Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987)

This is a very charming debut by Todd Haynes, signaling his talent, but it is also understandably raw. The approach is the most fascinating thing here. Having dolls instead of real actors, but filming it as if were made by cameras of the 70's works great. Thus acting is nonexistent, but the conversations are not lacking in spark. In the dramatical context, the minimalistic approach is spot on, but the actual dialogues are too banal for my liking. Also, the messages about anorexia nervosa are not subtle enough, so it sometimes feels like we are in a commercial. Even though I found several significant flaws, I enjoyed the movie on a substantial level. At the end of the day, it is a very original idea, but perhaps not done to its full potential. It is as if the director was 'too nice' to make something even greater, somehow reminding us of the Carpenters themselves.

...but really should be in the Top 10.I first heard about this movie when that Entertainment Weekly issue came out in 2003, and I finally saw it last week. For a fraction of the price of say, something like REPO MAN (ranked #9), Todd Haynes has created a 43 minute film way more powerful than "campy", and it holds up much better than REPO MAN, which I also recently watched again.I always had a soft spot for the "vanilla" sounds of The Carpenters, even though you'd never know it by my music collection. I even bought that early 90's Carpenters' tribute album which came out on the late, lamented A&M records label. Top of the World, We've Only Just Begun, and of course, Yesterday Once More always take me back to the carefree times of my youth.Even though this is really a "bootleg movie", as Haynes never got any licensing rights for the music, it's really worth a view if you have any interest in Karen's story or the Carpenters' music. I'm actually surprised that there was a time this was shown on the art-house circuit, before Richard Carpenter legally shut it down. I just don't think something like that could ever happen in 2008. It's a lot harder to have a so called cult movie these days, as anything unique and "underground buzzworthy" (a term I just made up) in a blog-infested world wouldn't stay under the radar for 3 years before somebody who was infringed on would take action.

Thanks to its legal status, "Superstar" is a true piece of underground cinema, and one of the best of its kind. Here in the era of "South Park" the idea of a drama about the Karen Carpenter tragedy acted out by Ken and Barbie sounds like a crass joke, and yet Haynes treats the material with extraordinary assurance. The dolls evoke not only the cultural issue of female body-image but a not-entirely vanished society -- Nixon's "Silent Majority," with its suffocating aesthetic and tight-lipped insecurity -- and the strange sound the Carpenters constituted within it: wholesome, sweetly naive songs delivered in Karen's deft, sultry/ melancholy voice. It was an odd enough voice to be coming from the real Carpenter, and here, juxtaposed with the wide-eyed, increasingly skeletal "Karen" doll, the effect is spooky and shockingly poignant. To what degree the treatment is fair to the Carpenter family is unclear, but as a film it makes an interesting companion piece to Haynes' extraordinary "Safe" and stands on its own as a superb pop-art elegy and a genuine outlaw triumph.

When I first heard of a Karen Carpenter movie acted out by Barbie dolls, I thought, "Yeah, right." Actually, it's not half-bad, revealing the ugly side of brother Richard and their parents. It's a shame the movie has been only available through the underground, though, as it portrays the heart-breaking effects of anorexia through clinical narration, montage, and pop culture to great effect. The use of dolls is actually ingenious, as we come to see how Karen was manipulated by her family, her record company, and society to conform to unattainable perfection. Although banned by numerous lawsuits, this film is available through alternative resources. If you look hard enough, you can find it.