User Reviews

This film was sooooo bad....that it was good and a hoot to watch.

The opening scene is a catfight for the ages between Adeline Bordeaux and young Harper Bailey. The dialogue was an exercise in one-upsman(woman)ship that set the tone for the over-the-top style of the film.

The scene-stealer is Gina Simms in the role of "sweet" Adeline, who is so obsessed with winning the mother-daughter pageants that she resorts to murder. It is clear right away that the team of Emilia and Sophie Connors have the most talent among the contestants due to the beautiful violin solo of Emilia. But the other acts are worth seeing because they are hysterically awful!

The film had the look and feel of a sparse COVID film with a small cast and only a sprinkling of spectators attending the pageants. In the stagy climactic scene, the cast was spread out with approximately six feet separating the performers as if they were "social distancing."

But the most memorable moments were those with the jaw-dropping one liners of Adeline and the apoplectic moments which lead to her complete meltdown. While not as pleasing as a barbership quartet, this sweet Adeline, who is always searching for the right dress, will assuredly be pleasing her cohorts in wearing an orange jumpsuit in prison.

It was a totally missed opportunity for the movie not to have leaned into the camp way more like they do with the cheer and sorority movies. Come on, Lifetime and a pageant movie? I personally gave it a wide berth to make me laugh at how over the top it could be. I anticipated a lot of pomp, circumstance, some montages, and most importantly, ham and it just never really happened.

The actress who played Adeline was in Nightmare Neighborhood Moms, or something like that, and she's good at playing these Queen b/bully/shade queen characters. That said, I never got the impression that Adeline was worried about being caught OR really proving something to her mother. I mean she was so brazen even after being caught sabotaging Emilia. Sophia and Emilia were ok but their roles could've been played by anyone. I think the mother/daughter duos from Nightmare Neighborhood Moms and Nightmare PTA Moms (yes, I use these movies for work day background noise) had better personalities. I also found it was strange that only Adeline, who has never won, was the only one willing to do anything to win. I'm not into pageantry, but I don't think it's a stretch to say that the competitions, in real life and in entertainment, naturally bring out the worst in the contestants. I find it hard to believe that she was the only bad apple with bad behavior. Maybe the others wouldn't go as far as murder or sabotage, but I expected more competitiveness and drama in general and not just what Adeline fueled.

The climax was cringe with the video, and felt like the end of a very special 90s show where someone got exposed. The acting was questionable and idk the whole thing was underwhelming. For how the movie ended, even having a body count at all seemed unnecessary. Especially the judge. Adeline plants drugs on contestants, blackmails, but impulsively kills a judge in a public place? After her first impulsive murder? Seems excessive when she's been shown to be manipulative enough to frame people or have others do her bidding. There's a homecoming movie on LMN where the movie's psycho wants revenge on a boy (now man) who she had unrequited feeling for and his actual gf (now wife). The climax scene in that movie is so classic and fun. Pure camp. Lifetime should have really gone acceptably overboard for a pageant movie. Go full Dallas or Dynasty or even Miss Congeniality. This movie had none of the classically camp scenes 90s Lifetime would have added.

I think it's obvious who planted the seed for Adeline's bad behavior (though she is an adult who is responsible for her own actions). Rebecca was just as toxic and awful as her daughter. Was that intentional? She was so horrible to Adeline but was clearly the creator of the monster. The movie never explains why she was so hard on her daughter or why she had so much palpable disdain for her. After all, she would have been the one to spoil, enable, and indulge Adeline all her life. I don't think they even mentioned her father. Why would she encourage her daughter to be in pageants, which in turn put pressure on her granddaughter? Also, why would Adeline and Liliana be eligible for a competition 100% sponsored by a family member? Lol.

Not really a criticism but an acknowledgement of the times...a pageant without an audience? They did acknowledge the audience "watching at home," but it still seemed empty and too contained to just the contestants. IDK if their budget would have allowed it, but a green screen audience would have made it look so much more realistic. Lifetime has done this with concert movies.

Would I recommend it? Meh...don't go out of your way to watch it. If this is a "Nightmare" series like "The Wrong" movies, I'd say the PTA Moms and Neighborhood Moms movies are better.