Editing Serial Mom (section)

==Reception==
===Box office===
The film opened on April 13, 1994, and grossed $2 million in its opening weekend, ranking number 11 at the US box office. By the end of its run, the film had grossed $7.8 million in the United States and Canada.<ref name="mojo">{{cite web |url=https://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=serialmom.htm |title=Serial Mom (1994) |work=[[Box Office Mojo]] |publisher=[[Internet Movie Database]] |date=August 4, 1994 |access-date=June 5, 2014 |archive-date=June 6, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140606215609/http://boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=serialmom.htm |url-status=live }}</ref> The film has become a [[cult classic]] since its release.<ref>Frank the Movie Guy. ''Hidden Gem: Serial Mom''. April 23, 2007. Retrieved on June 7, 2007</ref><ref name=":0" />

===Critical response===
{{Rotten Tomatoes prose|63|5.8|56|Kathleen Turner proves an ideal match for John Waters' suburban satire in ''Serial Mom'', even if the somewhat scattershot end results often lack the expected bite.|access-date=July 22, 2024|ref=y}} {{Metacritic film prose|64|24|ref=yes|access-date=July 21, 2024}}

[[Roger Ebert]] awarded it two stars out of a possible four.<ref name=":2" /> While he found some of Waters' satire effective, he felt that Kathleen Turner's decision to portray her character's mental illness with realism as opposed to a [[Camp (style)|campy]] fashion, while brave, made the character difficult to laugh at.<ref name=":2" /> He wrote, "Watch ''Serial Mom'' closely and you'll realize that something is miscalculated at a fundamental level. Turner's character is helpless and unwitting in a way that makes us feel almost sorry for her—and that undermines the humor. She isn't funny crazy, she's sick crazy."<ref name=":2">{{cite web |last=Ebert |first=Roger |date=April 15, 1994 |title=Serial Mom |url=https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/serial-mom-1994 |work=RogerEbert.com |access-date=October 1, 2013 |archive-date=September 16, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200916193849/https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/serial-mom-1994 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Other critics were more enthusiastic about the film and Turner's performance. ''[[Time Out (magazine)|Time Out]]'' said the film boasts "an uproariously funny, marvellously malicious performance from Turner",<ref>{{Cite web |last= |date=2011-05-03 |title=Serial Mom |url=https://www.timeout.com/movies/serial-mom |access-date=2023-05-17 |website=Time Out |language=en-GB |archive-date=May 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517233751/https://www.timeout.com/movies/serial-mom |url-status=live }}</ref> and Peter Rainer of the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' called Turner "furiously funny".<ref name=":1">{{cite news |last=Rainer |first=Peter |date=April 13, 1994 |title=Movie Review: 'Serial Mom' Good at Being Naughty : Movies: Director John Waters turns today's violence into comedy, and Kathleen Turner is furiously funny. |work=[[The Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-13-ca-45277-story.html |url-status=live |access-date=January 1, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804002752/https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-04-13-ca-45277-story.html |archive-date=August 4, 2020}}</ref> Rainer described the film as "a jab at the supposed uplift provided by 'wholesome' TV shows and movies. With all the ruckus raised in the media about the harmful effects of on-screen violence and sex, ''Serial Mom'' weighs in for the other side: It implies that it's the antiseptic family entertainments that may have done us the real harm. The ''real'' [[Eccentricity (behavior)|nut cases]] in the movie aren't the hormonally inflamed teenagers and avenging matriarchs. It's the suburban Baltimore do-gooders, the upright judges and deacons{{snd}}you know, the pillars of society."<ref name=":1" /> Critics also lauded the satirization of America's obsession with [[true crime]] and celebrity, such as when Beverly's daughter, Misty, is seen selling T-shirts outside the courthouse where her mother's fate will be decided, and a joke disclaimer at the beginning falsely claiming the film's events are "based on a true story".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nea |first=Chingy |date=2021-10-21 |title='Serial Mom' is a Maternal Mockery of America's True Crime Obsession |url=https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/serial-mom-review |access-date=2023-05-17 |website=[[MEL Magazine]] |language=en-US |archive-date=May 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517233749/https://melmagazine.com/en-us/story/serial-mom-review |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name=":1" /><ref name=":3">{{Cite web |last=Mirabal |first=Marisa |date=2019-04-12 |title=Satire In The Suburbs: 25 Years With SERIAL MOM |url=https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2019/04/12/satire-in-the-suburbs-25-years-with-serial-mom |access-date=2023-05-17 |website=Birth.Movies.Death. |language=en |archive-date=May 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517233750/https://birthmoviesdeath.com/2019/04/12/satire-in-the-suburbs-25-years-with-serial-mom |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2008, ''[[Slant Magazine]]'' critic Eric Henderson called ''Serial Mom'' "the strongest film of the post-[[Midnight movie|midnight-movie]] chapter of John Waters's career."<ref>{{Cite web |last=Henderson |first=Eric |date=2008-05-06 |title=Review: Serial Mom |url=https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/serial-mom/ |access-date=2023-05-17 |website=[[Slant Magazine]] |language=en-US |archive-date=May 17, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230517233749/https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/serial-mom/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Later reviews suggested that the trial in ''Serial Mom'' presaged the media coverage of the 1995 [[murder trial of O. J. Simpson]].<ref>{{cite journal |last=Banks |first=Taunya |author-link= |title=Troubled Waters: Mid-Twentieth Century American Society on "Trial" in the Films of John Waters |journal=Stetson Law Review |volume=39 |pages=153, 179–181 |publisher=[[Stetson University College of Law]] |location=[[Gulfport, Florida]] |date=2009 |url=https://www.academia.edu/26187472 |url-access=registration |issn=0739-9731 |access-date=2 May 2024}}</ref>

===Year-end lists===
* Honorable mention&nbsp;– Dan Craft, ''[[The Pantagraph]]''<ref>{{cite news|last=Craft|first=Dan|date=December 30, 1994 |title=Success, Failure and a Lot of In-between; Movies '94|newspaper=[[The Pantagraph]]|page=B1}}</ref>
* Guilty pleasure&nbsp;– Douglas Armstrong, ''[[The Milwaukee Journal]]''<ref>{{cite news|last=Armstrong|first=Douglas|date=January 1, 1995|title=End-of-year slump is not a happy ending|newspaper=The Milwaukee Journal|page=2}}</ref>