HBO’s “Grey Gardens” premieres April 18. Why should you care about a movie made for TV?
Well, every erudite cinephile loves, cherishes and adores the subjects of the cult Maysles brothers‘ 1976 cinema verite documentary “Grey Gardens,” no?
The oddly fascinating shut-in Beales were relatives of Jackie Kennedy and their strange (and infamous) idiosyncrasies made for an irresistible, can’t-look-away documentary (which begat a sequel in 2006 with additional footage called, “The Beales of Grey Gardens,” which was essentially made for the Criterion edition of the “Grey Gardens” DVD).
The Daily Beast via Awards Daily breaks down the film and the characters, Drew Barrymore and Jessica Lange play ”Little Edie” and ”Big Edie” Bouvier Beale. Apparently Barrymore is awesome in the made for TV movie.
In her new HBO film Grey Gardens, Drew Barrymore’s character, Little Edie Beale, a cousin of Jacqueline Onassis and once the beauty queen of East Hampton, suffers from alopecia—constantly losing her brunette mane (and her hopeful shot at an acting or dancing career). So one night, in a fit of animalistic madness, Edie chops off what she has left, crying and screaming as she cuts. It’s an arresting moment on screen, and as good a portrayal of a woman’s descent into madness as audiences will see on television this year. The scissors scene cements it: Drew Barrymore can really act, and this is the role that will make people notice.
Wait, Barrymore fantastic in the role? When was the last time we saw that? Well even the writer/director Michael Sucsy admitted to Movieline that he thought Barrymore was wrong for the part at first. Apparently she came in super prepared for the role, “First of all, she totally understood the character,” he told Movieline. “Which was the main point. But I also realized she was going to work really hard, she had super-intelligent questions and really keen insights, and I knew from just how she approached this in only two days what the extension of that would be.”
“People who say this [film] is exploitative are bullshit,” Barrymore told Daily Beast about skeptics of the project’s motivations. “Get a heart and get into the art and the life and celebrate with us all; don’t be on the other side—it’s really not fun over there.”
Jezebel have an early review of the film which really articulates the joys of the original doc and the co-dependent, emotionally incarcerated subjects who are always spouting deliciously delusional quotes and quips; people who were both exotic, sad, unintentionally hilarious and tragic on film and in life.
Almost everything uttered by the mother and daughter in the Maysles’ 1975 documentary, on which HBO’s film is based, is quotable, but much of it came off as the delusional ramblings of two women suffering from folie à deux. But by digging into their backgrounds in the new film, their motivations and bon mots become much clearer, and often brilliant. Like when Little Edie said, “The hallmark of aristocracy is responsibility.” Her parents were pressuring her to get married, as soon as she turned 18, to a man who could secure her future and provide her with the same kind of lifestyle in which she’d been raised. Her father Phelan told her mother that marrying off Little Edie was her job and her “sole responsibility.”
Is this film going to be watchable? We admit, we were skeptical at first, but if you’re even remotely a fan of the Maysle’s doc, you have to be a least mildly intrigued.
Here’s the HBO teaser-trailer
Here’s a trailer for the original 1976 documentary by the Maysles.