Screened Entertainment About Famous People Is Having Its Bigger-Than-Ever Moments . . . Now Often Available To Watch In Several Formats & At Various Outlets Simultaneously
Traditionally, documentaries are authentic histories, featuring visuals of the individual being scrutinized and the factual
content supported by filmed footage and the periodic comments of
relatives, friends and colleagues — usually referred to as "talking heads." The focus of the biopic genre, while
also informative, has been more on entertainment, in the interest of which
directors take liberties with what they choose to include and
how to present it.
Whether traditional documentary or actor-cast biopic, the personal and professional lives of famous people have grabbed movie and TV audiences' interest for a long time. But it took the streaming business to turn them into enormous crowd-pleasers. What's more, the tsunami of clickbait-hopeful additions has also blurred the distinction between the straight documentary format and the biopic in which actors inhabit the persona of the actual characters.
This blurring of presentation formats has brought some of the most interesting fare to our screens. We can currently watch two stylistically different versions of the same person's saga, simultaneously, with the biopic now frequently expanded into a series.
While docudramas about bad guys seem to be especially popular, legends like Lucille Ball, Marilyn Monroe and Princess Diana continue to fascinate. And with documentaries as well as biopics having their bigger-than-ever moments, we often get to see two versions of the same famous person's story available to screen at the same time, each using a different presentation style.
The saga of Elizabeth Holmes, the wiz-bang young CEO who proved to be a fraud, was impressively portrayed by Amanda Seyfried in The Dropout as a multi-part series at Hulu. Over at HBOMAX, The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley, used the more straightforward documentary style. No actors. Just Holmes herself and various other people supplying the details. The fact that Holmes is young and attractive, and that her widely publicized rise to the top of the male-dominated corporate ladder added timely Me#Too tie-in. Plus, a huge, hungry-for-more didn't hurt The Inventor — neither did the inclusion of former Secretary of State George Shultz, who was unwilling to see Holmes as a fraud even though his grandson Tyler Shultz was the whistleblower.
If I had to choose between these two versions of the Holmes corporate soap opera, I'd pick the one with the actual people. Yet, somehow the differences and similarities in content had me watch both — and without being bored.
Of course, some famous people, especially much beloved ones, have been chronicled in films and documentaries so much that there seems no way left for something really fresh and original to be possible in any format to avoid viewer fatigue. But fresh and completely original is exactly what Julia, the new HBOMAX series about Julia Childs is. Unlike Julie & Julia, which was as much about a situation involving a Childs devotee as about her and played out in a single episode, Julia is an 8-episode biography that focuses on how she became an iconic and influential TV personality.
Sure, Meryl Streep was terrific in Julie & Julia, but Sarah Lancaster gives us an unforgettable new take on Childs. She creates a richly detailed portrait of all aspects of her life and within the cultural context of the time, during which she became a best-selling author and TV celebrity. The actors playing the fellow travelers in her personal and professional journey contribute mightily to the warmth, wit and humor that lifts this out of the been-there-done-that this series might have been. What a treat to see David Hyde-Pierce and Bebe Neuwirth, two of my favorite stage actors, together again as they were in the long-running sitcom Frasier — he plays Julia's husband; she her best friend.
It was also nice to see Fran Kranz come out from behind the camera as a pivotal character. He was an actor before he created and directed the indie film Mass, which had a very brief live theatrical run. You can still read what I wrote about it when it landed at Hulu.
There are other aspects to how real people inspire on- and off-screen entertainments. Sometimes, writers don't just take liberties with the facts, but twist them to fit their own purpose. Case in point: Dr. Mortimer Granville. He did indeed invent the vibrator but as a tool to ease male muscle weakness, not as a masturbation tool for Victorian-era women. However, the claims of a woman named Rachel Maines that the device was used by many doctors to produce orgasms in women they diagnosed as suffering from hysteria did trigger the imaginations of the creators of a 2011 film and a 2008 stage play.
The film was an 8-episode costume drama entitled Hysteria. The play by Sarah Ruhl was a Broadway hit and if you type the title, In the Next Room, or the Vibrator Play, into the Google search box at the archived CurtainUp homepage, you can still read my review. Given the talented author and the terrific cast, it deserved my rave as well as the many others.
Since Hulu subscribers can still see the film that used its own fictional approach to the facts and rumors about the vibrator's purpose and stretched it out to be a series to please the many PBS costume drama fans, it would seem to be a natural candidate as one of my recommendations for readers looking for an entertaining gem to watch or re-watch on their home screen. Though it does have its rewards — a top-of-the-line cast and wonderful costumes and scenery — the writing is predictable from the get-go and lacks real depth, which hardly calls for more than a mild recommendation. And so, I conclude with a more A-plus Hulu gem: Working Girl, Mike Nichol's last and still terrific outing as a director.
Stay tuned for my next feature. And thanks for your support and comments.
