable portrayals.

The entire cast, in fact, is downright strange, especially Swoosie Kurtz as Bridges' fruitcake of a wife, Matt Frewer as Hunter's ex who wants a rich piece of the tabloid pie, and Elizabeth Ruscio as the rival's mother, who also sees the value of being a victim. Everyone is picture perfect, right down to the bit roles.

Probably the most cutting edge TV-movie I've ever experienced. You won't be disappointed.

After a decade of pumping out a long string of really bad cookie-cutter Hollywood clinkers ("Wildcats", "The Golden Child," "The Couch Trip," etc, etc) Writer-Director Michael Ritchie came up with a classic that ranks right up there with his great 70's films. This movie packs the same satirical punch, social commentary, and insightful characterizations as "Downhill Racer," "The Candidate," and "Smile." Great. Too bad it was only on HBO.

From the great Michael Ritchie, director of The Bad News Bears, comes this very funny, sharp film based on the true story of a woman who tried to hire a hitman to kill the mother of her daughter's cheerleading rival. Great performances all around from Holly Hunter to a very funny Beau Bridges and a weird Swoosie Kurtz. I like the film a lot, Ritchie has always enjoyed skewering Southern culture and he is firmly in his element here. Definately doesn't view Texans kindly, but watch King of the Hill for that point of view.

Holly Hunter is just amazing in this true, stranger than fiction, slice of Americana. Regardless of the horrors told here by the underrated Michael Ritchie, the film emerges as one of the funniest black comedies ever made. Holly Hunter deals with the madness of her character in such a completely matter-of-fact fashion that I felt compelled to sit through the movie one more time to make sure I hadn't imagined the whole thing. The second viewing allowed me, not only to confirm what I'd suspected but to discover a million new details in Hunter's performance that flew by me the first time round. You can bet I'll sit through it a third time while I recommend it to you whole heartedly.

Obviously some have missed the point of this movie. It's a satire, and quite a good one at that, of the media's tendency to gobble up and regurgitate the lives of even the most marginal people. Yes, Holly Hunter's character is annoying. That's the point. And the fact that this nutcase character who seriously contemplates killing her daughter's cheerleading competition believes herself to be some kind of a celebrity and the degree to which the media is complicit in her delusion is also the point. Satire is not easy. This is a very successful one.