[yasr_overall_rating]
From the segregated American South to the fashion capitals of the world, operatic fashion editor André Leon Talley’s life and career are on full display, in a poignant portrait that includes appearances by Anna Wintour, Marc Jacobs, Tom Ford, Bethann Hardison, Valentino, and Manolo Blahnik.
André Len Talley was not a name I knew before the movie started. Editor-in-chief at Vogue and a dynamic voice within the fashion industry, he started as a humble boy from Durham, North Carolina. Of course, much of the movie’s niche world, fashion, is not the world I live in. I was lucky to recognize one out of every ten people they interviewed and even less so the brands. This movie derives much of its plot from André’s personality, thriving on his grandiose nature to weave completely different segments together when narrative boils down to mini-arcs. Still, this movie does not escape its niche culture like plenty of other films do.
Marc Jacobs, Gianni-Versace, and Tom Ford. Those are about the only fashion names I know and that’s only because I have a mother who reads Vogue magazine. These names are common throughout the film’s subculture. A subculture so narrowly specified its interest wanes as audiences drown under the sheer amount of names being thrown around. I admit I checked my phone during the segment describing dresses and evening wear at a Paris fashion show. Is that sacrosanct? Most likely. I will live to fight another day, however.
The movie soars when it hones in on the personal details of André. His humble origins in North Carolina. His frenetic desire to involve himself in fashion. So much is made of his race: He’s a black man in the fashion world. They hammer that point home over and over again driving it into our heads like a stake. I want to give it the weight it deserves but alas, that means so very little to me considering I know next to nothing about the fashion world. We are told the impact of André’s presence in the fashion community, but we never truly feel it. Only once does André himself describe his trials and tribulations gaining a voice as a black man in the industry. He follows a very specific story that nearly brings him to tears and that was the most watchable part!
“The Gospel According to André” wields a dull knife when it should be cutting with a scalpel. Part of why the movie doesn’t compel us as viewers is because the story told is vague, and messy. We learn of André’s life, his family, his friends. We follow his career as a student at Brown and up into his early days of magazine editing. Not once do we find a strong rival or a concrete conflict. We just get a lot of vague notions of people explaining how he has overcome. Similarly, the film’s steeped in such niche fashion bona fides that they’re completely lost on me. I have no metric for success in the fashion world so it’s hard for me to relate to André whatsoever.
In the end, I’ll probably advise you to pass on the film altogether. What seems like an interesting viewpoint on a unique and niche subject turns into something bland and watered down. We’re getting André lite, a happy version of the story told to make us like him more, but ultimately, makes us like the movies less. Much less of a character study than we hoped, and not enough of a fashion explanation to help us understand.
In select theaters Friday, June 8th
