Tag: january 2018

‘The Assassination Of Gianni Versace’ Is Disturbing, Excellent, And Absolutely Necessary

Andrew Cunanan‘s killing spree couldn’t have existed without silence. For four months in 1997, the serial killer claimed five victims, including the iconic fashion designer Gianni Versace. Cunanan wasn’t able to get away with these crimes because he was a master criminal. He was able to take so many lives largely because of an overprotective and unfocused police force that made countless major missteps and a media climate that didn’t care about a serial killer who targeted gay men until it was too late. It’s a story about the unspoken effects of silent discrimination. To this day, Versace’s murder is defined by silence. The murder of one of the first openly gay celebrities should be common knowledge instead of the often forgotten historic footnote it currently is. However, after the premiere of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, it will be next to impossible to forget the horrors of Versace’s murder.

Versace marks the second installment in Ryan Murphy‘s anthology series American Crime Story, and at first glance, it seems like an odd story to follow the groundbreaking The People V. O.J. Simpson. Though both criminal cases were defined by all-consuming amounts of media attention toward their end, Versace’s murder hasn’t stood the tests of modern history like O.J. Simpson’s trial has. In this way, Versace is a far more subtle season of the anthology series, dwelling longer in imagined conversations and alleged interactions than its predecessor ever did. But in every other way, Versace is the more direct season of the two. The series is one of the creepiest things Murphy has ever created, and it refuses to be ignored.

Almost all of Versace’s gripping yet unsettling elements can be attributed to Darren Criss‘ revolutionary performance as Andrew Cunanan. Criss brings an over-eager and rambling energy to the killer that initially starts as charming but then falls into the depths of being unhinged the more he lies. And FX’s version of Andrew lies a lot. From the series’ first episode, Andrew breathlessly drawls on about how vulgar he finds Versace’s designs before later obsessively tearing through every Versace ad and story he can get his hands on. As a viewer, it’s impossible to know what Andrew is thinking or motivated by at any given time, a choice that reflects the winding narrative of the book the Versace season is based on, Maureen Orth’s Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U. S. History. That unhinged uncertainty also makes for one of the most disturbing television has seen in recent years.

In comparison, Édgar Ramírez’s take on the iconic Gianni Versace is defined by authenticity. Tragically and pointedly, Gianni Versace is the beating  heart of this story. FX and Murphy portray the designer as a giving and wise man who understood the value of loving life and deeply loved his family. Seeing the designer teach his sister Donatella Versace (Penélope Cruz) about the emotion behind fashion and reassuring his partner Antionio D’Amico (Ricky Marty) about his deep love for him are two of the best parts of the series. There is light and goodness to this dark series. It’s evident even when Donatella and Antonio are at each other’s throats. However, it’s because the series works so hard to make Gianni Versace such an immediately endearing character that the Versace installment is so tragic.

This season doesn’t mince words. The first 10 minutes of the series painstakingly show Versace’s brutal murder, allowing the rest of the series to work backwards from that moment. If anything, it’s this format that prevents the second season of American Crime Story from ever feeling too exploitative. Versace seems obsessed with trying to figure out why these murders were allowed to go on for so long, sorting through Cunanan’s life in an attempt to find an answer. By the end of The Assassination of Gianni Versace, Andrew Cunanan doesn’t merely stand as Versace’s killer. He emerges as a terrifying monster who murdered five people who only wished him well. Likewise, Versace isn’t presented as just a talented designer. He emerges as a genius of his industry who was struck down far before his time. The saddest and most morbid note the series makes is how similar these two very different men truly were.

Versace is a deeply disturbing and confusing season of television. For every horrifying detail the series revels in, there is a beauty and sexiness that defines every one of its main characters. However, Versace does a few great things for this crime that have been sorely missing for a while. It gives names and faces to all of Cunanan’s victims, fully confronts the LGBT discrimination that was baked into this case, and it serves as a study of one of modern day history’s most chilling serial killers. The circumstances around Gianni Versace’s murder may have been categorized by silence, but American Crime Story’s take on Cunanan’s killing sprees is one of the loudest and boldest sagas on television.

‘The Assassination Of Gianni Versace’ Is Disturbing, Excellent, And Absolutely Necessary

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ is a painful and pointed look back

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” and “The People v O.J. Simpson” have much in common: Both series are part of FX’s “American Crime Story” anthology, both are scripted dramas that revisit 1990s celebrity crimes, and both are the work of mastermind Ryan Murphy.

Yet the Versace story, which premieres Wednesday, is a markedly different viewing experience from its award-winning predecessor.

There are no Marcia Clarks or Johnnie Cochrans in the Versace story, no bloody glove, no white Bronco. In short, the new series doesn’t coax audiences in with the familiar, dipped in decade-centric nostalgia.

Details surrounding the Italian fashion designer’s 1997 murder by serial killer Andrew Cunanan weren’t burned into the American psyche like those of the double homicide in the Simpson trial. “Versace” sets out to make viewers care about a case most of them will barely remember. This is the show’s greatest challenge and its sharpest point.

Versace’s demise didn’t hit the same personal or political nerve with the American public or the media, largely because Cunanan was a male escort and the majority of his victims were gay. While the murder made for salacious “Hard Copy” headlines, even as a victim Versace didn’t elicit the same kind of love as accused murderer Simpson. And here that disparity is painfully present across all nine episodes.

After the initial tabloid intrigue, his killing was largely considered a gay on gay crime. And in the wake of an AIDS epidemic, the inference was that these were risky men leading risky lifestyles, dabbling in the avoidable. Ignorance and bigotry allowed much of America to emotionally divorce itself from the crime.

The series attempts to recast Versace’s “assassination” at age 50 from a fading headline to a human tragedy, and for the most part succeeds.

In a painful scene after Versace (Édgar Ramírez) is found dying on the front steps of his South Beach mansion, his significant other, Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin), is grilled by a detective who can’t quite grasp what kind of partner D’Amico is (“business?”). And, if they were romantically involved, why were they bringing other men home from clubs? It’s D’Amico who ends up being interrogated about his lifestyle rather than possible suspects.

Penélope Cruz is stone-cold perfect as Versace’s muse and sister, the hardened Donatella, and Darren Criss is chillingly convincing as the psychopathic Cunanan.

The downside here is that this series, based on actual events and inspired by Maureen Orth’s book “Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan and the Largest Failed Manhunt in U.S. History,” is sometimes too dark and brutal in its re-creation of the murders.

The very nature of the crimes, sadistic and premeditated, makes this series far more grim than “The People v O.J. Simpson.” It demands that viewers pay attention to homicides that went largely unnoticed until Versace’s, and it’s a lot to ask. The victims include Cunanan’s ex-lover and Chicago tycoon Lee Miglin.

Like many of Murphy’s projects, cultural context is half the story here. The same America that gave rise to celebrated designer Versace also fostered the monstrous Cunanan.

The series encapsulates that dichotomy and the societal and systemic prejudices that link them.

Homophobia, in essence, allowed Cunanan to kill his way from San Diego to the East Coast with relative ease. Police who’d been persecuting the gay community weren’t ready to protect it, and Cunanan’s surviving victims were reticent to speak up for fear of being ostracized or worse.

The second installment of the “American Crime Story” anthology lends these victims the respect they deserve. It’s up to viewers to decide whether they’re willing to explore the pain and injustice just beneath the tabloid headlines.

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ is a painful and pointed look back

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Review: ‘American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace’

The FX true crime anthology, American Crime Story returns Wednesday night for its second season. Based on journalist Maureen Orth’s book, it will explore the murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace.

‘American Crime Story’ Tackles ‘The Assassination Of Gianni Versace’ With Dazzling Bombast

“American Crime Story,” Scott Alexander and Larry Karaszewski’s true crime anthology series, premiered its first season, “The People V. O.J. Simpson,” in 2016. Executive producer Ryan Murphy, who’s fronted too many seasons of “American Horror Story,” has assumed showrunning duties for the second season: “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” in which he fully hitches his brazen kitchen sink storytelling style to a genre bound by more realistic filmmaking.

In “The Assassination of Gianni Versace,” Murphy coyly pushes those boundaries only enough to bend them rather than break them, subjecting the legend of the great fashion designer’s murder to a fresh round of sensationalization as only he can: With dazzling bombast. But the show isn’t uniquely vulturous. The show’s hyper-stylized dramatization of Versace’s demise is in keeping with the beloved American tradition of picking dry the bones of slain celebrities, infused with class and surprising heartfelt empathy that adds dimension to the tale’s tragedy. Americans love their blood and guts. “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” has the grace to make us feel guilty about it.

Murphy and Tom Rob Smith, who authored every episode in the season using Maureen Orth’s book “Vulgar Favors” as his basis, make the wise choice to begin at the end in the first of its many notable riffs on classic movies like “Sunset Boulevard.” We start with the crime and work our way backward, revisiting the characters we meet in the pilot’s pre-credit introduction anew over the course of years; if you know nothing of how Versace met his end, you’ll be caught up in the show’s first seven minutes. One sunlit morning in Miami Beach, Gianni (Édgar Ramírez) wakes up beneath the saffron hued clouds painted on the ceiling over his bed, and ambles over to his balcony to take in the view of the beach his lavish mansion affords him. At the same time, Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) sits on the very same beach, anxious over a deed he’s yet to do. The two men go about their very different days, Murphy cross-cutting from one to the other with a delicate care to demonstrate their grand existential disparity.

It’s a superb establishing moment that gives way to a sequence laden with great filmmaking and capped off with an act of violence whose blunt efficacy would make Martin Scorsese proud. To our eyes, the violence is random, but as “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” unfolds from its opening scene to its climax, that element of chance dissolves into something that very nearly feels like fate. On one hand rests Gianni, brilliant and bold, an artist coming into his own in the fashion industry as he spars, if lovingly, with his sister, Donatella (Penelope Cruz), over the direction of the company that bears their name. So too do they spar over such matters as his wish to come out on the world stage.

“You live in isolation, surrounded by beauty and kindness,” Donatella chides him in “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell,” the season’s fifth episode. “You have forgotten how ugly the world can be.” Gianni retorts, “Is the brand of Versace braver than the man?”

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” positively brims with Smith’s spryly poetic dialogue, keeping the show lively at both its most adversarial and its most funereal, and it should be both: The story of Gianni is larger than life even when focused on his death and his difficulties. That scope differential between him and his killer-to-be is necessary, if not for illustrating their reality then for thematic effect. Cunanan is a monster, and “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” avoids mistaking him as anything else. But in contrasting Gianni’s endless privilege to Cunanan’s encompassing paucity, the show reminds its viewers of what exactly Cunanan felt was worth killing for in the first place.

Headings aside, “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is less about Gianni than about Cunanan, a surprise given the temptation of extravagance offered by Gianni’s wealth and the aesthetic beauty of his world. The plain truth is that we know more about Gianni than we do Cunanan, and the most hideous mysteries have more allure than the gilded lives of the pretty and famous. He’s on screen more than Gianni, smooth-talking his way into hotel suites, San Francisco’s most exclusive clubs, the well-appointed homes of wealthy and powerful closeted men; we’re given a window into his method, watching him practice aw-shucks entreaties to strangers in the mirror. None of this surprises us, though. It’s the expectation Criss lays out for us about 15 minutes into episode one, “The Man Who Would Be Vogue,” as he goes tit for tat with a friend.

“I tell people what they need to hear,” he says, speaking to his sexuality on the surface while giving us fair warning about the skein of falsehoods he’s wound leading up to this moment. When your narrator is as unreliable as Andrew Cunanan, the facts of his life become secondary to the what-ifs of his life. In a manner of speaking, “American Crime Story” does him the favor of myth making, of giving him the visibility in death that he lacked in life. It’s a morbid thought, but watching “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” leaves one with an unnerving sense that if he was around to watch the series for himself, he’d probably love it. Murphy and Smith give him what he apparently hungered for his whole life, the reason he sought out Versace and lied about himself to everyone in earshot: Fame. Maybe it’s more like infamy, but he’d probably take it.

Murphy soaks the show in a palette that ranges merely from bright to lurid, splashing enough electric candied colors across the frame to send us into sugar shock; he staffs the series with past collaborators (not only Criss, but Max Greenfield and Finn Wittrock as well), plus a terrific supporting cast that includes Ricky Martin as Gianni’s lover, Antonio D’Amico, and “Orange is the New Black” vet Dascha Polanco as one of the detectives investigating the Versace shooting. He doesn’t emphasize name recognition and style at the expense of substance, though. “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is a terrific example of true crime done right, prioritizing creativity without sacrificing honesty, but the element that resonates best with us is its central theme: The power of truth versus the cowardice of lies.

Versace embraces who he is, not only as a designer, but as a man. He literally and figuratively wears his personality on his sleeve (and on the sleeves of his clients). Cunanan determinedly lies so that he doesn’t have to face up to who he really is. The only character who gets close enough to Cunanan to figure that out is David Madson (Cody Fern), his overly kind lover and the second victim in the killing spree that would end with Gianni’s blood spilled on his front steps. No wonder Cunanan felt so compelled to take Gianni’s life, as well as his own: He couldn’t stand to see the fashion titan succeed, in business and in self-acceptance. Murphy treats Gianni’s comfort within his own skin as triumph; maybe Cunanan wouldn’t like the show that much after all.

‘American Crime Story’ Tackles ‘The Assassination Of Gianni Versace’ With Dazzling Bombast

Filming ‘Versace’ death scene was unsettling for Édgar Ramírez

“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” star Édgar Ramírez, who plays the murdered fashion icon in the new FX series, went to Miami a week before production began to get a feel for how Versace spent his final morning.

“I wanted to have my own experience without the basic nature of a movie set,” says Ramírez, 40. “They allowed me into the [Versace] villa [now a hotel]. I had my quiet time with the property. Then I walked the death walk. I went to the cafe [where Versace went to buy fashion magazines]. By the time I got back to the villa, I was more calm than I think I would have been if I hadn’t seen it first.”

When executive producer Ryan Murphy, Ricky Martin — who plays Versace’s companion, Antonio D’Amico — and Darren Criss, who plays Versace’s killer Andrew Cunanan, arrived on the set, the mood became “very frantic,” Ramírez says.

“[Versace] was shot at 8:45 a.m. and dead by 9:20 a.m,” he says. “It was very difficult for me not to think that everything that was going on, he was feeling it, although he was unconscious. I felt Ricky’s trembling. It was a very, very emotional scene. When they put me on the gurney and took me into the emergency room, I could feel everyone and everything. It was very difficult for me not to imagine that [Versace] was there, that he wanted to say something — goodbye, whatever.”

Versace’s death in July 1997, at the hands of serial killer Cunanan, was only the beginning of Ramírez’s journey. “The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is told out-of-sequence — from the sole encounter Versace had with Cunanan in San Francisco in 1990 to the beginning of Cunanan’s murder spree in Minneapolis three months earlier and Versace’s treatment in Miami for HIV-related illnesses.

“It was a life that was very fated,” Ramírez says. “He did think surviving AIDS was a miracle. The Catholics of the Mediterranean [believe] in a world of miracles and redemption and compassion.”

Screenwriter Tom Rob Smith also explores the conflicts Versace had with his younger sister, Donatella (Penelope Cruz), a bottom-line businesswoman who objected to her brother’s coming out. She thought such a disclosure would drive away celebrities and potential investors in the company, just as the family planned on taking it public. Versace’s response to her paranoia? “We’ll always have Elton [John].”

“It was a very volatile relationship, but a close one,” says Ramírez. “They were able to have a huge fight in the morning and then have dinner as if nothing ever happened.

“I didn’t know much about the man and the persona,” says Ramírez, who grew up in Venezuela. “The lushness and exuberance of the brand. When he was killed, then of course I knew who he was.”

Having played the role, he says he is truly moved by Versace’s global impact on the culture and the meaning of his American death. “He was the southern Italian guy going to the Milanese [fashionistas]. People from northern Italy are not Italian; they’re Swiss,” he says. “And along came this guy who spoke in a dialect people in northern Italy wouldn’t even consider Italian. And then he created this company that in 10 years took over the world.”

It was all over in an instant. “Andrew shot him in the face. He wanted to erase his humanity,” Ramírez says. “Gianni reminded him of everything he couldn’t be. They were both outsiders.

“One had the guts and the talent and the courage to do something about it.”

Filming ‘Versace’ death scene was unsettling for Édgar Ramírez

The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Review: FX’s True Crime Drama Is Addictive And Unsettling

One of the most highly-anticipated series of 2018 has to be The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story. The first chapter of the American Crime Story anthology series covered the events of the O.J. Simpson murder trial and was a huge hit with viewers and critics alike. The pressure is on for The Assassination of Gianni Versace to match the quality of The People v. O.J. Simpson. Luckily, the new chapter of the anthology is a worthy successor to The People v. O.J. Simpson, and it’s as addictive as it is unsettling as it chronicles the events leading up to the assassination of Gianni Versace.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace covers the before, during, and after of Gianni Versace’s murder by spree killer Andrew Cunanan on the steps of Versace’s South Beach residence back in 1997. The case itself is famous and the show doesn’t dance around delivering the ugly deed. While the big death happens relatively early on, Versace’s end is only the starting point for the way the show is telling this story. Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) targets world-renowned fashion designer Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez) at his home, and his death shocks the world. Gianni’s sister Donatella (the magnificent Penelope Cruz) and partner Antonio D’Amico (Ricky Martin) occupy important parts in Versace’s life before and after his death, but they’re not always on the same page.

On the Andrew Cunanan side of the story, The Assassination of Gianni Versace delves into his descent from liar and con artist into the killer who would go on a killing spree culminating with the murder of Versace. From his encounter with the Miami-based addict Ronnie (Max Greenfield of New Girl fame) to his final meetings with victims, he loses control in ways that are both compelling and chilling. Adding to the levels of tragedy are the very close calls in which Cunanan is almost caught by authorities before he can commit his final act of violence.

Created and executive produced by Ryan Murphy of American Horror Story, The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story fully embraces the look, fashion, and sounds of the late 1980s and 1990s as the series jumps through the years leading up to Versace’s murder. The time jumps are frequent enough that you’ll want to pay close attention to what’s happening lest you miss the quick update of what year it’s supposed to be in a given scene, but the story is engaging enough that you may not find yourself wanting to check your phone or look away.

The new season of American Crime Story may be named for Versace, but the show makes it clear from almost the very beginning that The Assassination of Gianni Versace is really a gripping story about the rise and fall of Andrew Cunanan as he seeks to stand out from the crowd by spinning any story he thinks could be believable. Given how much of the focus is on Cunanan, The Assassination of Gianni Versace would have failed if not for a stellar performance from the actor who landed the part.

Darren Criss is spellbinding and utterly chilling as Andrew Cunanan. The actor previously best known for playing a bow tie-wearing high school warbler on Glee pulled out all the stops as Andrew Cunanan, and he was scarily effective, especially when contrasted with Edgar Ramirez as Gianni Versace. Ramirez is utterly likable in the role of Versace, and it’s easy to see why he was so beloved and inspired such loyalty from his sister and partner.

It’s also increasingly easy to see why Cunanan would decide to target Versace. The fashion designer had everything Cunanan wanted: fame, fortune, genius, and the means to live as an openly gay man with a loving partner of more than a decade without being ostracized by society in the 1990s. The Assassination of Gianni Versace works especially well because of the similarities and differences between the two men as portrayed in the show.

It would be remiss not to mention Penelope Cruz as Donatella Versace. Cruz alternates between powerful and vulnerable, all while wearing incredible dresses and killer heels. Ricky Martin is a pleasant surprise as Antonio D’Amico, taking his character from one extreme to another in the different years covered by the series.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace isn’t exactly the most lighthearted series ever to hit the airwaves, and there’s a certain heaviness to it that probably wouldn’t be ideal for binge-watching. That said, the series is definitely worth the watch. It’s not The People v. O.J. Simpson 2.0 and it’s not something that has been done before on broadcast television. In a TV season filled with an abundance of scripted shows, The Assassination of Gianni Versace is a unique and standout series worth tuning into each work.

RATING: ★★★★☆

The Assassination Of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story Review: FX’s True Crime Drama Is Addictive And Unsettling