Product Details

• Actors: Kathleen Marie Archer, Jana Arnold, Megan Berwick, Nelly Bly, Beau Bridges
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• VHS Release Date: April 14, 1998
• Run Time: 99 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6302820715
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #297,939 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com essential video

Directed by Michael Ritchie (The Candidate) with an eye toward his terrific 1970s legacy of social and political satires, this 1993 HBO comedy stars Holly Hunter as the real-life Texas woman who solicited a killer to aid her daughter's dream of becoming a high school cheerleader. Hunter is remarkable in the lead, somehow both scary and sympathetic. But it is Ritchie who gets to the heart of the matter in the aftermath of the murder, when there is a mad scramble by the media and Hollywood to package the absurdist atrocity for their own ends. One of the director's more biting studies of the shadow side of ritual Americana, this is not for anyone looking for a bull docudrama. --Tom Keogh

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Positively Unbelievable!, June 7, 2005

By 

blockhed "blockhed" (UK) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (DVD)

Well, blow me over! I was stunned! I bought this dvd in a supermarket for less than I've ever paid before, expecting nothing much, purely on the basis of the peculiar title and the name of Holly Hunter. It's an absolute masterpiece: story, direction, acting, the lot! Made 13 years ago, and I'd never heard of it. One of the mothers talks about skill, not promotion, and that must be it. Tons of skill, no promotion. It is simply too good to be plugged, and its reputation can only get steadily better: see the other reviews --- a chorus of agreement. Holly is amazing, and everyone else is just perfect. Every scene is a delight: weirdly true and truly weird. This goes straight into the small group of films that I regard as the best ever.

Later. Well, I just have to add something to try to work out just what makes this movie so perfect. Basically, it must be down to the writing, which is superb. The dialogue never puts a foot wrong. These characters are fully rounded, totally developed, highly comic, yet incredibly real. Everything in the relationships is understated, subtle, accurately observed, and convincing. You feel you know exactly what these people are like, and can visualize precisely how this bizarre situation arose. Holly's performance is out of this world. The scene in the car with Beau Bridges is one of the two or three funniest I have ever seen. You know that Wanda doesn't really believe what she is saying, yet at the same time she really does want Verna gone. Verna's reactions are just as brilliant, and the slide into celebrity status of all the participants, including the school kids, is so accurate it hurts. The family atmosphere in the Holloway household is spot on; and the boy's performance is particularly good. What a consummate work of art!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I went to school with these people!, January 19, 2006

By 

R. McConnell "TennesseeTrukker" (Tennessee) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom (DVD)

It is my understanding that Holly Hunter never met Wanda Holloway before she made this movie. If that was true, then she deserves every award she gets. Her portrayal of Wanda was TOP NOTCH! I went to Channelview High School with Wanda, Terry and Tony Harper. If you watch this movie for no other reason than Miss Hunters performance, you will not be unsatisfied. Of course, Hollywood made everyone else look like a cartoon.

As fine an actor as Beau Bridges is, no one could do justice to a character like Terry Harper.

This is NOT a documentary, folks!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Almost too convincing, June 10, 2000

By 

A. Griffiths "Adrian" (London) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom [VHS] (VHS Tape)

This movie succeeds in being hugely entertaining thanks to Holly Hunter's amazing performance in the title role. She is thoroughly convincing as the trashy, pushy mom who's dedication to the success of her daughter's future as a cheerleader eventually leads to attempted murder. The realism is heightened by the use of restaged media footage, and "interviews" with Hunter (in character), who's cracked logic and twitchy mannerisms will have you in stitches. All the performances are good, and the result is a very black comedy that effectively ridicules this misguided woman's bizarre and near-deadly obsession with success and one-upmanship. Recommended, as it works on so many levels.