Rating: R
Genre:
Comedy
Release Date: 04/02/2002
SubTitles: English/French/Espanol
Dubbed: English/Espanol
Sound: 5.1/1/2
Run Time: 99 Minutes
Flags: Not For Children, Profanity
Distributor/Studio: HBO Home Video
A Texas housewife plots hire a hit man to kill the girl who beat out her daughter for a place on the cheerleading squad in this made-for-cable satire based on a true story.
Holly Hunter stars as
Wanda Holloway, a twice-married Baptist mother of two who becomes obsessed when her daughter,
Shanna (
Frankie Ingrassia), gets disqualified from the election for the eighth-grade cheerleading squad because of overly manipulative campaign tactics (i.e. handing out free rulers imprinted with her name). Looking down her nose at neighbor
Verna Heath (
Elizabeth Ruscio), whose daughter,
Amber (
Megan Berwick), made the squad,
Wanda becomes convinced that there's a conspiracy afoot and decides to do something about it. Getting in touch with her ex-husband's brother,
Terry Harper (
Beau Bridges) -- a lowlife with a liquor and drug habit and a wife (
Swoosie Kurtz) who sees imaginary creatures on the floor --
Wanda all but orders him to find her an assassin on the cheap.
Terry chickens out, contacts the police, and helps get the goods on his former sister-in-law before she can do any actual damage. A media circus soon engulfs the participants' small Texas town as
Wanda heads to court and tries to prove she was the victim of a setup. Set against the backdrop of the Gulf War and the fall of communism,
The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader-Murdering Mom was filmed for
HBO by
Bad News Bears and
Smile director
Michael Ritchie. In adapting the
Wanda Holloway story for the small screen, the film followed
Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story, a 1992
ABC TV movie starring
Lesley Ann Warren.
~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
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