Gaslit Review: Powerful: If We Had To Define This Series With One Word | Starzplay Series

Cast: Sean Penn, Julia Roberts, Dan Stevens, Betty Gilpin, Shea Whigham, Darby Camp

Creator: Robbie Pickering

Streaming Platform: Starzplay

Filmyhype.com Ratings: 4/5 (four star) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]

Gaslit Review: Available from April 24 on the Starzplay streaming platform, Gaslit is a series that makes the impossible possible, that is to tell a well-known and inflated story, through a new and unknown point of view. What about the still little known about Watergate, the biggest scandal that American politics has ever faced? It seems difficult that after documentaries, investigations and the wonderful 1976 Alan J. Pakula film All the President’s Men, something new could really be said on the subject, but the truth is that up until now they had not been considered. the women of the President, or rather a woman very close to him: Martha Mitchell. Sean Penn, Julia Roberts are the main ingredients of the Gaslit TV series, but not only! If controlling the opponent is not a definition for crosswords, but a political instruction coming from the lair of the “snakes” involved in Watergate, there is no time to bask in the sun: you risk ending up knotted in on yourself or burning their hands in the fire, in the flashes of their lies.

Gaslit, the awaited TV series, the new political thriller with Julia Roberts and Sean Penn, with its eight episodes, debuts from April 24, 2022 on the STARZPLAY streaming platform. The serial show based on the first season of the acclaimed Slow Burn podcast, created and produced by Robbie Pickering with Matt Ross directing, tries to read the Watergate affair in a new and modern way. In fact, at the center of the narration there are stories never told before, or little known, which have had an impact on the outcome of the whole story; among these those of Richard Nixon ‘s friends , especially the faithful Attorney General John Mitchell played by an unrecognizable Sean Penn with his eccentric wife Martha Julia Roberts): ardent personality in those years, obstinate and constantly at the center of media attention the first voice to rise against President Nixon, in a word: a big problem for the party.

Gaslit Review: The Story

Gaslit sees the wife of John Mitchell, Nixon’s most trusted advisor and involved on the front line in the re-election campaign, at the center of his events. The couple, very close at the beginning, slowly disintegrate under the weight of secrets and lies, in front of a woman who decides not to play the game. The main merit of the idea behind Gaslit is precisely the unusual, unprecedented point of view that allows Julia Roberts, interpreter of Martha Mitchell, to remind her entire audience of the reason why she has remained one of the most loved actresses for so many years. of the Hollywood scene, despite choosing his roles very sparingly.

Roberts manages to give her character an incredibly varied range of shades, making her lovable and fearsome, fragile and unassailable, a woman that history has tried to forget but who is one of the main architects of Nixon’s fall, also suffering heavy consequences at the level personal, with a marriage that will crumble under the weight of the infamous accusations against the president. Next to her an unrecognizable Sean Penn  in the role of John Mitchell, foul-mouthed and capricious, as repulsive with the press and the public as her wife is welcoming and conciliatory. Two diametrically opposed ways of working in the re-election campaign that in fact did not reconcile in the end with the rottenness that emerges on the president’s account that both, at the beginning, support.

“The Martha Mitchell effect is the process by which a psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental health specialist errs on the perception that a patient has an event that is still real and interprets it as a delusion, thus committing a medical error.” We read this on Wikipedia and this is what happens to our heroine, who with her frankness endangered a re-election plan which, we know from history, was later shipwrecked.

Gaslit Review And Analysis

Everyone knows about Watergate, the largest political scandal in American history that broke out in the United States in 1972, triggered by the discovery of illegal wiretapping carried out in the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee by men linked to the Republican Party (especially the Re-election Committee by Nixon); scandal that led to the resignation of the president. The Watergate already inspired Alan J. Pakula ‘s 1976 film All the President’s Men, starring Dustin Hoffman and Robert Redford, which left many of Nixon’s accomplices out of the picture. The TV series strives to represent the very history of Watergate from the point of view of different players; in Gaslit all of Nixon’s friends come out.

Very few know, for example, the story of Richard Nixon ‘s crazed pawn on the chessboard: Martha Mitchell played by Julia Roberts totally at ease and wonderful in this role. Martha is also an Arkansas high society celebrity, a charismatic and outspoken woman; she was a controversial figure with her sincere comments on the government at the time of the scandal. The Mitchells are at the center of Gaslit’s attention: the couple appears close-knit at first. John is Nixon ‘s most trusted advisor, he is temperamental, foul-mouthed and ruthless, yet very much in love with his wife, but the pressures of Watergate will initiate a slow disintegration of his marriage, starting with a first moment that sees Martha held captive and drugged in a hotel room. Despite her party membership, she will struggle to balance the demands of a re-election campaign with her sentimental bond and will be the first person to publicly sound the alarm about Nixon ‘s involvement in Watergate, causing both the presidency to unravel. both of his personal life.

“They called her crazy”, the real Martha Mitchell called her crazy, yet when we talk about the “Martha Mitchell effect” today we refer to the process by which a doctor defines the patient’s accurate perception of real events as delusional, resulting in misdiagnosis. And the “pretty woman” of cinema in Gaslit , in the role of a woman constantly grappling with interviews, with women’s magazines, with social events, tried to resemble her in all features, even in the features of the face, with that Sandra Milo ‘s legible smile , the lively bird’s eye and the dimples that dig into the cheeks with each smile, while her husband John (Sean Pennheavily made-up, completely transformed for this role) instead spends his time driving reporters away and digs deeper and deeper into an illegal hole. The photography of the serial work with dark backgrounds is well suited to the subject: the dark side of the Watergate scandal shown through images that with their dark and deep colors herald the trap into which the characters will fall.

The relationship between John and Mo is based on the little lies that we will tell each other that, if left standing for too long, can turn into a life we ​​never thought possible.   Perhaps, so far in this Gaslit review, I haven’t emphasized enough how easy it is to dive into it even for those who don’t like these kinds of stories. Historical dramas about historical moments can often seem like history lessons. But Gaslit finds a balanced and refined middle ground between story and tale. Director Matt Ross (Captain Fantastic) and DP Larkin Seiple keeps the cast well lit, their environments in the shade and backgrounds wet in black. Their shots are weighted without distracting attention, the footage allows props, costumes and period-appropriate lighting to convey the time period, and proper attention is paid to Whigham’s insanity in the eye and with the magnificent mustache.

His interpretation, blatantly alternating between being angry and feigned correctness, defines the series, even if he is not alone. Penn sneaks inside his bald cap and padded jumpsuit with a physical conviction that is lacking in so many latex-coated performances. Even the way he talks, spitting swear words while clutching the wooden pipe, fits the point of raw sophistication of a man John Mitchell becomes in Gaslit. But never as much as Martha, who feigns honesty, and is credible. The Homecoming star – reunited with executive producer Sam Esmail – once again plays a woman upset by the world around her, and once again excels at balancing and unbalancing her beleaguered teller of truth.

Casting directors Jeanne McCarthy and Nicole Abellera Hallman fill the prospectus with great performers: Allison Tolman, Hamish Linklater, Darby Camp, Chris Messina, Amy Landecker, Bill Duke and Patton Oswalt are just some of the supporting stars you’ll be happy to see – and they sport a sense of humor that disarms with its free-flowing vulgarities. All of this makes Gaslit a nice limited series about a particularly brutal American sensibility. His warning may be old news, but her means of communicating his point prove compelling. It’s already been about 50 years since Watergate, and our shared understanding of right and wrong remains baffling (in the negative).

Gaslit Review: The Last Words

We conclude Gaslit’s review by saying that even those who are not passionate about this kind of story will find an acting so powerful that it remains chained to it until the last episode. Those who are particularly passionate about this chapter of American history will find a new way to tell it and perhaps discover new truths. Besides being full of excellence, the cast is perfectly blended. Sean Penn remains one of the most intriguing quick-change artists on the screen.