The Assassination of Gianni Versace
American Crime Story
[Devin Dayley]
Years Airing: 2016-present
Director/Creator: Ryan Murphy
Stars:
Darren Criss
Penelope Cruz
Ricky Martin
General Summary:
The fashion icon, Gianni Versace, of the Versace-brand, was murdered in the late 1990’s by, serial killer, Andrew Cunanan. The story of Andrew Cunanan’s upbringing, his lies and deceit, and his previous murders are told in this 9 episode, made-for-tv movie.
Review:
It’s amazing how a show can, metaphorically, take you back in time. I was born and grew in the 1990’s. So, since I was a little kid, I don’t have a lot of vivid memories about that time. I have vivid memories about my life, that just happened to be in the 90’s, but no memories that I can pick out and say, “That is so 90’s.”
I know I’m quite late to the game with this show, but after all the buzz surrounding “The Assassination of Gianni Versace”, I had to watch it. First of all, before I get started, I want to clarify that this is the second season of ”American Crime Story”, not it’s own show, so that is why it has been going on since 2016. The first season was show season about the O.J. Simpson case with Sarah Paulson, Courtney B. Vance, and Cuba Gooding Jr.
The second season of this show was immaculate. I would even go out on a limb and say it’s better than the first season. Let’s call a spade a spade and just say that Darren Criss gives an unreal performance. I binged this show in two days, and you know how I knew how good of a performance it was? The first day, when I was laying in bed after watching it all day, I was scared that Darren Criss was going to come in my room and kill me. Not Andrew Cunanan, the murderer he portrays, Darren Criss. I will not lie, if I, somehow, became friends with Darren Criss, I might be frightened for my life. He was just that good and that believable at playing his role. He really, really deserves all the praise he is getting for his work on the show. And can I just say that Darren Criss must be very secure in his sexuality, because he played a gay character in this AND when he was in “Glee.” And he is not gay so he must be secure in who he is as a person to not let that affect him.
Next, I want to talk about the incredible cinematography. There were many moments of light and water being shown through the blinds and the window. We all know I love that. This show is set, for most of the time, in California and Florida, so it’s accurate that the reflection of water would be shown through the windows since both places are on the coast. There are also several shots where the frame is split in half by two colors. Let me give an example:
something like that, except imagine that there’s a scene within the photo. Picture a scene of a bedroom and all of it is supposed to be blue, like in the photograph above, but there is a shot of a person’s face in front of the blue room that is red. Which causes us to focus more on the face and the details of that face. Does that make sense? If you’re still having trouble, picture face of the statue on the picture that I posted this review with. I love when a certain hue is changed over a characters face to signify that the person is different than they would have been in a certain situation previously.
I want to talk about the scenic design of this show/movie. There are few shows that emotionally transport me to another time period. There is something to be said about a set that actually makes me feel like I am in a different time. Everything was either really bright, or really dark which intensifies the mood in one way or another.
What concerned me about the show was this, Andrew Cunanan, Gianni Versace’s killer, made a career by lying to people. He lied about everything, every single thing, this concerns me because I used to be somewhat of a liar, like I used to lie about little, miniscule things by saying like: “Oh, you got a 94% on that test, yeah, I got a 92% on it.” when really I got an 86%, like something that it didn’t matter if I lied about but I just did anyway. Andrew Cunanan lied about small, inconsequential stuff like that. This alarms me to the fact that I could secretly be a serial killer. I’m not! But if I don’t watch myself, I could become one.
I just want to say, before this is done, that Ryan Murphy and the other directors did such a great job with the way this story was told. This isn’t the most intriguing story all on its own, it’s the kind of story that one might hear, think oh, that’s too bad, and move one, but the order in which this story was told to us and the methods used in filming this was so unique and great that it made all the difference and made us interested in the story.
I would rate this show an 8.7/10. I lower the score a little because this is kind of a niche show, catered to people who don’t mind seeing homosexual acts. Also, it is pretty dark, and shows humanity with kind of a negative hue.
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