All Rights Reserved. Little Vivvy yells back from downstairs, admonishing her mother for feeding the raccoon. The episode opens with a Masterpiece Theater-like introduction by Dame Helen Mirren. Little Vivvy does a little show and tell of various portraits, photos and images of her mother. There’s no question that IFC is the right home for Documentary Now!, the mockumentary series from Saturday Night Live alumni Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, and Seth Meyers. Armisen, Hader, and Meyers’s approach to mockumentary doesn’t rely on just playing up the comedy. And I don’t mean that in a “this isn’t everyone’s cup of tea” way. With Fred Armisen, Bill Hader, Helen Mirren, Rob Benedict. Even before Hader and Armisen appear in drag as Little Vivvy and Big Vivvy, the episode lovingly recreates the opening credit sequence to the Maysles documentary. It’s a very slow build—one that may not hold the attention of people who might be expecting something more along the lines of Hader and Armisen’s punchier work. All of our TV reviews in one convenient place. has presented audiences with the 01x01 - Sandy Passage - Documentary Now! She explains that she’s wearing sweatpants on her head because “it’s very practical—like a built-in scarf.” Hader then steps out of the camera’s frame and whispers to the filmmakers (as if the mics weren’t there to pick it all up) that “Mother doesn’t like it. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. You feel uncomfortable watching Big Vivvy and Little Vivvy, just as Grey Gardens has an unnerving and invasive quality about it. It isn’t until the last couple minutes of the episode that “Sandy Passage” elevates the humor and pushes into the extreme. Stars Yahya Abdul-Mateen II and Eddie Redmayne share their 5 reasons not to miss The Trial of the Chicago 7 on Netflix. Documentary Now! But Documentary Now!, while it certainly has comedic sensibilities, feels more like a rather serious study of and homage to documentary film. Pop culture obsessives writing for the pop culture obsessed. You’d be wrong. Over the course of the episode, the guys behind the camera get increasingly nervous about getting so close to Little Vivvy. Documentary Now! Christine N. Ziemba is a Los Angeles-based freelance pop culture writer and regular contributor to Paste. This FAQ is empty. That may sound like a lofty goal for a 20-minute show on IFC, and it no doubt is. The six-episode series is a hybrid docu-comedy created by Fred Armisen, Bill Hader and Seth Meyers and stars Hader and Armisen. An in depth look at the daily lives of two aging socialites and their crumbling estate. Yes, the series is partially born from an SNL sketch from 2013 in which Armisen and Hader played washed-up British punk rock stars. There are little changes such as “Salus Films” instead of the original Janus Films, and “A Maysles Brothers’ Film” now reads as “A Fein Brothers’ Film,” but the faded forest green background as well as the fonts used on the latter’s title cards are nearly identical. An in depth look at the daily lives of two aging socialites and their crumbling estate. Instead, it really does feel like a study, an investigation of how and why documentaries are made. In this version, she’s a vindictive murderer, and the reveal only works because of how much restraint Documentary Now! It turns out that “Sandy Passage’s” tribute to Grey Gardens is much more detailed than we ever expected. Mother doesn’t like it at all.”, Like Grey Gardens, the Sandy Passage estate is in ruins, and the women are living in their own dream world, where they sing, dance, perform for each other and the camera. From Mirren’s intro, those who know a little film history will deduce that “Sandy Passage” is a riff on the 1975 documentary Grey Gardens by Albert and David Maysles. I can’t believe I didn’t say anything about host Helen Mirren, so here we go: Helen Mirren! Big Vivvy (Armisen) yells for Little Vivvy to do something about the big raccoon that’s returned to the upstairs living quarters. For this first episode, it helps that the original subject material is so strange on its own that Meyers, who wrote the episode, doesn’t really have to play with much to make “Sandy Passage” weird. I guess I was wrong. S1, E1 Sandy Passage An in depth look at the daily lives of two aging socialites and their crumbling estate. This is the official transcript for the Sandy Passage Episode of Documentary Now. I'm Helen Mirren, and you're watching Documentary Now! But at least with “Sandy Passage,” they mostly succeed, tackling the voyeurism of the original in a way that feels honest and almost critical. And the humor that is there isn’t for everybody. There must be magic in those IFC water coolers because the first episode, “Sandy Passage,” is brilliant. Documentary Now! Bill Hader looks very good with sweatpants on his head—who knew?! And for most of the episode, that’s about all that changes. The opening shots also capture the grainy and ethereal quality of the Maysles’ work, with the camera lingering on items around the home, such as an antique brush on a night table, a white curtain billowing in the breeze or the cracks around the dilapidated estate. During filming, the Fein Brothers, Larry and Alfred (played by Rob Benedict and James Thomas Gilbert), discover that the women are somehow linked to the disappearance of local grocery boys. exercises in the rest of the episode. The story of the Beales is one already filled with eccentricity, weirdness, hoarding, cats, health department violations and mental health issues, which makes it perfect fodder for the Documentary Now team. changes the name of the estate to Sandy Passage and the characters to Big Vivvy and Little Vivvy. might just be its weirdest and most specific comedy yet—if you can even call it a comedy. He doesn’t overdo his performance as Little Vivvy. Full … You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. I don’t always love when male comedians play women, because they can sometimes overdo it and almost play the whole “look, I’m playing. IFC is a place for the weird and the specific, and Documentary Now! I will look again though. And for most of the episode, that’s about all that changes. Big Vivvy denies feeding the animal as the camera focuses on a seated Armisen silhouetted against a window, shoo-ing away the raccoon—by throwing chips at it. Their film chronicled the reclusive and eccentric lives of Big Edie and Little Edie Beale, a mother and daughter, who were Jackie Kennedy Onassis’ aunt and first cousin, respectively. !. Documentary Now! © 2020 Paste Media Group. Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? The end of the episode genuinely terrified me. “Sandy Passage” then turns a little ominous—and truly creepy—with suspenseful and gruesome surprises that are definitely not in the Grey Gardens storyline. Directed by Alexander Buono, Rhys Thomas. This is the network that has kept extremely niche comedies like Portlandia and Comedy Bang! changes the name of the estate to Sandy Passage and the characters to Big Vivvy and Little Vivvy. You can follow her on Twitter. Much of the humor in Documentary Now!’s premiere, “Sandy Passage,” would be lost on someone who hasn’t seen the documentary it’s parodying, Grey Gardens. Looking for some great streaming picks? We hesitate on even calling the show a “mockumentary” because instead of merely poking fun at its subjects like Spinal Tap or Christopher Guest’s films do, Documentary Now also pays homage to the direct cinema (akin to cinéma vérité) documentary form itself. Title: It’s all beautifully done. You’d think that with those Saturday Night Live veterans in charge there would be a little slapstick and a lot of cornball. “Sandy Passage,” directed by Rhys Thomas and Alex Buono, perfectly mimics the intimate camerawork of Grey Gardens. This painstaking faux recreation of the Maysles’ documentary all happens even before Armisen and Hader exchange their first words. doesn’t need to find the weirdness, because it’s already there. She’s straightforward in her delivery, stating that for the past 50 years, Documentary Now has been delivering the “most thought-provoking cinema,” and that this latest series will revisit some of the more monumental films, including this week’s “Sandy Passage.” She explains that the Fein Brothers, Larry and Abraham believed that they were there “to observe and not direct” when they captured the lives of Big Vivvy and Little Vivvy van Kimpton on film. Nearly bed-ridden Big Vivvy defends herself from the bed, “I didn’t realize that it had fallen off.”. 1 of 11 people found this review helpful. For the past 50 years, Documentary Now! But “Sandy Passage” takes an unexpected turn during its last few minutes to introduce a whole other dimension to the episode. Was this review helpful to you? Here is where Meyers starts to have fun with the story, turning Little Vivvy into more than just a bizarre recluse. Use the HTML below. Add the first question. The two women lived together as recluses for decades in a crumbling estate overrun by raccoons and cats. Maybe I’m wrong about the episode not working for people who haven’t seen Grey Gardens, because I could definitely see how someone might laugh at the odd observations and off-hand remarks Hader’s Little Vivvy says without realizing that they’re not very far off from the real Little Edie at all. Bang! Hader might just be the best part of the episode. Little Edie has a reality-adjacent quality to her, and Hader brings that same off-kilter quality to Little Vivvy.
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