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The Eyes of Tammy Faye

2021

Michael Showalter

Jessica Chastain, Andrew Garfield, Vincent D'Onofrio, Cherry Jones ...

5.7

2,979

Drama Jessica Chastain transforms into flamboyant televangelist and singer Tammy Faye Bakker, the woman who would, alongside husband Jim Bakker (Andrew Garfield), build a multimillion dollar ministry empire. The Bakkers’ spectacular fall from grace thrust Tammy Faye into the mainstream spotlight. Her fashion and makeup choices were regular subjects of derision in late-night talk shows and sketch comedies, which cemented her place in popular culture. [+]

	Author	Review
United Kingdom	Benjamin Lee The Guardian	"The film is often too restrained, too polite, when telling the story of someone so rooted in excess (...) But Chastain sells it as something more soulful than calculated mimicry (...) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Brian Truitt USA Today	"[It] is definitely worth several hallelujahs (...) Entertaining and surprisingly funny given the subject matter, the movie’s also an exquisitely acted affair (...) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United States	Johnny Oleksinski New York Post	"Chastain's performance, which should net her an Oscar nomination, is kind but warped, ambitious but subservient, self-loving and self-loathing"	POS
United States	Leah Greenblatt Entertainment Weekly	"A movie that feels both sweet and incomplete: a story as tenderhearted and inscrutable, for better or worse, as its muse."	NEU
United States	Owen Gleiberman Variety	"A ticklishly fascinating rise-and-fall saga (...) The Bakkers were hucksters of a grand order, and the film uses their spectacular greedhead soap opera to tell the larger American story of how Christianity got turned into showbiz"	POS
United States	Brian Tallerico rogerebert.com	"[The] image rehabilitation for Tammy Faye Bakker only gets so far dramatically, and really would have been better served in a richer, more ambitious film (...) Rating :★★ (out of 4)"	NEU
United States	Kate Erbland IndieWire	"For better or worse, we’re on Tammy Faye’s side, but the film often embraces the worst bits of a complicated story in order to make Tammy Faye look better"	NEU
United States	Robert Abele The Wrap	"Jessica Chastain Applies Heart and Soul to Televangelist Biopic (...) Sympathetic (and not unfunny) look at Bakker scandals is also a rollicking tale of religious hypocrisy"	POS
United States	David Rooney The Hollywood Reporter	"A gaudy showcase for Jessica Chastain and Andrew Garfield’s cartoonish performances. Impersonations in search of nuance, they fail to humanize these controversial figures"	NEG
United States	Peter Travers ABC News	"Chastain uses 'The Eyes of Tammy Faye' to make her whole again as a vibrant force in her own right, not as a reflection of any man or movement. In every sense of the word, that's a blessing"	POS
United Kingdom	Tim Grierson Screendaily	"While the film wants to humanise Tammy Faye and restore her dignity, it doesn’t fully illuminate the life behind those eyes"	NEU
United States	Pete Hammond Deadline	"The Eyes of Tammy Faye sets the record straight, gives Chastain another unforgettable role and allows us to see well beyond those eyes and discover the human being Tammy Faye never quite got proper credit for in her own lifetime"	POS
United States	Katie Rife AV Club	"While Showalter relishes the camp value of the film’s costumes, makeup, and set design, make no mistake: This is a sympathetic portrait (...) Showalter sacrifices dramatic tension and thematic heft to emphasize Tammy Faye’s innocence."	NEU
United States	Matt Goldberg Collider	"A pretty straightforward biopic (...) its subject could be expanded far beyond Tammy, but Showalter chooses to keep his eyes on this woman, and from that perspective the film is rewarding."	POS
Canada	Mel Valentin Screen Anarchy	"Working from an often reductive, simplistic screenplay written by Abe Sylvia, Showalter centers Tammy Faye’s overriding, ultimately unquenchable compulsion for attention"	NEU
United States	John Serba Decider	"Chastain finds the heart of the woman beneath all the makeup (...) It does biopic the hell out of the Bakkers, and never asserts the relevance of the story. But the you-probably-wanna-see-Chastain-play-Tammy-Faye factor is high"	POS
United Kingdom	Helen O'Hara Empire	"It's handsomely made (...) It's an impressive performance from Chastain and a fascinating subject, but the film doesn't delve deep enough into Bakker's inner life (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU
United States	Richard Brody The New Yorker	"[Its] high points are only intermittent, owing to the particulars of the film's direction and the movie's deference to the conventions of the bio-pic genre"	NEU
Ireland	Tara Brady Irish Times	"For all the impeccable production values, the film's generosity towards its controversial heroine feels like an unwarranted canonisation (…) Rating: ★★★ (out of 5)"	NEU

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