Is Gianni Versace Too Perfect on ‘American Crime Story’ Season 2?

The second episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace helped to explain why the fashion designer’s family objected to this series, opening with a scene heavily implying that Versace was HIV positive. However, the show’s debatable realness should also extend to the incredibly flattering portrayal of the man.

Through two episodes, Gianni Versace has been depicted as a nearly flawless, almost saintly human being (despite Antonio’s claim that he isn’t a saint). In the premiere we saw him stroll through Miami, greeting everyone he met and being treated like a benevolent king, adored by the local citizens.

As a fashion designer, he’s portrayed as a man whose only goal is to make women happy, shying away from praise or adoration and, instead, focused entirely on helping others feel beautiful. At a runway show, while Donatella begged him to be darker and more commercial, he embraced positivity, the joy of life, and even complained about the models being too thin.

Maybe that’s who Gianni Versace really was, a wonderful, nice, caring, loving man. But for the show, this doesn’t work dramatically. The character seems to be put on a pedestal, presented as the embodiment of all that is good. Thematically, this works well as a counterpoint to Andrew Cunanan, a character who despises reality and revels in disturbing behavior.

The problem, however, is that it makes Andrew’s obsession with Versace seem understandable. In the TV show, the two are polar opposites, depicted like Batman and the Joker, two characters who philosophies on society and humanity are at odds. This virtually excuses the fact that Andrew is simply a delusional sociopath with an unhealthy and unrealistic fixation on Versace.

Instead, the show tethers the two of them, thematically and, in the case of their first meeting in the premiere, literally. They become two halves of the same coin, light and dark, linked together. That feels more disrespectful to the Versace legacy than suggesting that he was HIV positive.

It also hurts the show’s attempts at realism. In certain moments, like the scenes involving the pawn shop owner, the show appears to be a true-crime docu-drama, depicting actual events in a straightforward, “Just the facts” kind of way. Yet when it comes to Versace and Cunanan, the show tries to be more poetic, exploring universal themes and overall psychological concepts rather than just portraying them as they really were.

The second season of American Crime Story wants to have it both ways. It wants to show the crimes as they really happened, like the first season did with the O.J. trial. But it also wants to indulge in the tortured psychology of a serial killer, embracing the more abstract notions that exist in the fashion world.

You can’t be realistic and dreamlike. And you can’t say that Gianni Versace is not a saint, but then portray him as flawless. The result is a jumbled and confusing story that doesn’t seem to have a clear idea of what it is.

Do you think the portrayal of Gianni Versace is a problem for the show?

AMERICAN CRIME STORY Review: “Manhunt”

One thing that sets the second season of American Crime Story apart from its predecessor is that, while People vs. O.J. was told entirely linearly, The Assassination of Gianni Versace hops back and forth in time quite a bit, and also plays with the audience’s expectations. It can be confusing, but I think to a certain extent that is intentional. It sets the tone well at least for the second episode, entitled “Manhunt,” which is very centered on the enigmatic serial killer and murderer of Versace, Andrew Cunanan. Andrew’s own thoughts seem scattered and confusing, though he is able to masterfully charm people into giving him what he wants; whether it’s a room with a view of the ocean or just some plain old attention.

The episode begins, however, with Versace himself in 1994 entering a hospital with his lover Antonio. Though it isn’t spoken outright, it is heavily implied that Versace has AIDS. I looked it up, and it was never confirmed that he was in fact HIV positive, though it does seem likely given it was the height of the epidemic at the time and his chosen lifestyle, funneling through partner after partner. Given the news, a tearful Donatella asks him “What is Versace without you?” He replies, “It is you.” Much of the outright conflict in the episode, and the series thus far, comes from Donatella (Penelope Cruz) butting heads with Antonio (Ricky Martin). She blames Antonio for her brother’s condition, and even after he is killed due to something else entirely, Donatella’s heart still does not soften for Gianni’s lover, as much as he tries to convince her to let bygones be bygones.

The series is beautifully shot, as mentioned in the previous review. One particularly pretty scene early in the episode, which involved almost no dialogue, showed Donatella standing before her brother’s open casket, alone in an enormous room. She unzips a bag and actually puts her brother’s suit on for him, tightening his tie while she says goodbye, not with words but with her eyes. All done up and looking sharp, as he would have wanted, the casket is closed and put into a kiln to be turned to ashes. Gianni Versace is then bagged, boxed, and presumably shipped to Italy. All the glitz and glamour comes down to this for all of us.

But beyond that much of the episode belonged to Darren Criss’s Andrew Cunanan. We begin with him driving a red pick-up truck and swapping license plates with another car outside a Wal-Mart. He’s then on the road to Miami and listening to the radio when we hear a news bulletin about him being wanted for the murder of another man, not Versace, so we are suddenly made aware that this is in the past. Cunanan switches the station and blasts “Gloria” singing and screaming outside the car window with euphoria. He soon arrives in Miami Beach.

There he tells his first of many lies in the city, explaining to an old desk woman at the Normandy Plaza that he grew up in Nice, France. He also tells her that while he’s a man of little means now he plans on becoming a fashion designer. He seems to charm her well enough, and is even able to finagle himself into a room with a view of the ocean later, after some practicing in front of a mirror. Now that he’s in Miami, the official stalking of Versace begins. He heads by the designer’s home and tries to open the gate to no avail. He gazes at the second story windows from across the street hoping to get a glimpse of something. But he knows he may have to play the waiting game here.

In the meantime, he makes friends with HIV survivor and fellow gay man Ronnie (Max Greenfield). After some “magic pills” saved his life, Ronnie headed to Miami Beach. There’s he’s basically been doing drugs and prostituting himself, which Andrew quickly takes to. Really, Ronnie just becomes a sounding board for Andrew to continue lying to. He tells Ronnie that Versace had proposed to him, though it didn’t work out. Andrew talks about Versace dreamily saying “That’s the man I could have been.” Ronnie replies “Been WITH.” Andrew nods.

In one extremely uncomfortable scene to watch, Andrew takes a gentleman back to a lavish hotel room. “I can be submissive,” the old man tells him. But suddenly Andrew is wrapping masking tape around the man’s head, eyes, nostrils… and finally mouth. The old man struggles on the bed while Andrew dances flamboyantly, repeating “Accept it.” Finally, the man stops struggling, Andrew holds a pair of scissors over his head, and for a moment we don’t know if he will kill the man or save him. He saves him, stabbing a small hole over his mouth so he can breathe. The man is clearly shaken, but decides to not tell the police about his encounter, probably due to the shame of being homosexual; we see his is also married as he puts a ring back on his finger after their encounter.

Speaking of the police, they and Detective Lori Wieder’s (Dascha Palanco) efforts are barely touched upon this week, other than to make a point that the FBI had dropped the ball, not putting out fliers that would have warned the general public about Cunanan, and certainly would have alerted them after he sold a gold coin to a pawn shop owner in the area. Wieder pushes for these fliers but doesn’t get her way. I suspect we’ll see more of her butting heads with the feds as the manhunt continues. At the end of the episode, after stalking Versace at a nightclub (a place Wieder also pushed police and the feds to stake out for Cunanan) and failing to find him, Andrew orders a tuna sandwich down the street. The man working there recognizes him from America’s Most Wanted and calls the cops. By the time they get there, Andrew is gone again.

I don’t know the full true story and I’m trying to avoid spoilers, so I don’t know exactly how long this manhunt goes on. I’m hoping it ends in the next episode, as I fear the cat and mouse game could get old fast.

TB gives it: B+

AMERICAN CRIME STORY Review: “Manhunt”

The Undeniable Power Of Donatella Versace In “American Crime Story”

If the premiere episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story focused on the violent shooting of Gianni Versace on the front steps of his Miami mansion in 1997, episode 2 — set partly in 1994 — tackles a very different brush with death. This time, the assailant isn’t handsome serial killer Andrew Cunanan, but Versace’s own body.

The rumors about Versace’s HIV-positive status remain unconfirmed to this day — Vanity Fair contributor Maureen Orth, whose book the show is based on, first reported the fashion designer had HIV back in 1997, but there haven’t been any significant breakthroughs since then.

Still, I’m not here to comment on Gianni Versace the man, but Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez) the character. And the character, according to Ryan Murphy’s vision, starts off “Manhunt” by seeking treatment for a unnamed disease we are meant to deduce is HIV. This unforeseen development means Donatella (Penelope Cruz) is called upon, three years before her brother is eventually murdered, to start thinking about what the empire they’ve built will look like with herself at the helm.

We catch a glimpse of her vision later in the episode when Gianni, feeling a renewed sense of purpose after the medication starts controlling the symptoms, dismisses the models she’s hired for a fashion show as “morbid.” He wants his brand to celebrate life. She feels they’re just going in the same old direction — there’s fresher, younger talent in the news now. They need to compete to stay relevant. In the end, Gianni gets his way, describing his final look: a Versace bride.

“She will be proud, and she will be strong,” he declaims. “And that’s how I will end my show.”

It’s a haunting exchange when you consider that only a couple of short years later, Gianni would, in fact, hand his show over to a woman prouder and stronger than he could have imagined.

As the episode pivots back and forth between those earlier years and the direct aftermath of Gianni’s death — not by disease, but by a random act of violence — we see Donatella struggling with her competing ideas about the direction the company should be heading in, and her insecurity at having to replace the man known worldwide as a creative genius. The fact that Tom Rob Smith, who wrote the episode based on material from Maureen Orth, chose to portray this ambivalence is significant. Power isn’t something women of that generation — and still today — took for granted. Often, it was obtained in chaos, when no other recourse was available.

Watching this episode, I was struck by the parallels to Meryl Streep’s performance as Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham in The Post. Like Donatella, Graham was thrust into the spotlight in the aftermath of a tragic event: her husband’s 1963 suicide. In the years that followed, she took the local paper she had inherited and turned it into one of the most powerful and iconic American journalism institutions, navigating ethical and political crises like the Pentagon Papers and Watergate along the way. What’s interesting about Liz Hannah’s script, however, is that, like Smith’s, it doesn’t shy away from the real feeling of helplessness and inadequacy that many women feel when they are handed the keys they were denied for so long.

It’s fascinating to see a woman like Donatella Versace, now so indissociable from the brand she has been in charge of for over 30 years, and a fierce female force, feeling inadequate. But it’s also strangely comforting.

Imposter syndrome, or the feeling that you don’t belong somewhere you’ve worked long and hard to arrive, is something even the most successful women struggle with today. We have undeniably made strides since the late ‘90s: young girls are no longer being taught that their dreams are limited to that small space between the kitchen and the bedroom. But that doesn’t mean we are always welcome in the boardroom, or in the laboratory, or government. It’s okay to feel uncertain and afraid. What matters is how you face those insecurities. Then, like Donatella, you, too, can become a boss bitch.

The Undeniable Power Of Donatella Versace In “American Crime Story”

‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ slays premiere

The second season of “American Crime Story” literally opens with a bang.

“American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace” is a dramatized retelling of the events leading up to and following the 1997 murder of famous Italian fashion designer, Gianni Versace. It stems from the mind of executive producer Ryan Murphy, who has worked on “Glee”, “Scream Queens” and “American Horror Story.” “Versace” premiered Jan. 17 on FX.

It’s apparent from the season premiere that the true spotlight will not be on the famous designer, but instead, the mind and actions of his killer, Andrew Cunanan, played by Darren Criss. Criss also starred in “Glee.” The series also features Penelope Cruz as Versace’s sister, Donatella, and singer Ricky Martin as Antonio D’Amico, Versace’s boyfriend.

The retelling of events is done out of order; it jumps forwards and backwards in time between the years 1990 and 1997, allowing for the revelation of details and the establishment of Criss’ character. Laden with color, the darkness of the episode’s content is balanced out with stunning visuals, symbolism and a meticulous attention to detail.

Many of the scenes were shot in Versace’s former Miami beachfront mansion, The Villa Casa Casuarina, which is illustrious in the extreme and comparable only to a sumptuous palace. Almost the entirety of the episode has a sepia tint to it, which adds to the drama and to the ‘90s aesthetic. This vibrancy is both welcomed and absolutely necessary, as the series takes place in the 1990s, the pinnacle of high fashion.

In the eye of the storm was designer Gianni Versace who, in the series, is portrayed as both an ethereal genius and extremely down-to-earth individual. The opposing force to Versace’s genuine nature is the 27-year-old Cunanan, a pathological liar and power-hungry individual who has developed an obsession with the Italian fashion designer.

The suspense and horror woven throughout the episode is a direct product of Cunanan’s actions, which reveals just how twisted his mind was. Criss’ fans will be stunned to see him skillfully take on the role of the depraved murderer who, upon shooting Versace, stands over his body and cocks his head from side to side with a confused expression as if he doesn’t quite understand what he’s looking at.

As he turns and walks down the street away from the body, Criss’ Cunanan is smiling and begins to hysterically laugh and scream over what he has done when he jumps into his getaway car. Criss does an incredible job portraying the raw, unfiltered and crazed emotions of Versace’s killer. For those who enjoyed “American Crime Story: The People vs. O.J. Simpson,” watching the second season of Murphy’s crime anthology is certainly worth a watch.

‘Assassination of Gianni Versace’ slays premiere

“ACS: The Assassination Of Gianni Versace” Episode 2 Recap: “Manhunt”

If the first episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story scared me, the second episode, “Manhunt” almost lured me into being intrigued but feeling a little dirty about it. I was a hesitant rubbernecker made aware of how a particularly scary monster can feel impossible to look away from.

The introduction of Ronnie (Max Greenfield) felt like an exploration of the disturbing phenomenon, where people know there’s something off about a person like Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss), but are unable or simply don’t want to bring themselves to stop talking to him. It reminds me of the folklore that vampires, ghosts, demons, and witches all have to be invited into your home in order to enter. To be fair, that folklore sounds a bit victim-shame-y if I think about it long enough.

For guys doing drugs in a seedy hotel, Ronnie and Andrew have an almost sweet, sad-sack friendship. TVLine noted that this actually the second time that Ryan Murphy has cast Greenfield as a drug addict. I found the New Girl star’s makeup and hair so convincing that I wasn’t sure it was him at first.

Ronnie’s presence is understandably heavy because he’s living at such a unique historical moment: he’s HIV-positive and assumed he was going to die any second. Suddenly, he is given newly discovered treatment and is not immediately dying. He’s based on a real person, and I found myself thinking of him and this especially fragile time in his life for the rest of the episode.

Andrew and Ronnie’s dark and dingy life is harshly contrasted with Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramírez) and Antonio D’Amico’s (Ricky Martin) glamorous lives – they included a fashion show he hosted atop his own devastatingly beautiful swimming pool for Christ’s sake. Seeing Gianni walk – er, glide? arm in arm with two models in glittering dresses does remind me why fashion shows are a cultural problematic fave. I ate up every word of Gianni’s speech about his artistic intentions and vision. It was at times a bit self-important, but it made me respect him and what he was trying to do. It also allowed me to see what might have made Andrew fall in love with him. I’m actually not sure if I think Andrew was in love with him, or if he simply had a jealous obsession with his seemingly perfect life. Gianni does seem like the ideal symbol to fixate an envious rage on. He lives flamboyantly and acts almost like the unofficial mayor of South Beach. I’m reminded of this when his staff bowed to him in the first episode.

I see now that the choice to start the season off with the murder itself and then work up to it chronologically is a classic stab and twist. Seeing the tenderness of Gianni and Antonio’s relationship warms your heart until you remember that their desires lining up is happening days before Gianni will be assassinated. Knowing this painful timing makes the moment from the first episode when Donatella (Penelope Cruz) is berating her brother’s lover for not trying to give him a family all the more heartbreaking.

One more example of people knowing something is not quite right and doing nothing comes along when Andrew takes a client and nearly suffocates him. We watch the man he dominated consider calling the police, but decide against it. I’m not sure what I’d want that man to have done, but it’s interesting to see by the look on his face that he knows on a gut-level he was not safe until Andrew left. I couldn’t help but notice that we’ve seen two examples of women whose intuition tells them to act. Detective Lori Wieder (Dascha Polanco) thinks they should be flyering the very area where Andrew is, and the woman in the pawn shop reports Andrew and doesn’t hear back from the FBI for days.

As the episode goes on, Andrew’s behavior becomes more and more unhinged. It feels like a wink to the camera when he tells the guy at the bar that he’s a serial killer, but it does show just how frayed and sloppy he is becoming. There’s a lot of glorifying serial killers for being so careful and calculated, but Andrew is unraveling and might even be enjoying being almost-caught at every turn. Still, I’m hooked because I really wouldn’t put anything past someone with such a clear absence of a moral compass and his back getting further and further up against a wall.

“ACS: The Assassination Of Gianni Versace” Episode 2 Recap: “Manhunt”

‘Versace’ Recap: Gianni Learns Difficult News & Andrew Stays Under The Radar

The second episode of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story starts out in Miami in March 1994. Gianni Versace keeps a low profile as he goes to the hospital for blood work. He catches a glimpse of two gaunt men in their side-by-side hospital beds. The show implies that Gianni finds out he’s HIV-positive. (The Versace family vehemently denies this.) Despite the diagnosis, Gianni is certain he will get better. Donatella is devastated over the news. “What is Versace without you?” she asks her brother, who replies, “It will be you.” She continues, “Who am I without you?” He says, “You’ll find out.” Donatella is equal parts angry and sad over the diagnosis. She blames Antonio for allowing Gianni to participate in wild activities. She thinks that Antonio has given Gianni nothing — no marriage, no kids, nothing. But Donatella doesn’t see everything. She doesn’t see Antonio comforting Gianni or taking care of him. Gianni senses the tension between Antonio and Donatella. He begs them to get along so they can all be a family.

Cut to three years later and one day after Gianni’s death. Donatella tells Antonio that “there is no need for us to pretend anymore.” Donatella goes to see Gianni’s body and dresses him in a custom Versace suit. The stoic Donatella finally breaks down in tears over the loss of her beloved brother. She cremates Gianni and takes his ashes back to Italy.

Three months before Gianni’s death, Andrew Cunanan is on the run. He heads to Miami after killing four innocent people. He shows no remorse for the crimes he’s committed. Andrew drives to the Normandy Plaza and asks for a room. Right off the bat, he name-drops Versace and schmoozes the concierge. He stays under the radar, but not completely out of sight. During his first night in Miami, he walks right up to Versace’s villa. The gates are locked, of course. He buys a camera and takes photos of Versace’s house to have for himself.

The police are looking for him, and there are boxes of wanted posters just waiting to be distributed, but they’re not a priority. Detective Lori Wieder thinks otherwise. Agent Evans is convinced that Andrew is headed to Ft. Lauderdale, but he’s right there in South Beach.

Andrew meets a man named Ronnie (Max Greenfield) and asks where he can get some drugs. Ronnie reveals he has AIDS and explains how he made his way to Miami. He asks Andrew if he’s sick, and Andrew quickly gives him a definitive no. Andrew admits that he lost both his best friend and lover in the past year, but doesn’t say anything about being the one to kill them. Ronnie also asks why Andrew’s in Miami. “I know people,” Andrew says. “Versace.” Andrew tells yet another wild story and claims Versace proposed to him, but it “didn’t work out.” When Ronnie says he doesn’t like Gianni’s clothes, Andrew is offended. Andrew calls Gianni a “great creator” and the type of “man I could have been.”

In addition to the murderous side of Andrew, he’s also got a sadomasochistic side. He wants to live out these crazy sexual fantasies that involve duct tape. A lot of duct tape. He picks up an elderly man on the Miami beach and goes back to the man’s hotel room. He loves when his sexual partner is helpless and suffering. Andrew duct tapes the man’s face and nearly suffocates him. The man calls 911 but doesn’t say anything when the responder answers. Another missed opportunity. (Can we also talk about Darren Criss in that pink underwear? Whoa.)

Just a few days before Gianni’s death, there was a fashion show. Donatella thinks Gianni is stuck in the past. His only concerns are fashion and the art of fashion. Donatella considers the politics and image. Donatella and Gianni engage in sibling rivalry at the fashion show, with Gianni coming out on top. Gianni believes this is his second chance. His health is improving, his designs have never been better, and Antonio wants to marry him. He has it all. Meanwhile, Andrew has nothing. “I’ve done nothing my whole life,” Andrew says. He envies Gianni’s life. He wants Gianni’s fame and fortune, but he doesn’t want to work for it. Ronnie knows something is up with Andrew but is too scared to ask.

Andrew trades in an expensive gold coin at a pawn shop for quick cash. When the pawn shop worker looks at the list of wanted posters, Andrew’s isn’t there. Another missed opportunity. He stops for food and the cashier recognizes him from America’s Most Wanted and calls 911. Andrew is gone by the time the police arrive.

Gianni and Antonio decide to go out to a club nearby. Andrew, realizing Gianni’s not home, goes to the same club. Gianni and Antonio leave soon after arriving, realizing they’re done with their wild phase. It’s time to settle down. On the dance floor, Andrew tells a stranger that he’s a “serial killer.” If only the stranger knew that Andrew is being serious…

‘Versace’ Recap: Gianni Learns Difficult News & Andrew Stays Under The Radar

The Assassination of Gianni Versace Review: Episodes 1 and 2

FX’s American Crime Story is back with an all new season, The Assassination of Gianni Versace, which takes on yet another 1990s-based murder. Unlike the sprawling focus of The People vs. O.J. Simpson, however, The Assassination of Gianni Versace focuses in on one individual, and explores the path of destruction he created with his actions. Our first The Assassination of Gianni Versace review looks at the first two episodes of the season: “The Man Who Would Be Vogue” and “Manhunt.”

Within the first few minutes of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, it becomes clear this is a different beast than the first season. Besides the obvious difference in subject matter, The Assassination of Gianni Versace operates on a completely different wavelength than People vs, O.J., and its different tone and atmosphere are immediately apparent.

Where as People vs. O.J. was bathed in shadow, even during the day with the California smog making full-blown sunshine impossible, Versace is sun-dappled, opening on the pink-hued, picturesque locals of Miami Beach. If you had been expecting Versace to work its way up to its titular slaying, the first episode of the season, “The Man Who Would Be Vogue,” will catch you completely off guard: the murder of the fashion mogul happens in the beginning of the show.

There’s a slight build-up: director Ryan Murphy gives us a study in contrasts. We watch as the wealthy Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramírez) rises in his breezy, gorgeous mansion and begins his relaxing, pampered day, all while the sweaty, nervous Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) stalks around the beach, living out of a backpack. Cunanan staggers into the crystal clear water and shrieks, half-laughing, half in agony. And then he sets about his foul deed.

Who are these people? Versace doesn’t really introduce them, but in these first few minutes we know exactly who they are. We know Versace is a man who has it all: huge house, lots of money, a steady romantic partner – Antonio D’Amico, played by Ricky Martin – and a lust for life; and we know Cunanan is a man who has literally nothing. And yet that man with nothing is able to quite casually take everything Versace has away with few shots from a handgun.

Just as The People vs. O.J. was not really about O.J. Simpson, The Assassination of Gianni Versace is not really about Gianni Versace. Instead, it uses Versace’s death as a starting point to track the life and crimes of Andrew Cunanan, a con artist and serial killer who was able to evade capture for so long due to indifference. Cunanan was a gay man preying on other gay men – crimes that law enforcement weren’t necessarily chomping at the bit to solve in the 1990s. Homosexuality, and society’s reaction to its culture, is the overarching narrative hook of Versace, as racism was for People vs. O.J.

As episode one unfolds, you get the sense that Ryan Murphy and company are trying to ease the audience into what this new season is going to be while hitting beats familiar to the first season. After Versace is gunned down, the narrative begins jumping around, showing a clearly out-of-its-depth police force already beginning to bungle this huge murder case, as well as ghoulish souvenir hunters willing to break through the police tape to dab a torn-out Versace magazine ad in a pool of the slain fashion designers blood. Penélope Cruz’s Donatella Versace enters the picture, and proceeds to steal the show. Cruz nails the real Donatella’s voice, but also makes the character her own – a brooding-yet-imposing figure trying to figure out how to keep the Versace name (and brand) alive now that her brother is dead. Flashbacks also begin – and these are what you need to start paying attention to. Because as episode two makes clear, the whole show is going to consist of flashbacks.

The Man Who Would Be Vogue presents a scene that the Versace family insists never happened: a moment where Cunanan meets and charms his way into Versace’s life years before the murder. Whether or not this event actually happened is irrelevant – this scene exists to start revealing to us who Cunanan is: a charming, manipulative psychopath, able to sweet-talk his way into seemingly anyone’s life.

Here is The Assassination of Gianni Versace’s biggest strength and weakness. Darren Criss’ performance is remarkable – the type of committed, engrossing work that gets labeled as “career defining” and wins awards. Yet it’s nearly impossible to empathize with Cunanan. One of the People vs. O.J.’s greatest strengths was finding a way to make nearly every character (save possibly Simpson himself) relatable. Even blow-hard lawyer Johnnie Cochran was given a sympathetic, or at least empathetic, backstory. As Versace moves forward, or rather, backward (more on that below), Cunanan becomes worse – a cruel, unfeeling creature who kills with impunity.

Episode 2, “Manhunt,” is the first episode that truly reveals the narrative format the show will be taking. Like Christopher Nolan’s Memento or Gaspar Noé’s Irréversible, Versace is a story told in reverse. Every episode jumps back to events that occurred just before the previous episode. So while “The Man Who Would Be Vogue” has Cunanan already in Miami Beach, about to murder Versace, “Manhunt” presents us with his arrival – blowing into town in a red pickup truck, blasting and singing along to Laura Branigan’s “Gloria.” This brief, amusing moment is perhaps the most likable Cunanan will ever seem in the series. Once he arrives in Miami Beach, however, he instantly begins working the angles, needlessly lying about his past to a hotel manager as he takes up residence in her run-down, pastel-colored hotel by the sea.

One in Miami Beach, Cunanan befriends a local named Ronnie (Max Greenfield), but it’s not entirely clear what, if anything, Cunanan wants out of the friendship, other than perhaps someone to spend time with as he waits to make his big move against Versace. Ronnie is HIV positive, although he never quite comes out and says that. He instead mentions being sick, and then asks Cunanan, “Are you sick?” The vagueness allows the question to linger – Cunanan is not HIV positive, but he has a different sickness somewhere inside him; a sickness robbing him of empathy, driving him to do his terrible deeds.

Sickness is what opens Manhunt as well. In a rather heartbreaking mini-movie taking place right before the title card, we get a whirlwind tour of events in Versace’s life. The fashion designer arrives at a hospital, incognito, and travels down a lonely wing where he sees two sick, dying men laying side by side in hospital beds. Versace is sick, and yet again, the show takes a vague approach to his illness. It’s heavily implied here that Versace has AIDS or is HIV positive, but the Versace family disputes this claim. According to them, the fashion designer had ear cancer. Tom Rob Smith, who wrote the script and helped develop the season, maintains he talked to off-the-record sources who confirmed Versace had HIV. Whether or not Versace did, this moment is intended to establish the fashion designer looking death in the face – and coming back from the brink.

Later in the episode, we see Versace talking about how he feels healthy and alive again, and how he wants his designs to reflect life. But here, in this opening, the focus shifts abruptly from Versace coming to terms with his illness, to Versace’s body being prepared in the morgue – the gaping bullet hole in his face being sealed up so he can be presentable in an open casket. Donatella later arrives, dresses the dead man in a fine suit, and then Versace is cremated. We see all of these minute yet devastating details, and the message is clear: this is what Andrew Cunanan did. With a few bullets, he reduced Versace to a literal pile of ashes – ashes that are soon placed in a gold, ornate box, and flown away on a private jet by Donatella.

“After all he went through, to die like this,” she mutters, her glassy gaze on the box. This is the sum total of an iconic life: dust. It’s haunting, and it’s necessary. Occasionally, Versace will dip into camp territory, but moments like this are essential to remind us that while Cunanan may occasionally seem darkly comedic, he also destroyed lives.

As for Cunanan, “Manhunt” begins to peel back the curtain on him as an individual. Again, Criss’ performance is stellar, full of bluster and confidence always masking panic and rage. In Criss’ hands, Cunanan is a cross between Tom Ripley from The Talented Mr. Ripley and Patrick Bateman in American Psycho, image-obsessed and possessing the cunning ability to adapt and turn himself into whatever the situation calls for. “Manhunt” even gives him a very Bateman-esque moment, where he dances around a room to pop music as a victim struggles before him. This scene is shocking, starting off amusing and descending into high tension. Hoping to score money for drugs, Cunanan has picked-up an older, closeted man at the beach. They go back to the man’s posh hotel room, and Cunanan proceeds to wrap the man’s entire head in duct tape – taking away his humanity, removing any trace of personhood. The man struggles to breathe as Cunanan hovers over him, scissors clenched in a fist. Cunanan eventually stabs a hole around the man’s mouth so the man can breathe. Later, the act over, Cunanan leaves as if nothing happened at all. The man, clearly traumatized, slips on a wedding ring, picks up the phone, and dials 9-1-1. Yet when the operator asks him what his emergency is, the man whimpers, “Nothing,” and hangs up.

This is Cunanan’s ultimate power. By preying on closeted gay men, he knows his chances of being caught are slim to none – because law enforcement doesn’t care. We get a front row seat to this as FBI agents show up and meet with local cops. The FBI is pretty sure Cunanan is coming to, or already in, Florida. When a local cop suggests they hang Cunanan’s WANTED fliers in the gay section of town and start canvasing, the FBI seems utterly indifferent. “This isn’t our top priority,” they say. In other words: they couldn’t care less.

Versace isn’t shying away from the implications presented here: that if someone, somewhere, just gave a damn, Versace (and other people) would still be alive, and Andrew Cunanan would’ve been stopped a lot sooner.

As for Cunanan, he closes out “Manhunt” by letting his mask of sanity slip. While stalking (and failing to find) Versace at a gay nightclub, Cunanan encounters another man. “What do you do?” the man asks. “I’m a serial killer,” Cunanan yells into his ear over the pounding music. When the other man at the club asks him to repeat that, Cunanan launches into a laundry list of jobs: “I’m a banker, I’m a stockbroker, I built movie sets, I…” – here are all Cunanan’s various fake identities coming out in one arterial gush. He senses the end is near. Earlier, Ronnie told him that he personally moved to Miami Beach because he once heard that people who don’t have much time left to live often decide to live by the water. Cunanan has gotten so far on his wits, and lies, but here, in this moment at the club, you sense that he knows he can’t keep this up much longer. You sense that Ronnie’s earlier question is echoing in his head.

“Are you sick?”

The Assassination of Gianni Versace Review: Episodes 1 and 2

American Crime Story Review: Always on the Run Now

Rating: 8.9

In “Manhunt,” an opening flashback takes us into the 1990s, where Gianni Versace (Edgar Ramirez) is diagnosed with a severe illness. They don’t dwell on the diagnosis, but it’s strongly hinted that Versace had HIV (his family has denied this, and “cancer of the ear” is called out in his Wikipedia entry). Considering ear cancer isn’t contagious, or particularly linked to one’s sexual proclivities, it’s interesting that, following the diagnosis, there’s a showdown between Antonio (Ricky Martin) and Donatella (Penelope Cruz), who seems to blame Antonio, and the couple’s apparently polyamorous lifestyle, for the situation. Gianni begs them to “be a family” as he attempts to regain his health.

We then return to the present (meaning 1997), where Antonio and Donatella are still locking horns as Versace is presented in an open casket and cremated.

We pull back a couple of months, in what we can assume will be a backward-spooling breadcrumb trail of the moments that led Andrew Cunanan (Darren Criss) to murder Versace. We see him stealing a license plate in a South Carolina Walmart parking lot and tearing down the highway, where a radio station he flips past mentions his own name in connection with the murder of Lee Miglin in Chicago. He blithely changes stations, singing exuberantly along with Laura Branigan’s “Gloria.” (“Gloria, you’re always on the run now / Running after somebody, you gotta get him somehow.”) He arrives in Miami, has an incredibly creepy conversation with the woman at the desk of a sleazy motel (“I’m a fashion student,” he gushes, “and I think Mr. Versace will find my conversation quite wonderful”). He bags a room and unpacks his gun. We see him try the locked gates of Versace’s palazzo on the waterfront. He buys a disposable camera and starts photographing the mansion, seemingly very focused on the gorgon detail on the gate. Back in his hotel, he studies the pictures.

The FBI shows up and the agents act really cagey with the South Beach police, refusing to clarify why they think Cunanan would be in Miami and oddly reluctant to accept help scouring the gay bars, clubs and beaches of the area.

Cunanan immediately hoovers up a buddy who knows where to score. Ronnie (Max Greenfield) is openly HIV positive, so Cunanan makes up a story about all the people he helped working at an AIDS initiative in San Diego. Then, he tops it off with the story of the time Gianni Versace proposed to him over dinner at Stars (a perfect detail, as anyone who was in the Bay Area in the 1990s can attest, right down to the fact that in his haughty description Cunanan slightly mispronounces the name of celebrity chef Jeremiah Tower). He picks up an older man on the beach and… teaches him a very difficult-to-watch lesson in submissiveness. The traumatized man calls 911, then hangs up.

We cut to a fashion show. Gianni complains that the models “look ill.” Donatella shows up, clears the room, and tries to convince him that he’s in danger of being a has-been. He stands his ground; the show’s a success and even his kind of insufferable sister has to concede that his standing up for his own style wasn’t wrong.

Cunanan and Ronnie get high in the hotel room. Ronnie tries to talk “Andy” into opening a florist’s kiosk while Cunanan wraps his face in duct tape, as he had done to the older man.

Antonio tries to talk Gianni into joining a threesome. Gianni sketches instead, pausing to watch them with an inscrutable expression. Later, Antonio says he “doesn’t want that anymore” and says he wants to marry Gianni.

In need of cash, Cunanan stops in at the pawnshop we saw in the season premiere and sells a gold coin. The shopkeeper (Cathy Moriarty) is immediately suspicious and looks at a wall of FBI Wanted flyers. (Gee, too bad the agents didn’t have any particular enthusiasm for distributing his picture.) After watching a fake Donatella trying to get into the house (“No, baby, I’m sorry,” Gianni calls from the balcony, “I can only handle one Donatella”), Cunanan rushes back to the hotel, gets his gun, tears down his serial-killer-standard wall mural of Versace pictures, and leaves Ronnie.

But Versace has left. He and Antonio go to a crowded club, Antonio repeats his marriage proposal. They leave just as Cunanan walks in. “What do you do?” a young man asks him.

“I’m a serial killer.”

American Crime Story Review: Always on the Run Now

American Crime Story: Gianni Versace Season 1 Episode 2 Review & Reaction | AfterBuzz TV

Hosts discuss American Crime Story for the episode “Manhunt.”
AFTERBUZZ TV — American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace edition, is a weekly “after show” for fans of FX’s American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace. In this episode hosts Shaka Strong, Juliet Vibert, Russel Ray Silva, and Ronnie Jr. discuss episode 2. | 25 January 2018

(Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ Episode 2 Recap: Andrew Cunanan and the Pink Speedo

After sharing the limelight with the Versaces in the premiere of The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story, Darren Criss’ Andrew Cunanan took over the spotlight in Wednesday night’s second installment. The first episode showed us how the actual murder happened; this one was a step away from that action, and a beginning of the character study of Cunanan that this series really is.

It’s also the introduction of that infamous pink Speedo Criss was spotted wearing on set. Suffice it to say both episode and Speedo do not disappoint.

There’s another big moment near the end of the episode to focus on, but let’s first turn our attention to that Speedo. It comes out as Cunanan walks Miami Beach — where he’s fled to hide after a series of murders across the country. The police manhunt, as we see in parts of this episode, is hugely ineffective. Homophobia runs rampant in the police department; this is the ‘90s, and no one wants to put flyers up in the gayborhood.

As a result, Cunanan is able to hide in plain sight at a motel. He meets Ronnie, a squirrelly guy played by New Girl’s Max Greenfield, who nonetheless is earnest to a fault. Ronnie shares his tale of accepting that he was going to die, only to be flummoxed when he lived. “They handed me my life back, and I didn’t know what to do with it,” he says, voice trembling slightly.

Cunanan’s response is to lament the deaths of his best friend and soulmate — people, we know, he actually killed. When Ronnie questions if they both died that year, Cunanan is ever so slightly defiant in his affirmative response. Trusting as Ronnie is, there’s a hint of skepticism in his eyes.

As depicted by Criss, Cunanan is a performer, a chameleon. His life is whatever he needs it to be in the moment. But he’s not quite convincing enough. There’s always a seed of doubt there. He has to supplement his decent-but-insufficient storytelling skill with charm and sex appeal — hence the Speedo reveal.

Cunanan strips down to his bright, pink swimwear to take a shower on the beach, all while bragging about his connection with Gianni Versace. He goes so far as to invent a proposal from the legendary fashion designer, which Cunanan says “didn’t work out.” His story is clearly bullshit, even to someone as trusting as Ronnie. But when he’s fit, cute, and wearing not much clothing, it’s easy to be charmed by Andrew Cunanan.

Throughout the series, we’ll see men with sharp minds being won over by Cunanan, either sexually or merely to succumb to his will. In this scene, we see exactly how hypnotizing Cunanan can be when he properly mixes his tall tales with his impressive physique. With historical hindsight, we can question why anyone ever trusted Cunanan. We can see how flimsy his stories were. But devils don’t lead with their horns; they appear in forms most tempting. His darkness is seductive, shrouded in grand stories of brushes with fame and fortune. The greatest danger of a man like Andrew Cunanan is in how charismatic he can be.

It’s little wonder Cunanan successfully lures a wealthy, married, older man back to his hotel room, only to duct-tape his face and leave him gasping for air. By the time Cunanan has used his john for a free meal and drink, the man is simply relieved to have survived.

Cunanan eventually leaves the motel and Ronnie, almost running into Gianni Versace himself at a club. He misses the designer, however, and instead ends up dancing with a random guy on the dance floor — yet another man entranced by Cunanan’s looks. This time, though, as the guy asks what Cunanan does, the killer’s chameleon colors fail him.

“I’m a serial killer,” he confesses. The guy questions him, confused. “I said I’m a banker!” Cunanan says. And then he breaks.

“I’m a stockbroker, I’m a shareholder,” he begins. “I’m a paperback writer. I’m a cop. I’m a naval officer. Sometimes, I’m a spy. I build movie sets in Mexico and skyscrapers in Chicago. I sell propane in Minneapolis, import pineapples from the Philippines. I’m the person least likely to forgotten. I’m Andrew Cunanan.”

Without his grand stories, the true Cunanan is laid bare: He’s a kid desperate to be remembered, to be interesting. History has remembered him, of course — not as a banker, or a stockbroker, a shareholder, or any of his other many disguises. In his desperation to be famous, he became infamous.

But it was well into his spree of killings that Cunanan got to the end of his rope. Next week, we’ll learn what drove him to murder Lee Miglin — and the effect it had on his wife, Marilyn Miglin (played by Judith Light). That episode, like this one, and all the others, is just another piece of one complicated puzzle: How did Andrew Cunanan become Andrew Cunanan?

‘The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story’ Episode 2 Recap: Andrew Cunanan and the Pink Speedo