(2021 dir. Michael Showalter) Date Seen: January 16 2022
Tammy Faye Messner (formerly Bakker) has always reminded me of so many of the troubled old evangelical women on the white side of my family, so you could say I’ve always had something of a soft spot for her in my heart. And I’m glad the filmmakers, Jessica Chastain, & co. never demonize or outright make fun of her. But Tammy's life could’ve made a far more interesting film than this somewhat conventional biopic. Perhaps this was just a case of ambition exceeding execution, but I found Showalter’s directing surprisingly shallow and superficial for whole stretches. I’ve loved most of the straight forward comedy things he’s made, so maybe he just wasn’t a good fit to direct material that gets this heavy. It’s intermittently entertaining but never wholly convincing either as a chronicle stretching several decades. Positive note: The makeup, hair, art direction, set design/decoration, & costumes are all some of the best I’ve seen for 2021.
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