Welcome to Chippendales ★★★
Constituent: robert siegel
Distribution: Kumail Nanjiani, Murray Bartlett, Annaleigh Ashford, Juliette Lewis
Country: United States of America
Duration: 45 min. (8 episodes)
Year: 2022
Gender: drama
Premiere: January 11, 2023 (Disney+)
The wave of drama series continues, often based on true headlines about criminals or scammers. “Welcome to Chippendales”fictional alternative to the incredible epic of greed, strapping, drugs and crime this documentary filmmaker Jesse Vile has already told us about in his recent highly recommended series ‘The Curse of the Chippendales’ (available on Movistar Plus+).
As in the screenwriter hit movie ‘Pam & Tommy’ robert siegel (“The Fighter”) balances absurd humor with candid emotion to tell an impossible-to-invent story. Somen ‘Steve’ Banerjee (kumail nanjiani), a quiet Indian immigrant pursuing the lauded American dream, going from working at a gas station to starting a men’s strip business store. He tried to keep the business afloat and under his control with arson and assassination plans.
According to the version of the series, it was not the unfortunate Paul Snider (danny stevens), enthusiastic night promoter and famous ‘playmate’ Dorothy Stratten (Nicola PeltzThe one who suggested to Banerjee in the late 1970s that he revive the emaciated West Coast club with a lap dance show exclusively for women. After a somewhat forced visit to a gay club, Steve himself has a big idea here. At any rate, the club and dance troupe Chippendales are, however, choreographer (and several Emmy-winning children’s television producer) Nick De Noia (murray barlettfrom ‘White Lotus’, which brought the phenomenon to New York after it had given its patina of professionalism. Banerjee welcomed the changes while skeptical of De Noia’s adoption of his concept in mainstream media. Caught in a spiral of jealousy and fear of failure, the once-friendly entrepreneur made some hasty decisions.
If Kumail Nanjiani, with his co-written ‘The Great Love Sickness’, has managed to show that a Pakistani actor can be more than a delivery man, taxi driver or terrorist in an American production, here he successfully faces his best faces. complex role to date. The lure of parody is present and sometimes unavoidable, but Nanjiani knows how to embody Banerjee. pressure cooker with low self-esteem and anxiety of class and race.
Against the relative background, a number of great actors carve characters (many imaginary or somewhat real) into orbit of that turbulent core. shine great Annaleigh Ashford as Irene, an accountant who is more than a co-worker to Steve; juliette lewis as Denise, the receptionist/costume designer based in part on assistant producer Candace Mayeron, or Andrew Rannells Stephen Sondheim as a New York Chippendales investor with his passion (invented).
Eroticism, illegal substances and extra disco music: it could be “Boogie Nights: The Series”outside the director Matt Shakman (“Scarlet Witch and Vision”) creates some unexciting visual patterns; other than a long zoom or a nightlife shot, it doesn’t have fun with the time or the camera. Palm “Trapped by his past” and the El Paraíso club. Hallucinogenic credits sequence with that wonderful main theme in a disco key signed by Siddhartha Husla (“Only the murders in the building”) promises a spectacular series yet to come.