Kevin Coughlin

FULL WATCHALONG ~ DROWNING MONA

Added 2025-09-23 01:05:19 +0000 UTC

Drowning Mona (2000) is one of those weird little dark comedies that sneaks up on you. No, it’s not the funniest movie ever made, but it is the kind of film where the cast alone makes it worth the ride. Bette Midler sets the tone as the monstrously awful Mona, whose car “accident” kicks off the story, and from there the whole thing becomes a whodunnit where literally everyone had a reason to kill her.

The cast is absolutely stacked: Danny DeVito as the weary small-town sheriff trying to keep order, Jamie Lee Curtis slumming it as a pancake-flipping mistress with her own schemes, Neve Campbell and Casey Affleck as the unlucky young couple caught in the mess, and William Fichtner chewing the scenery as Mona’s sleazy husband. Even the side characters feel lived-in, like a gallery of dirtbags you’d swear you’ve met at a dive bar.

What makes Drowning Mona work is its unapologetically mean streak. Everyone in this town is selfish, corrupt, or incompetent, and the movie leans into that gleefully. It’s small, scrappy, and sometimes rough around the edges—but if it had been given a bigger budget and a little more polish, it could’ve easily stood alongside the sharper black comedies of the late ’90s/early 2000s.

As it stands, it’s a cult curiosity: not a masterpiece, but a fun, nasty little gem carried by a murderers’ row of actors who are clearly having a blast playing the worst versions of themselves. We loved it. It may not be Fargo, but it definitely earns a spot in the “how did this even get made and why is it so watchable?” hall of fame.