Well Meaning: 'Serial Mom'

Motherhood doesn't get more intense -- and twisted -- than in this satire written and directed by John Waters. On the surface, Beverly Sutphin (Kathleen Turner) is the perfect, pearl necklace-wearing suburban Mom. Beneath that Suzy Sunshine exterior, however, lurk hair-trigger murderous instincts. When a boy snubs her daughter Misty (Ricki Lake), Beverly impales him with a poker in a bathroom. When a math teacher questions her son Chip's (Matthew Lillard) love of violent horror films and suggests therapy, she runs him over. "Our mother is Charles Manson!" exclaims Misty.