In our mind The Eyes of Tammy Faye Baker is one of the very BEST documentaries that the queer filmmaking duo Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato have ever made. Their affectionate profile of the larger than life eccentric and glamourous woman who was dragged down when Evangelist husband Jim Bakker was indicted, convicted, and imprisoned on numerous counts of fraud and conspiracy in 1989. She picked herself up from that scandal and married Roe Messner a building contractor who specialized churches until he was also convicted of fraud and ended up in jail too.
In the documentary she proved a natural star as she enthusiatically dimed every drop of emotion out of all her melodrama rising up as a hapless saint who had been taking advantage of by these two scheming crooks. As she stared straight into the camera with her soulful (and over made up ) eyes, it was impossible not to admire and even fall in love with her more than a little bit. It was a very sad day years later when she died of cancer just 65 years old.
Now Academy Award nominated actress Jessica Chastain wants to bring Tammy back to life and is producing and starring in biopic based on the original documentary . She has roped in Andrew Garfield to play JIm Bakker even though he is frankly too good looking, and comedian turned filmmaker Michael Showalter will direct.
As much as we love Miss Chastain (and we really do…) we are holding off any further comment until we see if she is as nice to Tammy as Bailey and Barbato were.
Labels: 2019, movie preview, Tammy Faye Bakker
