Few stars have shone as brightly as Faye Dunaway. At her peak in the 1970s, Dunaway was a leading light in landmark films including Bonnie and Clyde, Chinatown, and Network, which won her an Oscar. Her work generated controversy, but so did her widely reported offscreen volatility.
When you talk about Dunaway, you expect thrilling drama, whether on or off screen. So she is the last Hollywood icon you’d expect to headline a documentary as flavorless as Faye, arriving on HBO on Saturday.
In an age of celebrity memoir—from Britney to Barbra—that emphasizes the all in “tell-all,” Faye paints by numbers, and does not do justice to Dunaway’s singular talent and persona. It doesn’t help that Faye lands on HBO, the home of exhaustive Hollywood biodocs about the likes of Jane Fonda and Steven Spielberg that spent hours unpacking the lives of movie meganames. At a brief 90 minutes, the documentary never gives itself enough breathing room to allow us into Dunaway’s head between the expected career highlights.
