Crime Of Fashion.
8 Episodes. Starring: Darren Criss, Edgar Ramirez, Penelope Cruz & Ricky Martin. Creator: Ryan Murphy.
Crime by design seems to be T.V. producing powerhouse Ryan Murphy's calling card right about now. And now after taking O.J. to trial with the people, the 'Eat, Pray, Love' director dials M for murder. Going from the American gothic of the chilling chapters of 'American Horror Story', to the real life, true crime cases that haunt of 'American Crime Story'. Sun to sun, from the city of fallen angels in all of downtown L.A.'s electric noir, to the South Beach neon vice of Miami heat. All delightfully drenched in 90's nostalgia for the biggest stories from the headlines of Hollywood and the watching world. And after retrial reviving the careers of Cuba Gooding Jnr, John Travolta and David Schwimmer like it was 'Jerry Maguire', 'Face/Off' and 'Friends' all over again and making the case of turning Sarah Paulson, Courtney B. Vance and Sterling K. Brown into stellar superstars right now in 'The People vs O.J. Simpson', the gloves are off as Murphy's law and disorder suits up to the greatest fashion designer this world has ever seen. 'The Assassination Of Gianni Versace'. We all know what happens (or do we?!), so no crass, spoiler-alert jokes. But the latest in Ryan's revelatory, acclaimed anthology series is a deeper character study of real people and the acidity versus purity nature of the human condition than when he put the juice on the box. Soap cleaning up all the melodrama to a high end. And after portraying a pivotal moment of black and white America and all the fire and riots that spread from the Rodney King beating to 'The People vs O.J.', 'The Assassination Of Versace' looks at the grand design of a time before Paris where we still had Princess Diana and fashion royalty in our seemingly safer and sweeter world. Until one morning when Gianni was brutually slain on his own art deco, Miami mansion doorstep. With a magazine his clothing contents begin, holding Lady Diana's very inspired image graced on the cover under his arm.
A single white dove, dead, lies next to him at the foot of his golden gate. No this is not exploitative symbolism. The bird of peace was ironically or iconically to the mans legacy and legend, caught in the crossfire. Gianni's grace was even more beautiful than Versace's clothing and even though there are complaints from his estate, this show does its upmost to honour him and his family. Even if at times it's tricky to seam together all that happened with respect to both the material and the source. What's actually cruel, crass and calculated however is some of the gratuitous gossip and sick souvenir hunting public. One couple disgruntled after Versace politely denies an autograph with a "not today", bum rushes past the police cordon tape with a torn out Versace clothing print advert from a magazine and dips it in his blood for their own ignorant immortalisation of this heroic turned tragic figure, before placing it in a zip-bag made for sandwiches like it was not to be tampered with (how ironic!) evidence the police haven't even collected yet. Disgusting! As Versace lies dying in the arms of his lover screaming for someone to please call 9-1-1, an onlooker in the crowd runs a few blocks to his convertible like his life depended on it and reaches into his glove compartment. But NO! Not for one of those brick, cord-pulling Gordon Gekko 'Wall Street' "mobile" phones before the "smart" cell age we live in now. But for his damn camera, as moments after turning into a purile pap with his snap he climbs up on to a manifested pedestal and exclaims his rights to the first picture of this man dead and starts the bidding at probably a weeks rent for a deluxe condo looking over the beach off Ocean Drive. Sick! These musings from Murphy show us how bad it was even back then and gives our selfie and celebrity obsessed, phone screen generation gone into overdrive and a world willing to do anything for a "like" something to really think about right now. Slow burning, yet so compelling, between all the Florida fancy and sun and sand style of this show and it's Italian opera and 80's Ultravox, 'Vienna' synth soundtrack, there's substance behind this fashion icons legendary life and legacy of story.
Jean Luc-Godard, the French/Swiss director tells us that, "a story should have a beginning, a middle and an end...but not necessarily in that order". And after showing us the assassination of Gianni Versace in the outstanding opening scene (not for his death...but the direction), 'The Assassination Of Gianni Versace goes all Tarantino 'Fiction' on us. Showing us and some superb supporting players the backstory of the man hunted for killing this celebrity and all the other murder within him. So much so you may want to cue that famous John Travolta gif on your Twitter timeline as Versace's character becomes the real missing person and not the one on the run. Sure this show may be called 'Versace', but it's not just about Versace, but his assassin too. Not to mention gay culture and the lifestyle of the 90's, coming off the fear of the AIDS epidemic in a post-Reagan era that saw gay people face almost, if not in some areas just as much discrimination-still shut away and hidden-as black people. Which makes this show that might actually be better, arguably just as important as 'The People vs O.J. Simpson' truth and the whole truth that preceeded it. Closeted designer Gianni Versace, struggling to come out to a squinting public eye with fire in theirs is powerfully played with sweet sincerity by 'Joy', 'The Girl On A Train', 'Gold' and 'Bright' actor Edgar Ramirez in flashback form after knocking on deaths door. Heaven sent, Ramirez doesn't just identically look the part...he's pitch perfection. The instantly recognisable actor of the moment is in so much right now it seems like he's been in even more iconic roles than he actually has. But all that changes and is confirmed true now in what stands out as his career defining moment. It's all design. And his 'Counsellor' co-star and 'Blow' and 'Volver' legend Penelope Cruz is perfectly cast by his side as his sister Donatella Versace. Her brothers keeper, lavishingly looking the part from the signature platinum blonde, to the classic belt dress for her flashbulb memory, red carpet moment. As beautiful as the iconic Medusa logo, there's more to Miss Versace than meets the eye however. As a stone strong core underneath all that Miami marble and foundation shows us something rock solid in both Cruz and her muse. And how about the 'Livin' La Voda Loca' of music megastar Ricky Martin people?! He bangs too! Playing Versace's lover Antonio D'Amico and career Russian Roulette with Ryan Murphy like Elton John did with Eminem at the Grammys, the award winner could find himself an Emmy for the mantle even with few episodes worth of song length screen time. His tortured eyes speak more from the battered soul than his bitten tongue to blood on his Sampras whites does. He's heartbreakingly...no devastatingly good. But for all the big names of stage and screen in 'Versace', it's the all singing and dancing in his draws Darren Criss of 'Glee' fame who steals the show with a killer performance of the actual murderer Andrew Cunanan. Who, behind the tucked in polo and chinos innocence we should actually hate. But in bespectacled and bewildering character, reuniting with Murphy and dropping all sorts of 'Glee' like alter-ego Easter Eggs and fabricated back stories straight from the Joker's deck of how he got those scars, a sun-kissed Criss is crisp on the dollar-down money. Exuding rolled up, oversized suit sleeve 90's swagger and sympathy for the devil Darren is rolling and goes from teen T.V. heartthrob to actual acting acclaim with accent. Sure he may be playing an evil, truly despicable character you definitly don't want to see holding a roll of tape for some of this dramas most unwatchable moments of harrow. But boy does he bring every emotion and energy out of his subject for this study of how just deep and dark an individual can get when they've lived a life like his. It may be no excuse to the guilty, but in showing us all the killer inside him has seen, Criss holds nothing back. And that's not the measure of the man he plays, but just how good an actor the star of this show is. He and Murphy have done it again. Now before your television set and Netflix providers hottest producer goes to New Orleans with Paulson, Matthew Broderick, Dennis Quaid's George W. Bush and 'Katrina' for a real, recent and still in need of investigation (not to mention prosecution) crime story of America, can we please get a backstory for the poor dove?! That would suit us just fine. Peace! TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'The People vs O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story', 'Glee', 'American Horror Story'.
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