Angelyne

Title: Angelyne
Director: Matt Spicer, Lucy Tcherniak
Released: 2022
Starring: Emily Rossum, Molly Ephraim, Charlie Rowe, Alex Karpovsky, Lukas Gage, Phillip Ettinger, Hamish Linklater, Kerry Norton, Martin Freenman

Plot: Mini series charting the rise of pop culture icon Angelyne (Rossum) who appeared seemingly from nowhere on a series of billboards and the attempts by journalist Jeff Glaser (Karpovsky) to uncover the truth behind who she really is.  

Review: Long before the Kardashians and Paris Hilton we had Angelyne who managed to rise to the top of the Hollywood oddball pile by putting up billboards around Hollywood with her image even though no one knew who she was or even what she did. Fiercely defending her own mythos no one actually knew anything about who Angelyne was with the mystique only adding to her appeal. Even here in the UK there was a curiosity as to who she was as she would turn up in random cameos such as her appearance in Earth Girls Are Easy or segments of late night TV. That was until the truth finally would be revealed in article released by the Hollywood Reporter in 2017.

The mini series sees Emmy Rossum embodying the fantastical character as she straps on a zeppelin chest and blonde bouffant to chart the rise of Angelyne from her early days performing with her then boyfriends band Baby Blue before setting out on her own and creating her own mythos with the series piecing together how she managed to fund her billboards and her gradual rise in popularity as everyone wanted to know who this Marilyn Monroe esq figure cruising the streets of Hollywood Boulevard in her Bubblegum pink corvette.

As to be expected the fictional Angelyne is every bit the unreliable narrator as her real life counterpart only this version has the magical ability to rewrite the history when something displeases her or even make characters disappear completely should you choose to not acknowledge them as is the case of her ex-husband. Adding to this are the frequent jaunts into the fantastical which only add to the charm of the story being told and perfectly fitting considering how four of the five episodes we are very much guests in her world. This of course seems to be how she managed to convince her dedicated followers to enable her vision of becoming the idol she sees herself as be it the ex-boyfriend Freddy whose band she worked herself into like a sunset strip Yoko or the billboard printer Harold who also became her manager while she drove his family nuts. 

Running alongside Angelyne’s story we have two truth seekers with Alex Karovsky’s Jeff Glasner, a fictionalised version of The Hollywood Reporter’s Gary Baumn whose article on Angelyne provided the inspiration for the series. We also have aspiring filmmaker Max Allen (Lukas Gage) whose attempts to make a documentary about Angelyne see him slipping down the rabbit hole of her delusions while ultimately proving key to cracking the truth which when it is finally revealed in the flashback heavy final episode almost feels disappointing as it reveals what we all essentially knew about her all along and kind of wishing to go back to her being the figure of mystery than trauma. 

The series has been panned by Angelyne herself who feels that it doesn’t represent her vision of herself while she continues to sell her memorabilia out of the trunk of her car and taking photos with her fans all for a hefty price tag or course.  Still while she might not be a fan it certainly serves to provide a snapshot of cult icon which tells one truth while leaving it to the audience to decide themselves what the truth really is. Emily Rossum though is unquestionably fantastic here and unrecognisable and seems only fitting that coming off her long stint on the US version of Shameless that she would play a woman who also sought to reinvent herself and if anything makes it only all the more exciting to see what she chooses to tackle next. But whether your an established fan or just discovering Angelyne for the first time its an engaging tale either way and one worth giving a watch.