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.
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claudiaeilcinema9 November 2007
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SwatchDog15 November 2000"Positively true Adventures..." takes a bold look into the life of an obsessive stage mother thus making it a successful satire. Holly Hunter gives a killer performance and is arguably one of the greatest female actors around today (see The Piano, Copycat and A Life less Ordinary for evidence). It's a shame this had to be a telemovie as a cinematic release would've guaranteed Holly an Oscar nom, but ah well.
Beau Bridges and Swoosie Kurts also give fantastic performances rounding out the talented cast.
Much like 1999's Drop Dead Gorgeous, this film is black to the point of extreme ebony and should appeal to most, but if you're into frigid sugar-coated films, I suggest you steer clear.
9/10 -
karen-12825 June 2001Holly Hunter, once again, steps into television and shows us what could be. This is, believe it or not, based on a true story. I won't go into the plot, but the actors are all great. Besides Hunter, Beau Bridges and Swoozie Kurtz are standouts. The direction is swift and bold and brave, and the music and camera work are all stellar. Worth a look indeed.
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marianp17 September 2004I absolutely loved this movie to pieces! Having grown up in the United States, and having seen junior high school and high school cheerleaders in action, I found it a total hoot. It was sweet revenge for every nasty remark that cheerleaders had made about all us outside types back then.
The original case actually made it to the newspapers here, which is pretty remarkable considering all the local stuff that has to be covered.
Since Texas is playing such an important part in the coming US elections, I suppose it'll wind up on late night TV quite a lot in the next couple of months! -
sol-13 September 2005A rather unusual type of mockumentary, as although it is a fake documentary, the film is based on true events. It has some media satire to it also, as well as a slight study of obsession, making it overall an interesting film, even if only fascinating in stops and starts. The characters come off as rather hard to like, especially the protagonist, and some overdone accents is no help either. In the same year as 'The Piano', no doubt Holly Hunter was better there, however even if she is annoying in this film, she arguably plays her character the way it was written quite well. In the end, the film tries to say too much, and it never transcends the made-for-cable feel, but even if not brilliant film-making, this is a movie with interesting elements.
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policy1343 July 2011I heard that this was supposed to be good, so I checked it out. It was a very good movie but not as good as I had hoped.
Holly Hunter gives it her all but I think that it lacked a certain savage attack on its ultimate target, the media. It's like, the director, Michael Ritchie, didn't like to portray the media in an unfair light. Remember, this is where he makes his living, ultimately.
The movie is more an attack aimed at the people who wanna attack the media for coloring their appearances. Even the seemingly good woman, Holly Hunter's nemesis, is not beyond the shallowness of looking good. Her request to the newsman who tries to get her to talk is downright hilarious. Watch for that final shot also which tells you everything about her character.
So, good effort, nice performances, but I was a little disappointed with the satirical bite. -
When the story of Wanda Holloway's arrest for soliciting the murder of her daughter's rival cheerleader and the cheerleader's mother hit the news here in Texas, it was absolutely bizarre on one hand, but sooo Texas on the other. How does something like this happen, I mean, who ARE these people?
Michael Ritchie does an outstanding job of explaining this in his scathingly hilarious movie. These characters are so Texan! (But not representative of us all, mind you!). Holly Hunter, a born Texan, is brilliant as Wanda Hollow. I can't think of anyone else who could have played the character. There are excellent performances from everyone, actually.
Maybe it helps to live in Texas to fully appreciate the movie. But as you watch it, just remember that this is a true story about real people, and their characterizations are probably not overly exaggerated. Y'all enjoy! -
gbrumburgh8 April 2001In 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. -
Unquestionable, this is a bizarre film! It's a cynical docu-drama (mockumentry?) about a real-life woman in Texas who plotted to kill another mom whose daughter was in junior high school cheer-leading competition with her daughter.
Holly Hunter is outstanding as the "competively-challenged" mother, "Wanda Holloway." The only thing I objected to was Hollywood, as usual, going out of its way to make you we know that the strange woman was a regular church-goer. They just love it when when they can make a church attender look bad. They never show the opposite. Anyway, I liked Beau Bridges in his low-key in his role of "Terry Harper" and thought he was just as entertaining as Hunter.
Hunter, with her real Texas twang that we have to endure in her other films, is perfect for this role. Her accent is so strong in here it's hard to understand a third of what she says, but her acting and the fascinating story make this fun to watch. Once again, we see the classic case of a parent living his or her dreams through a child, which isn't funny in real life. A number of kids have been ruined by overzealous parents. There also is a slam in here on the tabloid-television media. Who can argue with that!
I was amazed to find out this was a made-for-TV film. It certainly doesn't have that look and feel. -
inframan12 May 2004This is one of the best satires I have ever seen on film. Swoosie Kurtz & Beau Bridges are particularly outstanding but all the performances are hilarious & perfectly on target. The material is universally outrageous - all the more so for being based on a true story. Michael Ritchie was a brilliant director whose work has been sadly neglected. Prime Cut & Smile are two of his other masterpieces which deserve resurrection & pristine restoration on DVD. Interesting how some of the best & most off-beat satirical films are about Texas: This plus Texas Chainsaw Massacre plus Murder in Texas plus True Stories.
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GoreMonger22 July 1999Could you make a worse tv movie? You could, but it wouldn't get on your nerves like this one. Holly Hunter plays possibly the most annoying character I've ever had the opportunity see. The only thing that makes this movie watchable is the very small appearance by Andy Richter from the Conan O'Brien show. Who cares if this is a true story, I feel cheated for the 2 hours I spent watching this film.
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fuldamobil12 February 2002From 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.
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While Wanda Holloway was delusional, she was by far the most pitiable person in the entire situation, and this movie presents that. The ABC movie falsely portrayed her as a savvy sociopath, when in truth the woman was really disturbed and bumbling like a combination of Barbra Jean from Reba and Lola Granola from Bloom County brought to life.
The TRULY most chilling part was near or right before the credits, with the other mother, Verna Heath, forcing her daughter Amber (both the intended victims...) to redo a cheer after a football game over and over.. the football field lights going out but "Mom" still forcing her to do it over and over again.... -
eyesour3 June 2010Unbelievably brilliant and beautiful. A positively pure and truthful slice of Texas life, for those who've never been there, including myself. This film is a flawless satire. There is nothing trashy about it in any respect at all. Script, settings, performances, direction are beyond praise. The accompanying songs are unbeatable. The Harper family, the Heath family, the Holloway family, their kids, the High School, the neighbourhood, the oil refinery, all the bit parts, are just a joy to savour and re-savour time and again. The phone tap in the car with Hunter and Bridges is one of the funniest scenes and dialogues I have ever seen. I just can't help doubling up with laughter, every time. Hunter's performance is pure acting genius, and none of the others, especially not the kids, lets her down. If you can't afford to pay for this DVD, you should take up a collection, and get it immediately. The Carson clip is worth it on its own.
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sundayatdusk-9785930 April 2023Having recently read an archived article on this story in "Texas Monthly", I decided to search for this movie. Many of the reviews made it sound like fun to watch, so I bought the DVD, after finding it no place to stream. A total waste of money! Do not buy this movie if you expect it to be like a normal true crime/comedy combination film.
This is a truly irritating film that is part fictional documentary being filmed with the murdering mom after the event, and part the whole story being acted out. The film alternates between the two. The mom is a boring as heck narcissist, who leaves you not wanting to give her more than 30 seconds of your viewing time. Her ex-brother-in-law is abusive to his wife, who obviously has severe mental problems.
This is not funny. Narcissism is not funny. I stopped watching when the ex-BIL and the murdering mom were trying to finalize the hit plans, with the law enforcement officers taping it all. Their conversations were not funny. They were irritating. Almost everything about this movie is irritating. Holly Hunter obviously has many die-hard fans, as shown by all the positive reviews here. -
generationofswine15 January 2019Again, like so many others I caught this on HBO when I was a kid. The difference is that this time it is NOT a bad horror movie, but an HBO original movie from back in the day when they were making some pretty stellar original movies.
"Darkly hysterical" would be the best way to describe it, especially since a lot of the humor comes from the fact that it all seems very...wholesome.
It does an excellent job of plotting a murder with a very wholesome and Leave it to beaver/Donna Reed Show feel to it and, it just works.
It's a must see. -
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.
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Perhaps you have to be from Texas to really appreciate this movie, but I doubt it. So much Texana is covered: the bouffant, bubble hair styles, the turmoil from the refineries, and of course, the brutal ego slaughter that constitutes cheerleading tryouts in surburban Texas.
Holly Hunter gives an eerie portrayal of Wanda Holloway; my favorite scene occurs early in the film. Hunter (as Holloway) is in bed with her sugar-daddy-cum-husband, C.D., and finds an exotic Texas insect crawling up her lingerie-clad thigh. Without a trace of emotion, she slaps the insect dead with her manicured hand, and wipes away the residue with a pink Kleenex.
Each character in this film (Beau Bridges gives a wonderful turn as Wanda's former brother-in-law Terry Harper, an ex-con, born again Christian; as does Swoozie Kurtz, his fourth(?) wife, who maniacally repeats bible verses under her breath while applying oven cleaner to her calves) has some satiric peccadillo, some underside that only illustrates that Channelview, Texas, can bring out the worst in just about anyone. -
Are the events, for the most part, `Positively True' as featured in this made-for-cable movie? And, again for the most part, is the dialog uttered by the various real-life (some added, some name-changed to protect the truly innocent) characters featured here also `Positively True?'
Sincerely, it doesn't matter if the facts are played straight and true in this pseudo-docu-account.
The supposedly 'true-life' plot concerns the eventual indictment of Wanda Halloway, a devoted and `crazy' suburban-Texas woman who will go as far as paying a hit man to murder her cheerleading daughter's major competition rival, Amber Heath.
Does this 'plot' sound familiar; well it should, it may have started a wave of satirical black comedy/teen film spoofs such as `Drop Dead Gorgeous' and `Bring It On,' both starring Kirsten Dunst.
The film itself serves on numerous levels: It is part textbook example (to be studied in schools, especially those colleges with the best Communications/Media departments), part comedy, part drama (especially towards the end of this film), part social-and-political statement, part reflexive parody (One character suggests actress Holly Hunter play the murder suspect, Wanda, which, in reality, Hunter does play here!) and part lynch-mob Greek Tragedy.
Call this movie what you'd like, it delivers, and it was worth every bit of Cable company money I paid to see it even almost ten years after this film was first released on a cable channel.
The ultimate hilarious cameo would have been if soap Queen, Susan Lucci, actually showed up for a probable 'Wanda' in a screen test. Incidentally, Hunter won an Emmy for her multi-talented/multi-faceted title role.
Please see this film. -
fuldamobil13 August 2001This is a great film, very very funny; with terrific performances all around especially by Holly Hunter and Swoosie Kurtz. A great satire of American media and Texas attitudes. A return to form for director Ritchie. The last shot of this film is a homage to his classic The Bad News Bears.
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bill-46117 December 2000The easily distracted little boy from Alabama who's comment
appears on the first page probably sees too much of his own
MAMA, in Holly Hunter's brilliant portrayal of Wanda Holloway.
Actually, anyone who would count of Andy Richter to save a movie
shouldn't be writing reviews for anything more complicated than
Dude, Who Stole My Car? This is an amazing little film that should have been released as
an art house feature. Beau Bridges and Holly Hunter put in some
of the best work in their great film careers and the supporting cast,
kids included, are right on the mark. If you want to have some idea of how difficult it is to sustain weird,
bizzare characters like this, watch "Willing to Kill," the Lifetime
movie, starring Leslie Ann Warren. She does a great job with her
portrayal of Wanda, but her supporting cast is not to her level for
the most part and the writing doesn't help them either.
I loved The Positively True............(etc.) and even the title doesn't
bother me. It kind of works for a weird, dark gem of a movie. -
Johnnee-210 January 2000"The Positively True Adventures..." is a surprisingly smart and effective look at how power-hungry and ruthless the media can be on such a small matter. Even though the film looks like a screwball comedy, it's actually a satire not far from the similarly themed "To Die For".
Holly Hunter and Beau Bridges are excellent in their roles, deserving the praise and awards they got for them. Even though the documentary-style outtakes are distracting at first, it shows that Hunter can easily become the character she's portraying.
The last half hour of the film is the best, when the central characters are all being confronted by the media to sell their stories, and most major networks are planning to make a movie. Hunter's character claims that she doesn't want her life to be made into a cheesy TV movie-of-the-week, and it hasn't: it's been made into an intelligent satirical look at the mass media. 8/10. -
k_boom27 January 2000I thought this film was extremely funny; although it may not be for everyone. It is funny in the same way that "Raising Arizona" is funny. What the characters are doing is definitely non-humorous, but their circumstances, the way they go about doing it, and their attitudes is.
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dgsweet21 October 2000Obviously 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.
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chaswe-2840226 September 2018Defeats any criticism of any kind. Superb and sublime. Direction, writing, acting performances out of this world. Impossible to imagine anything more incredible than Holly Hunter's Texan take on Wanda Holloway. The others are up there with her, just about as great. This cast lives their roles. What about that Verna Heath ? What about the way Wanda walks ? What a wigfur ! What a symptom ! What symbiosis ! The kids are simply fantastic. Well, I've been told it's the director that makes the picture. If so, then this is the greatest piece of direction I've ever seen. And the writing ! Reflecting again, after yet another viewing, Holly Hunter's performance is just dazzling.