Welcome to Queerty’s latest entry in our series, Queerantined: Daily Dose. Every weekday as long as the COVID-19 pandemic has us under quarantine, we’ll release a suggested bit of gloriously queer entertainment designed to keep you from getting stir crazy in the house. Each weekend, we will also suggest a binge-able title to keep you extra engaged.
The Screamer: Death Becomes Her
Audiences didn’t quite know what to make of this dark fantasy comedy back in 1992. Beyond the groundbreaking visual effects, the twisted humor–satirizing Hollywood, femininity, wealth and obsessing over youth–didn’t land with moviegoers flocking to titles like Batman Returns and Home Alone 2. Thank goodness then, it’s found the fault following it deserves.
Death Becomes Her casts real-life besties Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn as a pair of lifelong rivals, Madeline and Helen respectively. Madeline, an actress of dubious talent, can’t stand the thought of Helen’s happiness, especially when Helen falls for a handsome surgeon named Ernest (Bruce Willis). Madeline steals Ernest away, leaving Helen alone to get fat and live with cats. Years later, as Madeline’s career has waned and Ernest’s alcoholism pushes him from surgeon to mortician, Helen reemerges as a bombshell beauty, and begins to seduce Ernest away. Madeline then turns to a mysterious potion that will grant her eternal youth and beauty, though at a very odd price.
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Death Becomes Her has quotable zingers to spare, and Hawn and Streep kick their comic talents into high gear. Likewise, Willis gives his best-ever performance as the neurotic Ernest, a man caught between two forces of nature. Angelenos (and those familiar with the city) will get the most out of the movie’s ribbing of Los Angeles and its beauty standards, though anyone who has ever fretted over looks or success (and face it, if you’re reading this, you have) will empathize with the story. Hollywood humor seldom gets this black and bitchy…or this fun.
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Chrisk
One of the few movies I can watch over and over again.
Troysky
@Chrisk Same here, man. Film is visually dreamy…still holds up for the most part. Willis is against type (as weak) and fun to watch, too.
MacAdvisor
This movie is truly a delight. My friend Kevin and I saw it in first run at a crowded theater and laughed our heads off while the remaining audience sat there like a group of stone statues. They simply didn’t get the jokes. We did and have quoted lines back and forth from it for years now (our favorites are, “NOW a warning!?!” and “Check, OK?”).
One quibble: Ernest does not become a mortician, but a makeup artist for morticians. He makes the dead look beautiful, a skill Madeline and Helen most desperately require. Of course, he gives a hard pass on immortality and goes on to live an adventurous and fulfilling life with a large family and large group of devoted friends.
Cam
Another great scene…when Madeline (Streep) is in her dressing room ad very quickly practices her reaction for when Goldie Hawn comes in. LOL!
Tombear
I was constantly trying to get my boyfriend pregnant when this first came out.
stuffedpuppy
Probably the best Robert Zemekis film before he went all “Disney”, alas. My favorite scene is when the doctor (Sydney Pollack) tries to take Madeline‘s vital signs…to see his face in disbelief, as he trashes stethoscopes, is pure bliss!
Troysky
@stuffedpuppy ……yes, great call! I forgot about that scene – Cracked up. Gonna have to get it on high def…..
stuffedpuppy
@troysky Oh, but don’t forget the best line: the last line…”remember where we parked?”