Advanced Style (FILM REVIEW)
Advanced Style
Film Review
by Kam Williams
Iconoclastic Doc Focuses Lens on Ageless Fashion Plates
We live in a culture which unfortunately equates beauty with
youth. Why else are so many women to make a joke of their own faces so long as
the skin remains as tight as a ten year old’s? As the late Joan Rivers, a big
fan of cosmetic surgery, might ask: Can we talk?
For, flying in the face of this conventional wisdom is Ari Seth
Cohen, a street photographer who roams around Manhattan looking for flamboyant elderly
females to capture with his camera. He even has a blog, Advanced Style (http://advancedstyle.blogspot.com/)
dedicated to portraits of these classy ladies ranging in age from 60 to 95.
The website generated so much interest that we now have Advanced
Style, the movie, a documentary featuring some of his most attractive subjects.
The picture marks the “Fabulous!” directorial of Lina Plioplyte who makes quite
the splash simply by shedding light on seven, ageless fashion plates.
There’s Jackie Tajah Murdock, 81, who was a dancer at the Apollo
during the famed theater’s heydays, and Lynn Dell Cohen, 80, the
self-proclaimed “Countess of Glamour.” The baby of the group is Tziporah
Salamon, 62 who rides around the city on a pimped-out bicycle. And at the other
extreme we have the group’s elder stateswoman, Zelda Kaplan, 95, who has a good
sense of humor about being a little addlepated.
Rounding out the crew are Ilona Royce Smithkin, 93; Joyce Carpati,
80; and Deborah Rapoport, 67. What they all seem to share is an infectious zest
for life and for looking their best that they can’t help but share with anyone
they meet. Ostensibly for the sake of a plot, the picture inexorably works its
way to the ladies being feted, whether they’re landing a contract with Lanvin,
making an appearance on Ricki
Lake’s TV talk show, or
just strutting their stuff during Fashion Week.
But it all seems secondary to the obvious fact that natural aging
lines can look every bit as good if not better than Botox and face lifts. The
best antidote around to America’s
unhealthy obsession with youth!
Excellent
(3.5 stars)
Unrated
Running time: 72 minutes
Distributor: Bond360
To see a trailer for Advanced Style, visit:
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