Stage Mother

Although it's not the most moving film you'll ever see, Stage Mother is a wonderfully heartfelt story about the importance of family, in whatever guise it may be. With elegant music, pleasant performances and good humour, it's a movie that really made me smile.

The best place to start with Stage Mother has to be its screenplay. As a pure drama, the film may lack real, challenging depth, but its genuine and wholly heartfelt approach to storytelling makes it an utter joy to watch.

A touching tale of a woman finding new purpose in life as she changes her opinions on her estranged son's lifestyle, the film really blossoms as we see her form an intimate bond with the performers of a struggling but tight-knit drag club.

As a movie that aims to challenge negative perceptions of LGBT lifestyles, Stage Mother isn't the most eye-opening film, as the initially 'conservative' mother takes to her new surroundings awfully quickly, as do many of the other characters who are meant to embody intolerance.

What's more, the majority of the characters are a little one-dimensional, with Jacki Weaver's character in particular coming across as some sort of infallible saint, without the real dramatic conflict that could have made her so much more interesting.

That's a similar case with the supporting cast, though it never undermines the movie's immense heart, bolstered all the more by the cast's wonderful, family-like chemistry on screen.

In that, Stage Mother has all the ingredients of a movie to really make you smile. Sure, it may not be the most cerebral story, but it is an undeniably joyful and heartfelt tale that's filled with elegance and passion throughout.

The movie delights with a wonderful soundtrack the blends jukebox hits with original songs, and although the story does take a little too long to properly wind down in the final act, it all comes to a close with a soaring musical finale.

Overall, I really liked Stage Mother. As I've said, it's far from the most thematically challenging movie ever made, but it is surely one of the most heartfelt and joyful films I've seen in quite a while.

Stage Mother (2020) -

This film had a story that we have definitely seen before, but that doesn't mean that it's not any good or worth telling again. It's actually very sweet, without going over the top and in that way it's also very simple.

When Texan Maybeline went to honour her son at his funeral after a long period of absence from his life, it was tough for everybody to get along and when it turned out that she had inherited his drag bar, things only got tougher, before they got better. So it's a story of coming to terms with things, finding a place in life and learning how to be a better member of society, whilst also putting on a good show.

Don't expect a big budget production. It's not exactly an A list film, but those that appear were generally very good, although a couple of them were clearly chosen purely for their looks alone. Bear was adorable, but not the best actor on the screen, whilst the gorgeous Lucy Liu played a very different character to what I've seen from her before and I really liked it. She instantly added something to the film from the moment she appeared.

Although it was such a simple tale, it was also very charming too and there was something kind of euphoric about it at times. I saw the effects that both worlds had on each other and it mostly resulted in positivity, leaving me with a warm and pleasant feeling inside.

It would be easy to see it as a blend of 'To Wong Foo, Thanks For Eveything, Julie Newmar (1995), and 'The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert' (1994), because of the themes that it covered alongside the obvious and it was always going to be compared to them as a film about drag queens anyway.

While this one is not going to sit quite so high up on my list of films to watch as those two, it will still get a good score, mostly for the fact that it was so easy to watch and enjoy. Sometimes it's nice to have the emotions toned down a little bit, as they are here.

740.09/1000.

My Review - Stage Mother My Rating 6.5

It's great to review a new movie and to see Jackie Weaver in a starring role what an accomplished actress she is. Cast as Maybeline Metcalf a conservative church choir director who inherits her late son Rickey's San Francisco drag club. Maybeline travels to San Francisco for her son's funeral against her homophobic husbands wishes and picks up the threads of Ricky's last days including meeting his partner Nathan. Stage Mother is very entertaining what it lacks in script it makes up with some very good performances. I especially liked Lucy Liu as Sienna Rickie's best friend who Maybeline moves in for her stay and I also liked Adrian Grenier as Nathan who at first is hostile to Ricky'S mother accusing her of abandoning and rejecting her son then as a mutual understanding occurs between them he realised that Mother like Son is a good force to be reckoned with. This film directed by Thom Fitzgerald has had some undeserving negative reviews. It's well worth a look and has a good positive message to tell . It's not Pricilla Queen of the Desert and it doesn't try to be . The Drag Club scenes are very good and the scenes where Maybeline works her magic to coach the Queens to sing and make the Ricky'S Club profitable again are the best , it's just a pity that there wasn't more substance in the script. Jackie Weaver's final scene singing in her own voice was impressive.

I thoroughly enjoyed this tale about the power of love, the power of a mother's love, and openness and compassion overcoming prejudices. A gentle, well-told tale with a happy and satisfying ending. Just what we need in these difficult times. And the acting and musical performances were great too.....

I know this movie has its flaws and there are many. But if you love drag culture, this is worth a watch.

Jackie Weaver is a delight! And the queens are great too