The Peacock sequence “Angelyne,” in regards to the mysterious blond bombshell who graced LA billboards within the ’80s, is quirkier than your customary biopic.
Now streaming, the restricted sequence follows Angelyne (Emmy Rossum, “Shameless”), nee Ronia Tamar Goldberg, who, for many years, has been an iconic curiosity driving round in her pink Corvette (assume a extra Hollywood model of the notorious Occasions Sq. Bare Cowboy) and showing on billboards the place it wasn’t clear what she was promoting — other than her personal need for everybody to know her face.
As depicted from an almost unrecognizable Rossum (who’s buried beneath a platinum bouffant, pretend chest and Minnie Mouse voice), Angelyne’s aesthetic is an element Dolly Parton, half Barbie. The present compares her to a prototype of figures who're “well-known for being well-known” reminiscent of Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian. (The true Angelyne, now 71, is an government producer on this sequence.)
If Rossum (who’s additionally an government producer) was in search of a job that strayed so far as potential from her brunette, wired, impoverished, Chicago-based Fiona Gallagher, “Angelyne” is it. She’s clearly having a blast embracing campy glamour, infusing her efficiency with a mixture of coy appeal, ethereal melancholia, bubbly ambition and a borderline delusional willpower to manifest her personal actuality.
Angelyne’s actual title, identification, and previous as a Polish descendant of Holocaust survivors have been a thriller till a 2017 Hollywood Reporter article. The sequence opens to an offscreen man studying that article to Angelyne, as she lies on pink silk bedding, earlier than flashing again to a display card that reads in pink lettering, “1981 or 1982, relying on who you ask…”
“Angelyne” is playful with the reality: characters are primarily based on real-life figures, however with modified names. As an illustration, that 2017 article is by Gary Baum, however within the sequence, the journalist character (performed by Alex Karpovsky, “Ladies”) is known as Jeff Glasner. (And, to make it complicated, when Hugh Hefner, performed by Toby Huss, briefly seems, his title isn’t modified.)
The narrative jumps forwards and backwards between depicting Angelyne’s origins via the a long time, and 2019, when older variations of the characters speak to the digital camera interview-style, giving conflicting accounts of what occurred.
The 2019 Angelyne says that within the late ’70s, she requested her then-boyfriend Cory (Philip Ettinger) to hitch her band; in the meantime, the 2019 model of Cory tells the digital camera that he requested her to hitch his band (Angelyne additionally proclaims that he’s lifeless, whereas the shot cuts to Cory rolling his eyes and saying, “I'm not lifeless. Man, in fact she would say that”).
This fashion makes the sequence extra zany than the typical paint-by-numbers biopic. It by no means seems like we linger too lengthy on anybody period of her life, for the reason that episodes concentrate on her relationships with completely different individuals. Amongst others, there’s Harold Wallach (Martin Freeman), who ran a printing firm and funded her billboards; Rick Krause (Hamish Linklater), her assistant and the president of her fan membership; Danny (Michael Arango), her past love; and aspiring filmmaker Max Allen (Lukas Gage), to whom she was a documentary topic.
The present’s fast-and-loose method to information and the character of reminiscence might be irritating (and a bit distracting, within the case of some goofy wigs, reminiscent of Linklater’s) but additionally feels applicable for such a self-mythologizing determine.
If you would like a hard-hitting biography, this sequence isn’t it. However if you would like a present that conveys some details about this pseudo-celebrity – whether or not or not it’s correct – it is a vibrant sequence that’s extra within the tales that folks inform themselves than it's in chilly onerous information. And in its personal means, that’s probably the most truthful means to take a look at somebody’s life.
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