This was an interesting film.
It starts out on the set of Suzanne Vale's (Meryl Streep's) film but you don't know that until the director, Lowell (Gene Hackman) yells cut and pulls Suzanne off to the side and warns her to stop using drugs which will then ruin his movie.
And Suzanne has her own demons. She was raised by an actress mother herself. Doris Mann (Shirley MacLaine) is also famous, and is still much loved. But the two get along like cats and dogs. Doris's own mother is another piece of work.
Still, Suzanne tries in vain to rebuild her life, even moving back in with her alcoholic mother so she can get insured for her new, low-budget film and even starts seeing Jack Faulkner (Dennis Quaid) who proclaims his love despite having been with another woman (a great cameo from Annette Bening) earlier in the day. The scene where Suzanne yells at him is brilliant.
Of course, everything comes to a head when Doris hits a tree while drinking drunk, hopefully forcing her to come to terms with her own demons.
Carrie Fisher wrote the screenplay which is based on her own memoir and you can sort of tell, though I pray Debbie Reynolds never gave sleeping pills to her nine-year-old daughter. The mother and daughter battle for fame, with Suzanne fully believing her mother never truly wanted her to succeed so Doris could still be the famous one in the family, though Doris claims that this isn't true, of course she wanted good for daughter.
You should see this film for the performances as Streep always delivers and can truly sing and she sings several times in this film, including as a character within a character. MacLaine is also great and can still milk everything she has in her for a marvelous performance. And there are some great cameos in addition to Bening, like Richard Dreyfuss and Rob Reiner. You also great a behind the scenes view of how films are actually made, something which is often interesting. Grade: B+
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