|
WINDY CITY TIMES
|
|
|
FILM REVIEW Chastain mesmerizes in 'Tammy Faye,' but bio offers few surprises
by Matt Simonette 2021-09-20
|
|
This article shared 2011 times since Mon Sep 20, 2021
|
|
Televangelists featured in some of the of the most spectacular falls from grace in the '80s. Television preachers who'd spent the better part of the '70s and the '80s insinuating themselves into pocketbooks, not to mention the sidelines of American politics, provided an endless spectacle for those who relished in schadenfreude, be it Jimmy Swaggart's pathetic "I have sinned" admission of a transgression with a prostitute, or Oral Roberts's shark-jumping plea that he would be "called home" by God if viewers didn't help his ministry reach their fundraising targets.
Few TV ministries came down with as big a mascara-splattering thud as Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker's PTL Club. Jim and Tammy Faye's irresponsible spending, and Jim's payoff to a rape victim, resulted in one of the biggest scandals of the decade. Tammy Faye's courtship and marriage, as well as her downfall and reinvention, are all subjects of the new biographical film The Eyes of Tammy Faye, which is based on a 2000 documentary of the same name.
At the center of the film is actor Jessica Chastain, who masterfully embodies Tammy Faye from her young adulthood through her struggles to break into mainstream entertainment (albeit D-list mainstream entertainment) in the '90s. The film, at times, trods very familiar territory for entertainer biographies, and the script doesn't really let you know what made Tammy Faye tick. But you forget that you're actually watching Chastain, especially once she adopts her subject's trademark wigs and makeup.
We open with an extreme closeup on Tammy Faye in the makeup chair, explaining to her stylist which of her cosmetics are permanently tattooed on. With a Betty Boop voice and childish affect, Tammy Faye seems seems both self-unaware and overinvested in being seen. As a child in Minnesota, Tammy Faye, always devout in her faith, was kept away from the family church by her divorced mother (lesbian actress Cherry Jones, just as unrecognizable as Chastain), since oldest child Tammy Faye was living evidence of that first marriage. Tammy Faye's being born again once she enters the church is the start of a desire to inspire, perform and be the center of attention.
The film is relatively short on explicit details on how much Tammy Faye knew about PTL's wonky bookkeeping and when she knew it. She wildly overspends when the Bakkers are first basking in the ministry's financial success. She then becomes addicted to pills, often washed down with her trademark Diet Cokes. The film does not name Jim Bakker's victim. The '80s media cast her in notoriety in the wake of that episode, but the filmmakers presumably are reluctant to make light of a woman who was allegedly drugged and raped.
Tammy Faye's warm feelings toward the gay community are very central to the film. She's bewildered and disgusted by colleagues' harsh opinions of LGBTQ folks, and goes behind her husband's back to interview a gay man living with AIDS on the air, ending the segment with a plea for acceptance for the community. One performance segment ramps up that connection even more, heightening Chastain's appearance to look even more like a drag queen for a Judy-plays-the-Palace type of triumph .
The Eyes of Tammy Faye is not as sympathetic toward Jim Bakker, whom Andrew Garfield portrays. Struggling with both a financially over-leveraged ministryhe was acting more as a developer than a preacher by the '80sand his obviously sexual feelings toward other men, his affection for Tammy Faye's charms turns to resentment and passive-aggressive emotional abuse. One moment he says he forgives her for an indiscretion; then, in the next, he says that forgiveness is contingent on her apologizing on-air to the entire PTL audience, who light up the donation lines whenever Tammy Faye has a particularly emotionally engaging moment.
If any one person embodies the role of a villain in The Eyes of Tammy Faye, it is the late Rev. Jerry Falwell, who not only became a power broker in '80s Republican politics but was also the self-appointed don to the era's preacher-broadcasters. His betrayal of Jim and Tammy Fayewho pretty much had handed over PTL's finances to himwas the nail in the coffin for the couple. Vincent D'Onofrio portrays Falwell not with the real Falwell's trademark smugness, but as a physically imposing evangelical Machiavelli.
The Eyes of Tammy Faye sometimes seems more concerned with evoking any residual nostalgia for our memories of Tammy Faye and delivering an Oscar nomination for Chastain than telling us anything new about its subject. But Chastain is mesmerizing at moments, as is Cherry Jones. This won't tell you anything you didn't already suspect about Tammy Faye Bakker, but The Eyes of Tammy Faye is worth seeing
|
|
|
|
This article shared 2011 times since Mon Sep 20, 2021
|
ARTICLES YOU MIGHT LIKE |
---|
|
| | SHOWBIZ Celine Dion, 'The People's Joker,' Billy Porter, Patti LuPone, 'Strange Way' 2024-04-19 - I Am: Celine Dion will stream on Prime Video starting June 25, according to a press release. The film is described as follows: "Directed by Academy Award nominee Irene Taylor, I Am: Celine Dion gives us ...
|
| | LGBTQ+ film fest Queer Expression to feature Alexandra Billings in 'Queen Tut' 2024-04-12 --From a press release - CHICAGO — Pride Film Fest celebrates its second decade with a new name—QUEER EXPRESSION—and has announced its slate of LGBTQ+-themed feature, mid-length and short films for in-person and virtual events in April and May. QUEER EXPRESSI ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Jerrod Carmichael, '9-1-1' actor, Kayne the Lovechild, STARZ shows, Cynthia Erivo 2024-04-12 - Gay comedian/filmmaker Jerrod Carmichael criticized Dave Chappelle, opening up about the pair's ongoing feud and calling out Chappelle's opinions on the LGBTQ+ community, PinkNews noted, citing an Esquire article. Carmichael ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Outfest, Chita Rivera, figure skaters, letter, playwright dies 2024-04-05 - For more than four decades, Outfest has been telling LGBTQ+ stories through the thousands of films screened during its annual Outfest Los Angeles LGBTQ+ Film Festival—but that event may have a different look this year because ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Dionne Warwick, OUTshine, Ariana DeBose, 'Showgirls,' 'Harlem' 2024-03-29 Video below - Iconic singer Dionne Warwick was honored for her decades-long advocacy work for people living with HIV/AIDS at a star-studded amfAR fundraising gala in Palm Beach, per the Palm Beach Daily News. Warwick received the "Award of ...
|
| | WORLD Israel court, conversion therapy, death sentences, Georgia bill, fashion items 2024-03-29 - Israel's Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the Population Authority must register female couples as mothers on the birth certificates of their children they have together, The Washington Blade reported. The decision was made following a petition ...
|
| | JP Karliak morphs into non-binary character for Disney+'s X-Men '97 2024-03-22 - series X-Men '97, a revival of the popular X-men: The Animated Series that's both continuing the ongoing mutant storyline and breaking new ground along the way. The character of Morph now looks more like the comic ...
|
| | WORLD Uganda items, HIV report, Mandela, Liechtenstein, foreign minister weds 2024-03-21 - It turned out that U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Senior LGBTQI+ Coordinator Jay Gilliam traveled to Uganda on Feb. 19-27, per The Washington Blade. He visited the capital of Kampala and the nearby city of ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Queer musicians, Marvel situation, Elliot Page, Nicole Kidman 2024-03-21 - Queer musician Joy Oladokun released the single "I Wished on the Moon," from Jack Antonoff's official soundtrack for the new Apple TV+ series The New Look, per a press release. The soundtrack, ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Lady Gaga, 'P-Valley,' Wendy Williams, Luke Evans, 'Queer Eye,' 'Transition' 2024-03-15 - Lady Gaga came to the defense of Dylan Mulvaney after a post with the trans influencer/activist for International Women's Day received hateful responses, People Magazine noted. On Instagram, Gaga stated, "It's appalling to me that a ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Jinkx Monsoon, Xavier Dolan, 'Frida,' Lena Waithe, out singer 2024-03-08 - Two-time RuPaul's Drag Race winner Jinkx Monsoon is headed back to the New York stage, joining off-Broadway's Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey beginning April 2, according to Playbill. The casting makes Monsoon the first drag ...
|
| | SHOWBIZ Queer actors, icons duet, Hunter Schafer, Oscars, Elizabeth Taylor 2024-03-01 - Queer actor Kal Penn is set to star in Trust Me, I'm a Doctora film that chronicles the final days of actress/model Anna Nicole Smith, whose overdose death in 2007 at age 39 sparked a tabloid ...
|
| | Dorian Film Awards: 'All of Us Strangers' takes top prizes 2024-02-27 - February 26, 2024 - Los Angeles, Ca. - For its 15th Dorian Film Awards, GALECA: The Society of LGBTQ Entertainment Critics fully embraced All of Us Strangers, writer-director Andrew Haigh's fantastical and tear-inducing tale of two ...
|
| | SAG Awards honor Streisand, few LGBTQ+ actors 2024-02-25 - Queer entertainers made their markalthough not a major oneat the 2024 Screen Actors Guild (SAG) Awards, held Feb. 24 in Los Angeles. The event was live-streamed on Netflix for the first time. Indigenous and Two-Spirit actor ...
|
| | WORLD Caribbean ruling, Pussy Riot, Russian raid, Canadian warning, anti-trans bar 2024-02-23 - The top court in Saint Vincent and the Grenadines dismissed a challenge to colonial-era anti-gay laws, Reuters reported. Javin Johnson and Sean Macleish—two gay men who had pushed to decriminalize ...
| |
|
|
|
|