Tag: january 2018

Will Emmy Luxuriate in the Riches of ‘Versace?’ – Awards Daily

The Television Academy generally responds well to Ryan Murphy. That, I think, we can all agree on. Now, their response tends to vary for sure. They broadly embrace some of his properties, showering them with multiple trophies (see: The People v. O.J. Simpson, taking home 9 wins out of 22 nominations). Or they politely smile, recognize the material but don’t take their love all the way (see: Feud: Bette and Joan, taking home 2 wins out of 19 nominations). Ironically, Murphy himself has only a single Emmy win directly recognizing his contributions. He received a comedy series direction win for Glee. Naturally, anything bearing his name merits serious attention during awards season. Something akin to a TV-version of Steven Spielberg. That brings us to The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story.

Versace comes to us with lofty intentions. The title alone tells us that. Yet, having seen 8 out of 9 episodes, it’s also slightly misleading. The series isn’t necessarily so much about Gianni Versace as it is Andrew Cunanan, the lost soul whose killing spree across America ended with the public slaying of the fashion icon. Go into the series not expecting great depth on Versace as a character. Rather, the assassination event becomes the catalyst for a study of not only the deeply troubled Cunanan but also 90s-era homosexuality.

Murphy likes to make grand statements with his material. O.J. Simpson rehabilitated Marcia Cross, offered up a celebration of working women, and studied race in America. Feud looked at Hollywood’s cruelty in dealing with aging actresses. Even American Horror Story looks at a wide array of social tragedies, perhaps never so blatantly so as with Cult‘s socio-political horror. Twenty years from now, our children will study Ryan Murphy’s vast playbook in college. Versace will, I suspect, become prime source material for a term paper or three.

But with the Television Academy and The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, I’m forecasting at least 12 Emmy nominations. It won’t top O.J. Simpson, but that’s partially because it doesn’t have that mind blowing, star-filled cast of world-class actors. Don’t cry for Versace, though. It’ll do just fine.

Greatest Emmy Chances

Honestly, I’ll be stunned if Versace isn’t nominated broadly. It’s a delicate, intense portrayal of a man without an identity. I’m stealing from my friend Joey Moser when I say it’s Murphy’s exploration of the Tom Ripley character through the real-life persona of Andrew Cunanan. Early reviews for the series have been mixed to good with few outwardly raving. I suspect that’s largely because the series doesn’t deliver what you’d expect. It’s not a lurid exploration of the fame and fortune of Gianni Versace. Rather, it’s a lurid exploration of the impact of Versace’s fame and fortune on highly impressionable minds. The series winds the two characters in and out of the narrative, Cunanan nearly constantly referring to his obsession with Versace and his place of influence.

Darren Criss emerges as the real revelation here. His performance as Cunanan is one of those performances frequently called “brave,” a term that makes me cringe every time I hear it. It means that an actor who is not openly gay plays a gay character in intense, frequently erotic, situations. Still, his performance is “brave” in that Cunanan opens himself to Murphy’s challenges. He’s exposed both physically and emotionally. He digs deeply into the material and emerges with a shocking portrayal of an exceedingly damaged individual. He’s never been this good. Ever. He immediately shoots to the top of the Best Actor in a Limited Series list. He may even win.

Versace is really all about Andrew Cunanan. As such, the supporting players don’t factor in quite as strongly as I thought they would. Penelope Cruz, for one, really doesn’t have that many scenes in the 8 episodes I’ve seen as Donatella. I think she’s great given the material, and I’m kind of obsessed with the accent she manages to deliver. Will she merit a nomination? It depends on how deeply the Academy embraces the material. Right now, I don’t see how she misses. She has a great episode toward the end where Gianni encourages Donatella to overcome her insecurities. Cruz manages to find a heart within the glamorous exterior. Given Cruz’s Oscar-winning status as an actress, I suspect she finds her way into the supporting races.

Unfortunately, attention on Cruz will likely push aside a very deserved nomination for Judith Light, playing Marilyn Miglin. Miglin’s husband was one of Cunanan’s victims, and Light’s composure and eerily stoic demeanor through much of the material are really a wonder.

The men, of course, will compete against each other for a handful of spots. I don’t know if this goes all the way to O.J. Simpson level with three actors receiving attention. Of the notable ensemble, my personal favorites are Finn Wittrock as Jeff Trail, another Cunanan victim and closeted Naval officer, and Jon Jon Briones (Broadway’s Miss Saigon) as Cunanan’s father. Murphy gifts both very talented actors a wealth of great material. Briones, in particular, gives a stunningly complicated performance of a man who is both monster and adoring father. His episode is the most difficult to watch (saying a lot given much of the subject matter), but it would be a shame to ignore his contributions to the legend of Andrew Cunanan.

That leaves the title figure himself: Gianni Versace as realized by Edgar Ramirez. For me, Ramirez looks a lot like the real deal and gives a very good performance. Yet, there’s something absent here when exploring Versace as a character. Ramirez gives it his all, but his is the least impressive aspect of the series. The significant focus on Cunanan and 90s-era homosexuality has to leave a victim in its wake.

Unfortunately, it’s kind of Gianni Versace all over again.

Guaranteed Nominations

Limited Series
Darren Criss – Lead Actor
Penelope Cruz – Supporting Actress
Direction
Writing
Casting
Cinematography
Costumes
Hairstyling
Makeup
Editing
Sound Mixing
Music

Possible Nominations

Edgar Ramirez – Supporting Actor
Jon Jon Briones – Supporting Actor
Finn Wittrock – Supporting Actor
Judith Light – Supporting Actress
Production Design

Will Emmy Luxuriate in the Riches of ‘Versace?’ – Awards Daily

TV Review : THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY | SEAT42F

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY, the second season of the franchise, kicked off its run this week with episode one, “The Man Who Would Be Vogue.” Set in both 1990 and 1997, we see the eventual killer, Ander Cunanan, as he first encounters the legendary designer, as well as the murder and its aftermath. The mostly non-fiction story apparently seeks to examine the relationship between the two men, as well as the manhunt for Cunanan, and how Gianni’s sister, Donatella, steered the company following her brother’s death.

That’s a lot to cover, but it doesn’t seem like too much for nine hours of television, which is how many episodes this will run. By keeping the story focused to only four leads (the three above plus Versace’s long-time partner, Antonio D’Amico), it avoids the sprawling that some such dramas get into, and provides a cohesive narrative, even as the timeline jumps back and forth.

THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY feels very Ryan Murphy. What I mean by that is, like other Murphy properties, there are strong, colorful characters, sometimes understated, at its center, the direction and design are artsy while remaining relatively grounded, and the pacing is slow but purposeful. There’s a certain tone and style that has become a Murphy hallmark, and even with most of his familiar band of recurring actors absent from this outing, his fingerprints are noticeable on the work.

As usual in a Murphy show, the casting is spot-on. He brings back Glee’s Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan, who appears to be the lead character in the first episode. Criss is a talented man, and this role stretches him. Cunanan is a habitual liar, acting his way through life, and it’s hard to gauge his sincerity, even in the moments where he is alone. Criss balances this while still showing us why people would fall for Cunanan’s falsehoods and charm. It’s a complex and difficult performance, and Criss nails it.

The other leads are Edgar Ramirez (Gold) as Gianni Versace, singer Ricky Martin as Antonio D’Amico, and an almost unrecognizable Penelope Cruz (Vicky Cristina Barcelona) as Donatella Versace. Ramirez doesn’t have a whole lot of chance to show his skills yet, almost being set dressing in his own show, but Martin and Cruz prove themselves right away.

They are joined by a whole bunch of great recurring players, including Will Chase (Smash), Dascha Polanco (Orange Is the New Black), Jay R. Ferguson (Mad Men), Max Greenfield (New Girl), Jose Zuniga (Snowfall), Joe Adler (Grey’s Anatomy), Annaleigh Ashford (Masters of Sex), and more, with Judith Light (Transparent) and Finn Wittrock (American Horror Story) slated for later this season. So the troupe should be solid.

The setting itself is necessarily opulent. Versace did not live simply, as one might expect, given what he’s known for. And Miami Beach in the 1990s was not a boring place. This makes for a locale that looks almost Hollywood glitzy, but is true enough to the reality. It makes one think of the trappings of wealth and celebrity, and the murder itself shows how none of that protects anyone from the darkest parts of the human soul. I don’t mean this to sound overly metaphorical, because it’s not; it’s a grounded show.

The frequent back-and-forth time jumps aren’t my favorite way to tell a story, but are the right choice for THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY. There’s really no other way to depict both the lead up and the aftermath without it feeling like two separate shows. By splitting it in this manner, it helps with overall cohesion.

TV Review : THE ASSASSINATION OF GIANNI VERSACE: AMERICAN CRIME STORY | SEAT42F

Darren Criss revives a monster in ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ – The Boston Globe

Are you watching “The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story”? I’m loving it for a number of reasons, not least of all the performances. It begins with Darren Criss’s Andrew Cunanan shooting Gianni Versace on his mansion steps, then moves backward across the season to chronicle his previous four murders.

As Cunanan, Criss is surprisingly good — surprising, if you only know him from “Glee” as the openly gay student Blaine, who went on to marry Kurt. He’s creepy and slippery as the killer who, Mr. Ripley-like, pathologically lies his way into the lives of wealthy gay men, many of them closeted. He’s a primping, rabid social climber who carefully studies and researches his prey, with Versace — with whom he has a date years before the murder — as his big goal.

I can’t say Criss humanizes Cunanan, even as he removes layer after layer of Cunanan’s armor as the script moves back to his formative years. And that’s a good thing; we get to see what may have contributed to his devolution, and the way he is a creature of homophobia as well as an exploiter of it, but we are never asked to see him sympathetically. He’s clearly a grandiose monster of bottomless insecurity. But then Criss also allows us to see how Cunanan managed to con smart men, how he remade his hatred into a kind of aggressive come-on in certain situations.

Criss delivers an energetic, committed, and thoroughly macabre turn that holds the nine-episode series together. In “Glee,” he was dreamy; in “Versace,” he’s the stuff of nightmares.

Darren Criss revives a monster in ‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ – The Boston Globe

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Premiere Sets Up Promising Season

Following in the success of the season before it, season two of FX’s anthology series American Crime Story premiered on Jan. 17 to mostly positive critical reviews, despite a series-low number of viewers. Each season of American Crime Story is self-contained and acts like a miniseries; there’s no overlap between season one, The People v. O.J. Simpson, and the newly-premiered season two, The Assassination of Gianni Versace.

The recent rise in true crime media likely has a positive correlation with the interest millennials show in dark humor and morbid or macabre topics. Podcasts such as My Favorite Murder and The Last Podcast on the Left, web series and films like 2017’s My Friend Dahmer, and the upcoming film starring Zac Efron as serial killer Ted Bundy have all enjoyed recent success due to this widespread fascination. American Crime Story is no exception to that: season one won nine Emmy awards.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace is executively produced by Ryan Murphy, known for American Horror Story, Feud, and Glee. The Assassination of Gianni Versace is just another example for what is expected to be extremely successful television by Murphy.

It isn’t without its flaws though, and those are hard to ignore. First and foremost, viewers need to remember that this depicts something that happened to a real person. Real lives were ruined and many families were affected by the events in the series. The line can be blurred because it’s not documentary and these are actors, not the real people affected and involved.

The Versace family issued a statement opposing the show, stating that it is a work of fiction, since the non-fiction book it is based off, Vulgar Favors by Maureen Orth, was not and has never been authorized by Versace. Murphy responded to the controversy by stating that Vulgar Favors is a vetted book that has been acclaimed for two decades.

All of that being said, The Assassination of Gianni Versace is off to a fantastic start. It’s visually stunning, and is telling the story in an interesting style, starting from the end, rather than the very beginning.

The first episode opens with a sweeping score and juxtaposing shots of Gianni Versace (portrayed by Edgar Ramirez) and Andrew Cunanan (portrayed by Darren Criss, who is half-Filipino, like Cunanan was) beginning their day in different locations in Miami

About halfway through the episode, viewers are introduced to Penelope Cruz portraying fashion icon and Gianni’s sister, Donatella Versace, as she immediately establishes her new control over the Versace company and brand.

The style and storytelling of The Assassination of Gianni Versace are both equally outstanding, but one of the most outstanding aspects of the pilot, at least, was Criss’ acting. Criss rose to fame as a standout on Murphy’s Glee, but this is not the Criss that Glee fans will recognize and love. This is a visceral and twisted career-defining performance unlike anything Criss has ever done on screen or stage.

Cunanan had four victims before his final victim, Versace. Each of them will get a moment during the nine-episode series, which promises to explore issues such as homophobia, the AIDS epidemic, and Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. It is an interesting approach to storytelling where ultimately, the killer is the one viewers are following, though it’s safe to assume the Versace murder will continue to be an invisible thread; everything will circle back to it, especially when Cunanan’s subsequent downfall is still to come.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Premiere Sets Up Promising Season