Pam & Tommy (2022 Mini-Series) The filmmakers who put together this way too long account of the first official celebrity sex tape seemed to never make up their minds on how to approach their story.......so they make labored tries as having it every which way.......as a sharp-as-a-knife social satire and at the same time, a heartfelt incisive expose of the mistreatment and objectification of women.
While there's certainly things to admire in this 8 episode Hulu series (specifically its careful attention to the victimization of actress Pamela Anderson), there's not nearly that much to this story that justifies stretching it out to multiple episodes.........in which some of them, you can sense the filmmakers were just killing time......and wasting ours.
The show kicks off with a sardonic, deadpan vibe as it recounts the turbulent romantic life of the C-List celebrities Pamela Anderson and Tommy Lee......she being the meagerly talented and ample-chested 'Baywatch' starlet and Lee being the heavily tattooed rock 'n roll Motley Crue drummer.
Living like debauched royalty in a vast L.A. mansion, Lee and Anderson cavort like hormonal teens until they ran afoul of a disgruntled bottom-feeding contractor Rand Gauthier (Seth Rogan). Lee, for no other reason than he can, stiffs Gauthier out of money owed for home renovations, not only firing him but confiscating his tools.
Gauthier then took his revenge by robbing them of a VHS tape Lee took of himself and Anderson while they sexually romped on a boating vacation. The rest, as they say, became part of history in pop culture and the mainstreaming of celebrity porn.
The clueless Gauthier's schemes to enrich himself by selling copies made of the tape quickly go awry for him. He stammers, sweats and sees his life undone as the tape makes its way through the hands of a creepy gangster (Andrew Dice Clay), the reptilian Penthouse Magazine mogul Bob Guccione (Maxwell Caulfield) and eventually a savvy adult movie distributor (Fred Hechinger)...... who markets the 'Pam 'n Tommy' sex tape so it rests on video store shelves everywhere.
Lee and Anderson tried a variety of desperate attempts to retrieve the tape, everything from sending thugs to beat the crap out of Gauthier to lawsuits and legal maneuvers from their high powered attorneys. Nothing worked for them.......their personal Pandora's box was opened wide to the world, right along side Lee's legendarily huge penis.
And here is where the show makes its most pivotal points.......as their tape became part of the cultural landscape (and the butt of Jay Leno's monologue), Tommy Lee's reputation as a badass rogue was only enhanced by it........whereas Pamela Anderson, who hungered for better gigs than playing the 'Baywatch slice 'o cheesecake, saw her reputation and career degraded into that of 'low level D-list slut', a punchline for comics to feast on.
Not that anyone should worry about the series turning into a strident feminist rant, since the show takes great pleasure in skewering and lampooning people on every level of the Los Angeles-Hollywood food chain......from scumbag hustlers to Hugh Hefner. For an bonus, over-the-top showstopper, it even serves up the bizarre spectacle of Tommy Lee carrying on a conversation with his chatty, tumescent shlong.
We'll throw in a few hand claps for the lead actors, who throw themselves into it with ferocious abandon.......Lily James and Sebastian Stan inhabit Pam and Tommy to the very max.....and you can't look away from their uncomfortably real recreation of the star-crossed collision of two dim bulbs with too much money, too much ego, and not much sense.
As the even dumber Gauthier, Seth Rogan looks like he's having a dryly funny good time doing a warped variation of his typical slacker roles. You'll feel for his confused frustration as he witnesses his own life spin faster and faster out of control.
We still hold to our final conclusion........that 'Pam & Tommy' would have been far more powerful and effective if done as a one sitting feature film......stretched out to episodic length, it runs the risk of becoming repetitious and too drawn out. 2 & 1/2 stars (**1/2)
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