Halston Reviews (original) (raw)
Summary America’s first superstar designer, Halston rose to international fame in the 1970s, creating an empire and personifying the dramatic social and sexual revolution of the last century. Reaching beyond the glitz and glamour, acclaimed filmmaker Frédéric Tcheng reveals Halston’s profound impact on fashion, culture, and business.
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Summary America’s first superstar designer, Halston rose to international fame in the 1970s, creating an empire and personifying the dramatic social and sexual revolution of the last century. Reaching beyond the glitz and glamour, acclaimed filmmaker Frédéric Tcheng reveals Halston’s profound impact on fashion, culture, and business.
This film celebrates Halston’s work but shows more interest in the man — and the unexpected corporate drama — behind it.
Unusual framing device aside, Halston is on balance a solid and affectionate tribute to an American original.
It would be easy to paint him as a tragic figure but Tcheng’s film is more of a celebration than a lamentation, saluting a superstar designer whose life was a triumph of style and substance.
It’s an understatement to say that Tcheng is drawn to this material. He revels in it. Yet he’s too clear-eyed to turn Halston’s story into a morality tale.
While not as insightful as his previous work, Halston doesn’t blemish Tcheng’s resume either, providing a perfectly enjoyable – if inconsequential – portrait of a larger-than-life public figure. Fashionistas will surely gulp this up, while the rest of us may ultimately dismiss it as yet another glamorized, facile look into a glamorized, facile industry.
When it reverts to conventional documentary storytelling, then, “Halston” is thrilling stuff for fashion nerds, as well as a poignant character study of a misfit ultimately undone by an excessive hunger to prove himself.
I liked the deluge of visual information and personalities. The pictures, footage, biography, news and gossip are the opposite of a Halston dress — unruly, busy, fussed over. But they come at you with an energy that feels substantial. Knowing what to do with all of that material is its own kind of intelligence. Why overthink it? Or: why show us what you’ve overthought?
Despite some impactful moments, this movie is mostly silly at best, and outright obsurd at its worst. I did enjoy the set design and photography however. There were a few good performances, despite having to bare the weight of a cliché and overly simplistic script. I do feel that despite setbacks or plain laziness the film delivers information about an interesting person and his wild life, plus fans of Halston or those interested in him will enjoy the movie very much as his life evolves.
Production Company CNN Films, Dogwoof, TDog, Possibility Entertainment, Sharp House, Gloss Studio
Release Date May 24, 2019
Duration 1 h 45 m
Rating Not Rated
Tagline From Iowa to Studio 54, the epic story of the superstar designer who put American fashion on the map in the 70s reveals a cautionary tale when Halston gambles his career on Wall Street.
Guild of Music Supervisors Awards
• 1 Win & 1 Nomination