Faye

Screened on HBO.

It was a strange sort of relief when I heard this documentary was on the way. From my first encounter of her as Selena in the 1984 superhero action film Supergirl, I was a fan. Likely regarded as one of her worst roles, or more, perhaps choices, that's not how a young me saw it. Regardless of whether her character was basically a pretty bad person, hellbent on world domination, I saw a powerful woman. The campier side of the character didn't become apparent to me until years later, a sort of stigma that attached to her, rather unfairly in my view, following her role as Joan Crawford in Mommie Dearest from 1981.

So it was even more of a relief that this documentary covered everything, and was not exploitative in a downfall-focused hit piece sort of way. The film covers everything, and not in a Wikipedia entry, surface-level style. Well, it is a bit, but it's to its advantage, as there's plenty of insight and deep dives to bring the substance required. All in all it's balanced, fair, informative, and celebratory of one of the last true movie greats, whether her full potential was met or not. Faye was a star, and still is, and this document does a very good job of reminding and informing that she is one to remember.