Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1987)

It's been awhile since I actually reviewed anything, but I wanted to wait until I had something really important to review - and something important to say about the subject matter.

Today, kids, I succeeded in doing both.

Many of you may already know who Karen Carpenter is. Many more of you probably have, at one time or another, went through your day humming "Top of the World" or "Close to You", thanks to her and her brother Richard. In the '70s, there were few easy-listening groups who were bigger than The Carpenters. And it was indeed a sad day when Karen died on February 4th, 1983.

It's safe to say, though, that most of you have no idea who Todd Haynes is.

Well, he is the fledgling director who, in an effort to bring the tragic life and even-more tragic death of Karen Carpenter to life made Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story, which traced her life from 1966 on through, touching on various highs (and lows) up to her death in 1983, attempting to cast some light upon her dependencies, both physical and psychological.

...oh, and did I mention that this is all acted out with Barbie dolls?

Yes, as audacious as it sounds, it actually works pretty well. It turns out that, instead of focusing on who's playing who and what their performance is like, you just accept that there's this doll in front of you portraying Karen and accept the story on its own terms. Which is fine, since the inherent story is worth investing your attention in.

According to Superstar, Karen was surrounded by a family who didn't take her self-concerns seriously, most of this embodied by her brother Richard, an overt perfectionist who pushed her into a career she initially didn't want to undertake. Also, according to the film, Karen was an overly-sensitive soul who took criticism to heart; it was due to the murmurs of a critic or two who called her "chubby" (!) and a family who piled more and more demands on her time and abilities that led to her development of anorexia nervosa and an addiction to Ex-Lax and later ipecac. This would weaken her body and, eventually, bring on the heart attack that killed her.

Is any of this true? Who knows, any documentary will play fast and furious with its facts. But as far as truth goes, that's always up to debate: "the actual story" versus "the popular interpretation of the actual story".

Anyway, this is all at least portrayed very convincingly, save for the fact that every actor in it is an immobile plastic doll who speaks in spite of having no moving lips. There are doll-sized sets and record albums, back-projected driving and walking-through the park/along the beach/through town scenes and even some parts which may just shock you, as when she is welcomed to A&M records and a frank discussion on the effects of anorexia and bulimia, not to mention one scene in particular in which Richard's hypercritical control over Karen and her perceived inability to be "a perfect child" is addressed (I won't tell you what exactly what these scenes are - just suffice it to say that they are shocking).

Many more scenes go for the overly-dramatic and outright sensational, right down to Richard's berating of a fragile, ill Karen and claims of homosexuality, leading up to what would be the last heart-wrenching years of Karen's life.

The fact that Haynes is able to elicit such an array of emotions in the viewer over plastic dolls just goes to show to what limits Superstar works.

And there are limits: you can only get so much emotional range from a plastic face, and the novelty does wear thin about 10-15 minutes in. Also, when you get right down to it, everyone just plays the same note: inattentive parents, weepy sister, conniving brother, cyphers for friends and acquaintances. Change a few details and you work this into a documentary about any musical family.

However, director Haynes manages to keep things from getting mired into what just as easily could have been Barbie Doll Theater. He intersperses clips and montages from other sources, a live-action scene here and there and creates artful symbolism with the most unlikely objects you could imagine. In short, at no time is Superstar ever boring.

After all was said and done, Superstar was a minor hit in the art-house theaters where it was given its biggest showing. That is, until Richard Carpenter got hold of the film, watched it himself and was apparently none too happy with his portrayal as a rampaging egotistical perfectionist/homosexual, not to mention the crushing blow of Haynes' use of The Carpenters' music without permission. This got Superstar pulled from release and all copies of the film were then gathered and destroyed.

...wellll, maybe not "all" copies. This is, after all, a highly-sought bootleg film and due to its notoriety, garnered Haynes several other directing gigs where copyrights and hurt feelings didn't always get in the way of artistic expression.

But anyway, back to the movie. Does Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story succeed? Depends on who you ask. Many who see it will certainly admit that it's effective in its portrayals of addiction and the effects of self-image. Others will just flat-out call it sensationalist garbage with a cheap gimmick. Even more people just won't "get it", sufficing to watch it as an exercise in the ridiculous without taking any of it seriously.

Which raises the question - can a documentary done with Barbies be taken seriously?

I can only speak for myself here, but as far as what I've seen here, Haynes apparently had some issues to work out as far as his own self-imagery (Haynes is himself gay), which he embodied in Karen, turning everyone she loved against her because of what she was (a good singer) and making demands of her for their own purposes. He apparently felt for her (who wouldn't?) and wanted to equate her suffering with that of anyone who ever felt less than what they were and wanted only to be accepted and loved for themselves and, not even receiving that, turned all that pain and anger in on themselves, destructively.

Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story is certainly worth seeing once. The talks and debates generated by it with your friends will certainly last as long as your memories of the images you see. As it should be.

And as concerns how you can possibly see a film that has been banned, outlawed and is basically impossible to rent at your local Blockbuster...I have just one word for you: Google.