Feud: Capote vs. the Swans (Disney+)
Truman Capote was the ultimate gay best friend. A delightful gossip when sober, a vicious chatterbox when drunk, he clung to New York society ladies and stroked their egos like lapdogs.
They demanded loyalty, flattery, and entertainment; he was, one said, a “gay court jester who sang for his dinner.” He called them his “swans” because “they have to paddle twice as fast and powerfully as an ordinary duck, just to stay afloat.”
Capote was celebrated for his books, including his novella Breakfast At Tiffany’s and the true crime story In Cold Blood. But after his talent was washed away by a tidal wave of gin and vodka, he tried to earn one last day of publication by writing about his ladies and exposing their secrets – their drug habits, their sex lives, even their crimes and cover-ups. .
British actor Tom Hollander, 56, plays American novelist and screenwriter Truman Capote
British-Australian actress Naomi Watts, 55, plays American magazine editor and socialite Babe Paley
The fallout from the exposé is the focus of Feud: Capote vs The Swans. Tom Hollander plays the writer, imitates his arch mannerisms, mimics his high-pitched hissing voice and generally takes off his little pink socks.
Opposite him at the tables of Manhattan’s chicest restaurants from the 1970s is a host of grandes dames: Chloe Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Diane Lane and at their head Naomi Watts, as queen of socialites Babe Paley.
Demi Moore beams around the room, playing Ann Woodward, who shot and killed her husband after allegedly mistaking him for a burglar. Mischievous Truman likes to surprise his friends with the “true” story that she killed him in the shower after he had an affair.
If every unfaithful husband were shot, there would be no men left in New York. Capote’s abusive boyfriend John is a married man, played by Russell Tovey – with thick-rimmed glasses and sideburns that make him look disturbingly like Richard Osman.
All this should be exciting. Instead, it’s soulless, often crude, repetitive, confused, and (by far the worst sin for a gossip drama) downright boring.
The story teeters between decades like a drunk swinging through a party. It’s 1984, it’s 1965, it’s the mid-1970s, and we have to guess what’s happening and when by looking for clues in the hairstyles and clothes.
Every now and then the gossip comes to life. A lunch lady brags about meeting Prince Charles: ‘He likes growing. He once gave me a beautiful zucchini.’ The ambiguity is certainly intentional.
American actress Molly Ringwald, 56, plays one of Capote’s ‘swans’ Joanne Carson
When the storyline becomes too complicated, explanations should be used as cheat sheets. Capote’s mother, Lillie Mae (Jessica Lange), shows up in one of his alcoholic stupors, to tell him that he both adores and loathes the ultra-snobs, because she herself could never be one of them.
Such ready-made psychology looks especially fake under all the designer couture. The women also look unreal – they are meant to be superficial, but this eight-part series (written and directed by men) fails to convince us that they are anything more than imitations.
Capote checks them with his little pill box of Valium and barbiturates. Why bother? This fake feud could put anyone to sleep.