TV REVIEW: HALSTON

4/5

Hats Off.

5 Episodes. Starring: Ewan McGregor, Rebecca Dayan, David Pittu, Krysta Rodriguez, Gian Franco Rodríguez, Rory Culkin, Vera Farmiga & Bill Pullman. Creator: Sharr White. 

Panavision cameras. 1970's New York decadence. Hepburn elegance. Warhol sunglasses. Black turtleneck. Studio 54 shining style for the flashbulbs. Ewan McGregor is a chameleon. Even in the first episode his lover, after putting a bee in his bonnet, looking at his best cigarette holding Sharon Stone in 'Basic Instinct' impression asks, "what's with the voice"? And we barely even notice the change in register. He's just that good. As nuanced as stitch and weaving. Like Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Thomas Anderson, he's a phantom with the thread. McGregor's Halston went from providing headwear for Jackie Kennedy, to giving Liza Minnelli the pronunciation that would punctuate her power like 'Liza With A Z' (and how about that perfect performance in concert with all this?). Taking inspiration from everyone from Ralph Lifshitz (who really saw a shift when he changed course to Polo Sports) to Macaulay Culkin's kid brother Rory (a revelation) playing late, great film director Joel Schumacher ('The Lost Boys', 'The Client', 'Batman Forever') who started his career as a costume designer. From counting how many people are wearing his wares in Central Park like he had a clicker at a club, looking as iconic as the Bow Bridge they cross (take a bow), to the palace of fashion he tries to build in Versailles battling with the goliaths of garments, Halston is in. It and everyone wants a piece like when Sam Cooke sang about touching the hem. Even 'The Sinner' of Netflix's Bill Pullman, trying to fashion him to his team with speeches stirred from his 'Independence Day' pot. Forget about not going quietly into the night, Halston, entourage armed, won't walk quietly into a room. Treating even airport terminals like fashion runways. Click. Pose. Flash. Doing his turn on the catwalk that's anything but little. Right, Fred?

An always alluring Vera Farmiga ('Up In The Air', 'Godzilla: King Of Monsters' and every gothic horror for the genre queen) is accented perfection as a perfumist whose subtle hints make sense of Halston's past with the nostalgic scents of the most moving moments of this series of events. Getting to Ewan's shows us more from a man who is doing more than taking the high ground with Hayden Christensen and Star Wars for a new 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' series for Disney +. Because this may just be the 'Trainspotting' stars show and moment this year. This man can do the impossible. Party like it's 'Moulin Rogue' and then get to the soul of music and what matters like he did with a definitive Don Cheadle's Miles Davis as a journalist in 'Miles Ahead'. The man who in one turn can play a super slick villain for 'The Fantabulous Emancipation Of One Harley Quinn' and the 'Birds Of Prey' movie and in the next as a judge, soberly have the bottle to talk about how many days he has been off the sauce on a coin he's holding revealing the real human horrors that lie under the bed and between the sheets of Stephen King's shining 'Doctor Sleep' sequel. The grand design of his velvet versatility on full display in the Disney double of a bruised 'Christopher Robin' and 'Beauty and the Beast' were he even gives a damn candlestick holder soul. And then there he is, the man in black. This years shade that will never go out of style. This may be his defining role and his careers redefinition. Walking into Studio at 50, draped in a white scarf, holding a smoke in the same light. All culminating in a conclusion that's a cliffhanger to this man's life. So it will leave you gripped too. Like fingertips on the seams of satin sheets. Wrapped around a model or a muse. A few pins away from being dressed down. McGregor, this suits you sir. The 623. Smoking and staring out over on New York's famous Fifth Avenue of a boudoir of boutiques. The neo-gothic spires of the iconic landmark that is St. Patrick's Cathedral across the road surround him in a nighttime reflection. The city and this street of New York is his. In style. 

Orchids. Snow falling in the club. Even when everything is wilting in the tragic designer's demise this Ryan Murphy Television production ('Pose') is hallmark like 'Hollywood'. Showing the empty substance behind style is actually dressed up in a hurt no one deserves and not a single boot walking this concrete earth can avoid like manhole smoke from an NYC crossing. This is the type of compelling contemporary classic that will get dismissed by critics who don't understand how this cat walks just like 'The Assassination Of Gianni Versace' that made a new golden era of TV killing like 'The People Vs OJ Simpson'. This Studio 54 in Gotham City underrated like 'The West Wing' creator Aaron Sorkin's 'Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip' starring Brad Whitford and Matthew Perry. But this show that goes on doesn't halt at Halston or the big name cameos like Culkin, Farmiga and Pullman. Broadway director Sharr White's wonderful creation and collection going off script knows how to bring everyone to the stage. And lifting from Beatles and Beach Boys writer Steven Gaines' beautiful biography this is 'Simply Halston' and New York City from its perfect points of interest, to its dark storytelling corners. Tres bien French artist and activist Rebecca Dayan ('From Paris With Love', 'Limitless', 'Tesla') is a model of electric elegance as Italian Elsa Peretti, one of the most influential jewellery designers...ever. Whilst 'Pan Am', 'Cafe Society', 'Men In Black 3' and 'King Kong' actor David Pittu feels like an unsung icon in himself, behind the scenes and seams, but never in 'Halston's' shadow. A knockout Gian Franco Rodríguez as his own Victor Hugo, forget Les Miserables is so Mercury hot you'd be forgiven for thinking this moustachio could have played Freddie as well as Rami in a 'Bohemian Rhapsody'. But he's more than the handlebar. But New York, New York its the Cabaret of Rodriguez, Krysta that's the real scene stealing star of the show as Liza Minnelli. A to Z and that outstanding opening deceleration in song to the body of life behind the Oscar's and the dresses that roll out like a red carpet. Murphy, Netflix, can we order a spin-off darling? That would be just the right size. As for the man in the full length mirror, 'Halston' is a grand design. Just don't mention Calvin Klein. But who cares why critics say? Halston has his name back now anyway. TIM DAVID HARVEY.

Further Filming: 'The Young Pope', 'The Assassination Of Gianni Versace', 'Hollywood'.