Hell on Heels: The Battle of Mary Kay

In this broadly satirical TV biopic, Shirley MacLaine pulls out all the stops as legendary cosmetics queen Mary Kay Ash. In Citizen Kane fashion, Mary Kay relates her rise to the top of the home-beauty industry to an inquiring reporter (Rachel Crawford), never allowing an opportunity pass to ...more

Very much a piece with the similarly irreverent movies-of-the-week When Billie Beat Bobby and Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Three's Company, this warts-and-all period biopic of cosmetics queen Mary Kay takes a minor moment in pop culture history and elevates it to the level of broad, affectionate satire. If anything, Hell on Heels indulges in too much vamp-camp: The wild zooms, fractured-screen editing techniques, and swooning, jokey score occasionally reveal the filmmakers' ...more