Emergency Alert: See The Real Grey Gardens Before You See HBO's Grey Gardens
So, this weekend I saw HBO's dramatized portrayal of the lives of Big Edie and Little Edie Beale, Grey Gardens, and I have very important message for anyone who might be planning to watch it when or after it premieres Saturday night:
Under no circumstances are you to watch this movie without seeing the documentary that inspired it, also called Grey Gardens, first.
If you have Netflix, send back whatever you have now and add Grey Gardens to the top of your queue. Or, even better, temporarily add another movie to your plan just so you can get this one in time to watch it. Or go to a video store if they have one in your town still. Or find a friend who owns it. Or tape the movie Saturday night and wait to watch it until you've seen the doc. Whatever you have to do, it's your life, but just do NOT watch the Drew Barrymore/Jessica Lange version until you've seen the real movie. (I thought pretty much everyone had already seen the documentary, but it seems I've managed to wedge myself in the one hilariously miniscule corner of the social universe where it's even possible to think that, because most people have actually never even heard of it even though it's the BEST MOVIE.)
Okay, now, some thoughts on the HBO movie, no spoilers:
Oh my god this movie was so fucking sad. I mean literally sad, like "You will feel sad in your heart." That's not unexpected, considering the heartbreaking source material, but while this movie never fully explores the real reasons the Beales ended up trapped in a nightmare of mutual need, guilt, co-dependence, and despair (the movie seems to put too much of the blame on men and money, and less on the gigantic all-consuming black hole of selfishness that was Big Edie), I could only hold the tears back by constantly reminding myself that the Beale's condition, while romantically tragic, wasn't really that bad. Instead of being actresses, they had too many cats. It's not the fucking Color Purple, here. Get it together, me.
...But it's also really fun! Grey Gardens is a cult classic and a camp classic, and the filmmakers were wise enough to make the movie campy and full of fashion and lots of little movie inside jokes. The movie never really balances the fun and the sad, though, and that's the main reason I don't think audiences who haven't seen the documentary will get it. Jessica Lange is wonderful as Old Big Edie, and kind of just Jessica-Lange-y while playing her younger incarnation, while Drew Barrymore is great at both -- it's obvious that she's watched the movie at least 700 times (the flag dance scene alone!) -- but the last word of any sentence spoken by Drew Barrymore always sounds exactly like Drew Barrymore, so the impression, while a major feat, isn't totally perfect, but it doesn't really need to be.
Basically, this movie isn't and doesn't try to be a substitute for the original, and it doesn't really answer any big questions, but boy is it a treat. As one long fun sad series of inside jokes for the superfans, it's a total success. (Oh, and be sure to watch until the very end of the credits -- something adorable happens!)
Can they do this with Grizzly Man next?
Posted by Lindsay at 4:00 PM in Train Wreck Documentaries
Tags: Big Edie | Edie Beale | Grey Gardens | Little Edie
Can I just listen to the Rufus Wainwright song and call it even?
Score = 4
Most anything Grey Gardens related depresses me severely - including the Rufus Wainwright song (though his allusion to Death in Venice rectifies it a BIT).
Anywho - the documentary is horrifying.
At first I was fascinated.
Then I was freaked out.
Finally I realized that if I didn't get my shit together that'd be me and my mother in a few decades.
so basically Grey Gardens is awesome.
Score = 8
i definitely want to see the hbo one, but before i fuck with my 'cue, why is it so important to see the original documentary first? what would i be missing?
Score = 0
the documentary is one youtube in 11 ten-minute parts! just type in "grey gardens 1/11" and it will have the remaining parts on the side tab
Score = 1
Did you even bother to read/comprehend the post? Just to pick ONE thing: "As one long fun sad series of inside jokes for the superfans, it's a total success."
...But I suppose I shouldn't be surprised at the idiocy of someone who can't differentiate between "queue" and "'cue," even when the correct form is used in the original post.
Score = 0
(That was intended for "disposable dixie cup drinker"... apparently the "preview" button eliminates the "reply to" part of the response.)
Score = 0
Perhaps d.d.c.d. was referring to messing with his/her barbecue, as that is the only explanation I can think of for someone spelling "queue" so bizarrely. The apostrophe is confusing me.
Score = 3
thanks for the unnecessary rudeness, friend!
Score = 6
then again, i shouldn't be surprised by the douchery of someone who uses twitter
Score = 5
S-T-A-U-N-C-H.
Score = 3
don't forget 'the beales of grey gardens.' it's got the same great freewheeling tone.
Score = 0
Good ol' Werner already sort of did your Grizzly Man idea with his dualing doc/fiction films Little Dieter Needs to Fly and Rescue Dawn. The two should be seen together, with the doc first so you know that the experience Christian Bale goes through makes his CRAZY.
FYI, there is a very long wait for the documentary Grey Gardens on Netflix. I had this same idea to rewatch the doc before the weekend yesterday.
Score = 0
Oh man, I love Grey Gardens.
And to anyone who is still questioning why they should watch the movie, watch it for the experience of watching it. There is nothing like it.
Score = 0
I don't see any reason in remaking the Beales of Gray Gardens unless they got into their past. To remake a documentary that was perfect the way it was is totally stupid. I'll watch it when it's avalible on dvd, but it better be about how they got to their "current" life, that's whats fascinating.
Score = 0
Grey Gardens was terrifying to me! I keep thinking that I might end up wearing a sweater for a skirt living with a nudist parent (shudder).
Score = 0
or just watch the whole thing on the intertubes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R7b5gxc5VfI
Score = 0
I've seen the documentary (remembered and loved it), but I couldn't finish this movie.
It's just too sad.
Maybe it's the time of my life that I'm in but I can't stop for the full two hours (or whatever since I didn't finish it) and weep at what life can become if...
It would have been a little more entertaining (probably more true to life), if we saw a brighter side to the story.
As other people have mentioned here there are worse fates than my crumbling mansion (how about the mortgage payment).
Score = 0
I've seen the documentary (remembered and loved it), but I couldn't finish this movie.
It's just too sad.
Maybe it's the time of my life that I'm in but I can't stop for the full two hours (or whatever since I didn't finish it) and weep at what life can become if...
It would have been a little more entertaining (probably more true to life), if we saw a brighter side to the story.
As other people have mentioned here there are worse fates than my crumbling mansion (how about the mortgage payment).
Score = 0