Call Me Miss Cleo

TV-MA

2022

1 hr. 30 min.

Documentary

List

57%

7 Reviews

Tomatometer

36%

Fewer than 50 Ratings

Audience Score

Known for her larger-than-life persona and memorable accent, Miss Cleo, born Youree Dell Harris, garnered a nationwide cult following on the Psychic Readers Network, a popular telephone hotline that later came under fire for its alleged deceptive practices. Featuring interviews with celebrities and those closest to the self-proclaimed voodoo priestess, the film explores the many layers behind a complicated and charismatic figure. Revisiting an era of corded phones and 1-900-numbers, CALL ME MISS CLEO ultimately reveals the truth behind the ever-enigmatic woman who took TV by storm, only to abruptly disappear from public consciousness.

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Dave C

I remember the days of the Psychic hotlines back in the day and seeing her ads on late night TV. This was an okay documentary on an interesting time in history.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

05/07/23

Full Review

Robert A

Stories like Miss Cleo's sadden me because at certain times you can see that it doesn't get any better. Miss Cleo's story is a tale of someone being swept away by fame and fortune and immediately dropped on their head. She or more specifically her likeness and name was used and profited from and all that is left of her is a gimmick of the 90s and claims of fraud. The HBO Max doc does an impressive job of highlighting voices who've portrayed her as well as specific clients, friends, and classmates. The eerie words of her last interview years before her last breath show you just how much pain she was in and how hurt she and her coworkers were by all that happened in the scheme of pay-per-call readings. While the order of the story was mildly underwhelming, it was revelatory to see people realize they were seeing their classmate in this new way. Call Me Miss Cleo is documentary fodder at best, but it's nice to see the pathway from a success to a villain to an ancestor. The film does little to truly unearth who she was, why this really happened to her, and all she knew. The film does, however, show her impact on generations and the ever-growing industry of phone scams, infomercials, and the state of cons in America. If you want to see how a nation united to be gullible and were deceived during a specific period in our history, this film may be for you. From the cast of characters, prosecutors, classmates, partners, and friends featured, you get a glimpse that we (the yearning public) still don't know who she was or intended to be. We do see that many believed her portrayal to be real and grounded in positive intent. In the words of Miss Cleo, "What threat do I pose, and to whom?"

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

03/18/23

Full Review

stephen b

It seemed like this could be an interesting story, but there was nothing remotely interesting about this documentary.

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

02/20/23

Full Review

Connor R

This is a good documentary and it tells you the truth about Cleo

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/27/23

Full Review

Clay C

I remembered the commercials from when I was a kid and thought this could be interesting. I got about halfway through but the main people they were interviewing were actresses who parodied Miss Cleo so it really didn't really provide much insight into anything.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

01/04/23

Full Review

troy h

During the 90s, everyone who saw "Miss Cleo's" infomercials found her an amusing delight, anyone in the skeptic community also knows she was a bit of a sketchy character with aliases and fraud allegations. So there is fodder to make a documentary. What is produced her is utter drivel with the beginning and end of the production an abject hagiography. A misstep is to use interviews with actresses who did parody acts on television. Maybe 30 seconds for each of the two would have been appropriate. Interviews with actual people who did readings were fantastic, you really get a feeling for how it was lonely hurting people who were being ripped off. The expose in the legal proceedings was well done and rather interesting. Overall too much time is spent on Miss Cleo's relationships, her "god children" and so forth, and they aren't really given the hard questions. Also missing is a well researched bio on her early life, her children and family. In fact the whole documentary lacks research and wants to make you like her, rather than really delve into who she was and what she had done.

Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Jennifer Brea

Director

Celia Aniskovich

Director

Joanna Zwickel

Producer

Celia Aniskovich

Producer

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Nic

Autostraddle

What I did not anticipate was to be taken on an emotional journey to learn about a Black queer woman who was taken advantage of by the machine that made her a household name...

Dec 28, 2022

Full Review

John Anderson

Wall Street Journal

As directed by Celia Aniskovich and Jennifer Brea, Call Me Miss Cleo is an affectionate portrait of a fringe character who was more a tool than a beneficiary of PRN’s seamy efforts.

Dec 15, 2022

Full Review

Jonathan P. Higgins, Ed.D.

Primetimer

Black women like Youree Dell Harris, a.k.a. Miss Cleo, have long faced disparity in the entertainment world.

Rated: 3/4

Aug 8, 2023

Full Review

James Croot

Stuff.co.nz

If nothing else, Call Me Cleo offers, just like the infomercials themselves used to claim (in tiny print) -- strictly “entertainment”, rather than true enlightenment.

Dec 28, 2022

Full Review

Erik Childress

Movie Madness Podcast

The chronicle too often has a kitschy jokey approach to it which does not pay dividends when it mostly avoids the tales of those scammed by the Psychic Network, those directly responsible or trying to absolve this woman’s role in it all.

Rated: 2/4

Dec 23, 2022

Full Review

Jennifer Green

Common Sense Media

But commentary from friends and coworkers feels a little too defensive, like the film exists to salvage this person's reputation rather than to consider all sides to her.

Rated: 2/5

Dec 21, 2022

Full Review

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Synopsis

Known for her larger-than-life persona and memorable accent, Miss Cleo, born Youree Dell Harris, garnered a nationwide cult following on the Psychic Readers Network, a popular telephone hotline that later came under fire for its alleged deceptive practices. Featuring interviews with celebrities and those closest to the self-proclaimed voodoo priestess, the film explores the many layers behind a complicated and charismatic figure. Revisiting an era of corded phones and 1-900-numbers, CALL ME MISS CLEO ultimately reveals the truth behind the ever-enigmatic woman who took TV by storm, only to abruptly disappear from public consciousness.

Director: Jennifer Brea, Celia Aniskovich
Rating: TV-MA (Language)
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 15, 2022