4/5
Soup Of The Day.
6 Episodes. Narrated By: Bill Irwin. Produced By: Maya E. Rudolph. Executive Producer: Ryan Murphy. Directed By: Andrew Rossi.
1968. Andy Warhol is shot. And the shooting sends shock waves that reverberate around the city and industry, let alone the world, like John Lennon at Dakota. A place where the pop artist would later party with the late, great Beatle. You don't have to imagine, because Warhol thankfully survived unlike tragically our dear John. Only to succumb to cardiac arrhythmia after gall bladder surgery in 1987. Almost 20 years later, but all too soon, aged 58. Although some ignorantly believe, still to this day, that it was due to AIDS. During a crisis that took far too many of Andy's friends and luminaries like the great New York street artist of pop that could move a culture like the before his time in more ways than one, Keith Haring (these guys are more than the fitting tributes of UNIQLO t-shirts. No matter how many people (like me) eat them up like hamburger meat). All before Magic Johnson changed the game and how we see HIV and AIDS with his life affirming press conference, retiring from the Hollywood Showtime of the Los Angeles Lakers. Something you'll be able to see right now dramatised in 'The Big Short' of 'Vice' director Adam Mckay's HBO series 'Winning Time' based on Jeff Pearlman's brilliant book of basketball and the 'Rise Of The Lakers'. After Warhol's shooting, he survived and thrived despite the depression of mental and physical pain. Working through his art and writing diaries like the rose of another late, great in Tupac Shakur, taking it back to his concrete roots. 'The Andy Warhol Diaries' by Pat Hackett revealed more about the man after his death than any of the influence in his most intimate of self portraits and now the 'Hollywood' 'American Crime Story' of Ryan Murphy has produced a new six-part documentary series for Netflix with Maya E. Rudolph (not the hilarious actress and singing sensation (see Bill lose his mind in reaction to Sofia Coppola's 'A Very Murray Christmas', but another legacy making New York talent) based on that book. Directed by 'Page One: Inside The New York Times' writer Andrew Rossi and narrated with A.I. Andy like realism by the TARS of 'Interstellar' Bill Irwin for all of you to love the alien like Bowie's Ziggy in Stardust.
"I'm just a freak," Andy sadly says. Lamenting a lost love in the most personal of pages and prose. A creep like Radiohead, we've all felt this at times. As this android voice paranoid with pain doesn't feel the same. As a matter of fact he wasn't. There was no one like Warhol. Not you Kanye, or even a Jay-Z lyric "already"....but we love the Basquiat hair like this documentary collabo with Jean-Michel and his groundbreaking redefining artwork and that of the same he did in concert with Andy. Warhol would love the artificial intelligence of Irwin's digital but still nuanced narration of inspiration. Even if it does take us viewers as listeners a little longer to get used to. Haunting us like the 'Nature Boy' theme from the abstract gallery of titles in cherry blossom shocking pink amongst other palettes by the great Nat King Cole. Staying with you like the last, lasting lyrics, "the greatest thing you'll ever learn. Is just to love and be loved in return" (HEED!). This is a blondie who once painted Debbie Harry on a computer, after hearing for years from a young man called Steve Jobs. Warhol may have hated the result like what lay beneath his iconic wig. But like the spectacles the same, this glare behind the glasses shows the real Andrew in all his manner and musings like Bill Hader's hilarious, but also heartfelt inspired impression of him in 'Men In Black III'. It shows the dents in the Campbell soup tin. The everything must go dollars off a Brillo pad. The layers behind all that vibrant paint. The morning after a Studio 54 party. And just like Ewan McGregor in Netflix's hallmark 'Halston' series. Just how much of a miserables bastard Victor Hugo really was. All to the New York times that you will read all about in these diaries like Scorsese and Fran Lebowitz pretending it's a city.
WhitneyxWarhol. 'The Philosophy' of Andy. There's two of my introductions. But whatever your canvas. From Marylin, to Brando, to Elvis. His life, like looking at one of his paintings is delved into deeply with feeling. All for a man reduced to a critical caricature by some and not the thoughtful perceptions he brought to his sought after, perplexing work of some of the most richest and famous faces. They may talk about what sort of darkness would evoke the images of his suicide series. I'd ask them what sort of heart striking a chord really considers them in their last moments. Art is something to hang on display, to look pretty as a picture. It's something to say in a stirring statement that speaks louder than words. And this man knew how to mix things up, no watercolor. But this is about the man behind the art. And plenty of the New York, New York and Hollywood elite have plenty to say about a man who used to respond to his critics who diminished him by saying they were right with enough aloof coolness of character as Man in Black Johnny Cash replying to comments that he looked like he was going to a funeral by saying, "maybe I am." Everyone from Rob Lowe (you need to see him 'Attack The Hollywood Cliché' for another Netflix special, Jerry Hall like a Rolling Stone and Mr. Chow with the best line of the show about the difference between a master and a grandmaster all out in their two cents for Mr. 3 cents off. Don't believe us? Like Bruno Mars, "just watch". On the phone and behind the Dylan shades in his own words here is the portrait of the man that was more than self as he took on America's fast food consumer culture before this binge age of streaming and Tik Tok's around a never ending clock. You may say he'd thrive today. I say he still does. Because like the artists that took us from the Van Gogh's and Dali's before him to the Banksy's after said, people don't die. "They just go uptown. To Bloomingdales. They just take longer to get back." Now wouldn't that be serendipity like John Cusack and Kate Beckinsale? Pick me up something nice. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Abstract: The Art Of Design', 'Halston', 'Pretend It's A City'.
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