Tag: review

Gay men can be just as misogynistic as straight guys – Independent.ie

The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story is part of a highly addictive dramatised mini-series that, as the title suggests, re-enacts gripping crime stories from recent history. Netflix hit Queer Eye is a spin-off of the 2003 series Queer Eye for the Straight Guy, a reality show that sent five fabulous gay men to revamp the life of a hopeless straight man, with plenty of ‘lol’ moments in between.

Despite being vastly different programmes, the one commonality between the two is the accurate, and often touching, portrayal of gay men.
It was with relief that I watched American Crime Story and didn’t come across the tropes that usually accompany any type of ‘queer’ male character on mainstream television (I’m looking at you, Will).

Sure, the titular character is a male fashion designer but the campest character was actually Donatella Versace. Played by Penelope Cruz, she flounced around their decadent villa, chain-smoking and giving Ricky Martin side eye while not bothering to replace her native Spanish accent with an Italian one.

Queer Eye has backed away from the ‘outrageous’ gags that made it famous and instead captures poignant encounters between humans from very different walks of life. It is refreshing to watch mainstream productions featuring gay characters that stay well away from tired cliches. Not only are these stereotypes potentially damaging, they also give nasty gay men a hall pass. When gay men make an abhorrent remark about women, they are not being misogynistic but simply playing into the accepted narrative that to be camp is to be cruel.

In reality, gay men are perfectly capable of being just as misogynistic as their hetero counterparts and those that are, often get away with it because quite simply, they are gay.

Take, for instance, Karl Lagerfeld. Karl Lagerfeld’s storied career in fashion is matched by his long history of making derogatory remarks about women. In 2012, he commented that singer Adele was “a little too fat”, despite her “beautiful face”. Back in 2009, he took on the persona of Coco Chanel for an interview with Harper’s Bazaar in which he insisted: “I was never a feminist because I was never ugly enough for that”. In the spirit of fairness, Lagerfeld also insults men with vigour.

Despite his noxious remarks, women continue to fawn over him, and he was lauded by many for his 2014 fashion show in which he sent models down the runway holding placards with feminist slogans. Somewhere along the line, it must have dawned on him that feminism needn’t be ugly so long as you have Cara Delevingne on your catwalk.

While there are plenty of men – I believe the majority of them – who have respect and admiration for women, there are plenty who bury their disregard for women behind a facade.

Heterosexual rugby players who demean women with sexually explicit text messages put this down to laddish locker room talk, while gay men who make vulgar remarks about women are simply being outrageously camp. By endorsing these tired stereotypes, we allow sexism to flourish unchecked.

In 2014, Rose McGowan prompted op-eds everywhere from the Gay Times to The Guardian for talking about ‘gay misogyny’ during a podcast with author Bret Easton Ellis, in which she claimed it is a “huge problem” among gay men.

A lot of her comments were deeply misconstrued, like her claim that “I have heard nobody in the gay community, no gay males, standing up for women on any level.”

If that really is the case, she may want to get herself some new gay friends. I count myself lucky to have many gay men as dear friends. These men are kind, loyal and wickedly funny. However, within the gay community, there are men who make degrading remarks about a woman’s appearance under the guise of camp hilarity, or because they have moulded themselves as a caustic queen. In the gay clubbing scene, it is hardly uncommon for women to face extreme hostility for entering what are perceived to be ‘male only’ spaces.

We castrate heterosexual men for glorifying just one type of beauty, but gay men are just as guilty when they celebrate only the fiercest, most feminine women. The truth is some gay men objectify females just as much as straight men do, forcing women to contend with the (other) male gaze.

Gay men can be just as misogynistic as straight guys – Independent.ie

Damien Love’s TV Review: The Split, The Woman in White, Westworld and more

American Crime Story

9pm, BBC Two

It’s the final part of what will undoubtedly be one of the year’s best series, and, after rigorously following a backwards-running structure since episode one, the story suddenly slams forward again, to throw us back down to Miami in the immediate aftermath of Gianni Versace’s murder. As the media goes into a frenzy, Andrew Cunanan (an astonishing Darren Criss) remains at large, but the city is in lockdown and before long he’s holed up alone, hiding out on an empty holiday houseboat.

Surviving on dwindling supplies and dying fantasies, he watches the consequences of his crimes play out on national television, while the net gradually draws tighter around him. As with the first American Crime Story, on the OJ Simpson trial, the series has made what seemed a familiar story strange, rich and relevant, yet the tone has been markedly different.

The OJ story had the deceptive outline of a frantic pantomime, but, shining so much spotlight on Cunanan’s non-celebrity victims and his dismal and deluded life, this has been horrendously, hypnotically bleak.

Damien Love’s TV Review: The Split, The Woman in White, Westworld and more

Five point story…

The first season of anthology crime series American Crime Story helmed by Ryan Murphy, swooped accolades at various award platforms. Now, the second installment of the series – The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story is something you cannot afford to miss out on! 

The series airs on Star World from Monday to Friday at 9 pm. Here are five reasons why this show is strongly recommended…

  • We cannot emphasize on this enough! Ryan Murphy. Ryan Murphy. Ryan Murphy! The man knows how to turn film-making into an art and we do not know anyone else to whom this comes naturally!
  • The series has a spectacular cast! From Academy Award winner Penelope Cruz donning the role of one of her favourite designers – Donatella Versace to Point Break, Zero Dark Thirty star Edgar Ramirez as Gianni Versace, the comeback of one of the most sensational singers of all time – Ricky Martin playing Gianni’s boyfriend Antonio D’Amico and Glee fame Darren Criss’ career-defining performance as serial murderer Andrew Cunanan.
  • Darren Criss. Critics have gone gaga over his performance and the entire industry is talking about him! Criss definitely deserves a shout-out for his performance on the series and it is difficult for us to imagine him anywhere else! 
  • The fashion and glamour is breathtaking. The series not only showed Gianni in all his glory and lavish style but pieces from his final fashion show – Atelier Versace’s fall 1997 show in Paris.
  • The immersive plotline! The series not only showcases the nuances of Gianni Versace’s murder, but also chronicles everything from the aftermath of Gianni’s death to the lives of each of Cunanan’s victims – painfully elaborating his life and how he managed to dodge authorities for months before he shot himself!

Five point story…

It’s worrying how far removed we are from the source of our food says JENNIFER SELWAY

IN Miami I drove along Ocean Drive past the house where fashion designer Gianni Versace lived and was shot dead by Andrew Cunanan in 1997.

It’s now a hotel but its notoriety lives on and there was a bunch of people taking photographs.

A local told me: “You know why the bloodstains were so hard to get rid of? The steps were made of limestone and the blood just seeped in”.

BBC Two’s The Assassination Of Gianni Versace ends next week and has been less about Versace and more about his nemesis, the serial killer Andrew Cunanan.

What an amazing performance from Darren Criss.

I can’t wait to see what else this young actor is in.

But it’s hard to imagine him playing a goodie.

It’s worrying how far removed we are from the source of our food says JENNIFER SELWAY

This week’s best home entertainment: from Westworld to Barry

The Assassination of Gianni Versace

Versace’s killer Andrew Cunanan has arrived at the endgame, and so has this vivid and eventually shattering drama. As the manhunt closes in, Cunanan (the brilliant Darren Criss) is holed up, relishing his own infamy and watching TV reports of his crimes as he finally runs out of road.
Wednesday 25 April, 9pm, BBC Two

This week’s best home entertainment: from Westworld to Barry

I hope the Queen gave bum’s rush to idiots for Windrush debacle

My Glee for Daz

I AM obsessed with the latest American Crime Story series about the assassination of fashion designer Gianni Versace.

Once I got over Versace – actor Edgar Ramirez – looking like chef Antony Worrall Thompson and those comedy false teeth affected by ­Penelope Cruz as his sister Donatella, I was able to sit back and be enthralled by the performance of ­Darren Criss as serial killer Andrew Cunanan.

It’s an astonishing acting tour de force and light years away from his wholesome role in Glee, where he played Kurt Hummel’s love interest.

Darren is the triple threat. He can sing and dance, as he proved in Glee, and also in his one-man shows – but boy, can this man act up a storm. He should be clearing a space on his mantelpiece right now to accommodate all of the awards that must surely be coming his way.

In the final episode, to be aired next week, he almost makes us feel sorry for the monster that was Cunanan – and that takes the very greatest of acting talent.

I hope the Queen gave bum’s rush to idiots for Windrush debacle

BBC – My culture picks: Viv Albertine

Television: The Assassination of Gianni Versace – American Crime Story

The Assassination of Gianni Versace – American Crime Story explores the 1997 murder of fashion designer Gianni Versace by serial killer Andrew Cunanan. Based on Maureen Orth’s book Vulgar Favors: Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace, and the Largest Failed Manhunt in US History, it is the second season of the FX true crime television series American Crime Story.

Viv says: “To me it is television at its absolute best – it’s extraordinarily cast and acted, and the main actor Darren Criss, who previously was in Glee, I think is outstanding. He’s in every episode, in every scene; he absolutely carries the whole series.”

Criss plays Cunanan, the character at the heart of the series, and as Viv explains, “there’s hardly even any dialogue for him but he carries it all in the way he walks. He can switch like a light from one moment to arrogance, to vulnerability. It’s absolutely stunning and the scripting, everything about it is wonderful.”

BBC – My culture picks: Viv Albertine

The Assassination of Gianni Versace episode 8 review – Dead Good

If we very briefly imagine the previous seven hours of American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace as a kind of twisted superhero movie, then this eighth episode is very much the ‘origins’ prequel. The penultimate episode reaches way, way back into the two lives of the main protagonists and gives some fascinating and much-needed context and explanation for the grisly events that were to follow.

This week’s slice of The Assassination of Gianni Versace recovers well from previous weeks’ ever-so-slight slackness, delivering a quite remarkable hour of television. It’s a tale of childhood. Well, two childhoods, to be exact. The first is that of the famous fashion designer of the title. We see his supportive, caring and loving mother nurturing his gift for design and instilling into him values like hard work and dedication. The second childhood is that of Andrew Cunanan’s – the spree killer who would go on to gun Versace down outside his home in 1997. As you can imagine, the parallels between the two backstories are limited, to say the very least…

While Young Versace is encouraged, involved and taught how things work, Young Cunanan is put on a mile-high pedestal by his domineering father. Constantly told he’s special and better than others with little explanation as to why, we quickly discover how Andrew grows up into the man he does. He sees his father schmooze, lie, cheat, scheme, steal, use violence and ultimately run when things got too hot – tricks the older Andrew will employ all too readily as 1997 approaches.

The reverse chronology of the series has left us wondering if we would get a full explanation or exploration as to Andrew’s psychology and, at the beginning of this week’s instalment, we were still slightly concerned. But such was the level of detail and realism that followed, the audience’s patience and dedication so far were to be rewarded no end. Our killer is now a fully-rounded figure.

There’s been a rather familiar pattern to this series and this week’s episode wasn’t keen to break the mould. Each episode seems to glimpse the famous Versace but cut away from him – leaving you wanting more. We’re then shown Andrew Cunanan, expertly and mesmerisingly played by Darren Criss. To top it off, every week, a new character is paraded and the actor behind them totally steals the show. This week that thief is John John Briones, who steals the show so brazenly and completely there should probably be a warrant out for the man’s arrest.

While portraying Andrew’s abusive father Modesto Cunanan, a Filipino immigrant, Briones also guides us through a secondary subtext – that of the deception of The American Dream. It’s a familiar trope for US TV and movies to explore, but it’s no less fascinating for it. Modesto buys into ‘The Dream’. He works hard. He starts a family. He continues to work hard. He erects a flag in his front yard that he proudly salutes each morning. He carries on working hard… And in the end? He’s left with very little. The American Dream works for America, but not the average American. It’s an interesting side note to the episode’s narrative and helps round out Andrew Cunanan’s worldview somewhat.

Another little story that’s played out – again, not first the first time – is that of the damage that greed can do. Modesto’s trade is stockbroking and seeing his rise and fall brings to mind shades of Oliver Stone’s Wall Street and Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street. The violence and destruction that the 1980’s need for greed caused also hints a little at Bret Easton Ellis’ American Psycho.

The structure of this series, which we had been slightly concerned about, has turned out to be a stroke of genius. We started with the crime. Then we slowly worked backwards to see how it came to be. And just as we learn the ‘origins’ backstory of Versace’s murderer and begin to feel sorry for him, we move into next week’s final episode. Where, presumably, we’ll see the cold-blooded slaying once more and the frantic manhunt, followed by the story’s conclusion.

There is still a slight disconnect between Andrew Cunanan the man and Andrew Cunanan the murderer, though. Perhaps the final episode will fill in that blank for us. Or perhaps we’ll be left with the altogether more difficult dilemma of how to process a strangely likeable killer of four innocent people. We’ll have to wait and see.

The Assassination of Gianni Versace episode 8 review – Dead Good

Why The Assassination of Gianni Versace is the drama of the year so far.

I’m not entirely sure why it’s taken me so long to write a piece on The Assassination of Gianni Versace. I adore the show, Darren Criss as serial killer Andrew Cunanan delivers a performance that grabs you and doesn’t let you go. Much like the real life Cunanan (yes I’ve watched documentaries on the real life story since) Criss is mesmerizing in the role as the fascinating serial killer who believes he’s above most who he meets and that he is destined for better things. I struggled with the first series of American Crime Story. I could see Cuba Gooding Jr was doing a stellar job as Simpson but elements of the story were over sensationalised and spoilt the show as a whole for me.

I knew very little about the murder of Gianni Versace. I remember it happening (I was 14 at the time) but it didn’t matter at all as Criss as Cunanan is the draw. It may have Versace’s name in the title, and Edgar Ramírez does a great job as the ill-fated fashion designer but this isn’t really his story. Where OJ was at the centre of the story in season 1, this is more the story of what turns someone into a killer.

British writer Tom Rob Smith tells Cunanan’s story backwards. It’s a device that has bothered me in other shows but here it only serves to make his story more compelling as we are drip fed details of his life and how he ended up at the gates of Versace’s palatial home that morning.

The penultimate episode, which aired on BBC Two last night doesn’t feature Versace or Criss for that matter. It tells the story of Cunanan’s childhood and how he was doted on by his father Modesto. When we meet Modesto (Jon Jon Briones) we start to understand more of why Cunanan became the man he did. The immigrant from the Philippines had the same aspirations of grandeur that his son would go on to emulate. A bully to wife, and seemingly disinterested in his elder children, Modesto through all his energies into turning to Andrew into the family’s success story. Andrew’s gift for ingratiating himself with the rich and powerful was a skill he learnt from his persistent father.  In an earlier episode which saw Andrew gloating about his father’s achievements in the hopes of impressing his one true love David Madson, I, like David had brushed it off as another of Andrew’s fantasies but in this brilliant episode, you discover that Modesto did, in fact, become a successful stockbroker. When his inexperience catches up with him Modesto flees the family home in the car he’d bought for Andrew years before. Unable to grasp the fact that he father had been living a lie Andrew tracks his father down to hideout in sweaty and rundown part of the Philippines.

Seeing what his beloved father has been reduced to is depressing to Andrew. Modesto welcomes his favourite son with open arms but maintains his facade. In in this moment, Andrew sees his idol for the man he really is: a master at charm but ultimately a scheming failure. The episode’s title Master/Destroyer points to this key moment being the catalyst for all the evil Cunanan would inflict on all those who disrespected or let him down in the future.

The one major trait that Modesto past on to his son was the ability to sell himself. The scene where Modesto convinces a prestigious stockbroker firm to hire him despite his lack of experience is quite something. One of the reasons I find Cunanan such a compelling character is his ability to make those around him believe every word he says. He surrounds himself with the wealthy and successful and feeds off them to get what he wants. It’s not really even clear what his main objective is but it’s clear Andrew Cunanan wanted to be someone the world noticed, and in his final murder he became just that.

It’s such a fascinating story, made even more compelling when you remember it’s based on actual events. In a weird way, I found myself emphasizing with this monster of a human.  He’s manipulative, self-obsessed and ruthless but I found him such an intriguing character and I just wanted to learn more and more about him. Tom Rob Smith’s scripts are faultless and the direction superb. This is certainly the US drama of the year, I’m only sorry I haven’t written about it before now.

Why The Assassination of Gianni Versace is the drama of the year so far.