The Eyes of Tammy Faye sets the tone in the first five minutes of the film. We learn that this roller coaster ride of a story will be narrated by Miss Rupaul Charles with the assistance of two shabby dog hand puppets to introduce each chapter of Tammy’s tale. Hold onto your Travolta hairpeice and strap yourself in cause it’s gonna be a bumpy ride. It’s the perfect storm of tabloid fodder: A televangelist empire that crumbles amidst envy, accounting fraud and a filandering husband who takes up a lover in a Playboy playmate. Add to that a successful recording career that spawned over forty albums (Chill Beyoncé), a pill addiction and being one of the first religious figures to co-host a TV show with an openly gay personality. Director Fenton Bailey treats the subject matter with a loving eye while also poking fun at her campy persona. The film is a mix of vintage footage, Hard Copy style editing and candid interviews with Tammy herself. We see her at home, surrounded by the ornate pillows, dolls and small fluffy canines that one would assume she would own. It’s nice to see Tammy in happier times working towards a comeback as her last appearance on Larry King in 2007 is one of the saddest, most disturbing interviews ever. It’s hard to watch this film and not feel for Tam Tam and those clumpy, permanently lined eyes will always have a place in my lil’ heart. Hallelu.
