Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story

1987
Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story
7.7| 0h43m| NR| en| More Info
Released: 15 July 1987 Released
Producted By: Iced Tea Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
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Synopsis

The final 17 years of American singer and musician Karen Carpenter, performed almost entirely by modified Barbie dolls.

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preppy-3 The story of Karen Carpenter. It's all about her rise to fame and her battle with anorexia which killed her at the far too young age of 32. It's all done using dolls to portray the people. Also they show what was going on in the world at the time and cards explaining how anorexia destroys women. This is a deadly serious short and VERY depressing. I almost was in tears as you see and hear Karen trying to fight the disease. It also portrays her family very badly. Her brother is shown as being gay and verbally abusive. Her mother comes across as a controlling witch. Harrowing but fascinating.This has supposedly banned due to unauthorized use of the Carpenters music but I saw it uncut on YouTube.
Ben Larson One of the first editions of the Barbie doll, Slumber Party Barbie, came with a doll-size "How to lose weight" book with only "Don't eat!" written inside and a scale permanently stuck at 110 pounds. At 110, this woman would be so severely underweight that she could not menstruate.How appropriate to show Karen Carpenter as Barbie. In fact all the characters in the show were displayed using Ken and Barbie dolls, and it added a certain eeriness to what was happening to Karen.Anorexia nervosa is a deadly mental health condition. About 5% to 20% of people diagnosed with anorexia will ultimately die from its ravaging effects on the body and mind: cardiac complications, organ failure, and even suicide."Karen's diet of salad or bean broth and Exlax, and ultimately Ipecac, was a sure route to death.The depiction of Carpenter's family is unflattering; they seem ignorant about her anguish. Not surprising as they "spanked her like a child" every time she tried to assert her independence.You may chuckle a bit at a movie using Barbie dolls, but you will soon get immersed in the story behind the story and the grinning will stop.
Ted Though Todd Haynes's Superstar is certainly a Karen Carpenter story, it is just as much a story of values-oriented America, perfectly captured in an American icon: the Barbie doll. Superstar tells the story of Karen Carpenter's struggle with anorexia by puppeting Barbies and Kens to represent all of the film's central characters. It is notable for its necessarily unusual visual style and varied disruptions of narrative, but I was most taken with the compellingly complex relationship that each of the film's three central icons--Carpenter, America, Barbie--all have with their own central ironies.Although there is a clear tension between surface appeal and sinister social implication in the above subjects of Superstar, their dualities don't corrupt their dual natures toward compromised unity so much as they feed both natures individually and independently: in spite of Carpenter's stress and anorexia, her earnestness and purity of intention are played as 100% real; whatever problematic femininity Barbie embodies, she is still sold as a genuine model of perfection; whatever clusterf*** of societal ills America may be--the film at one point explicitly invokes Watergate, citing Nixon as an avid Carpenter fan--the country keeps unceasingly God- blessing itself.It is noteworthy as well that these icons don't necessarily lack self- awareness--Carpenter tries to address her anorexia, Barbie caves to some new criticism every five years or so--but that they forge ahead ignoring the fact that they are complex and imperfect entities; they maintain identities of apparent perfection while fostering dark realities, ignoring their irony in spite of their awareness.These are not winking ironies, they are not overtly clever or stylish ironies, they are the ironies of compellingly and frighteningly sequestered schemas. Todd Haynes recognizes the strange tension of earnestness and irony in Carpenter/Barbie/America, and smartly avoids winking or nudging in the style of his film. Superstar's Barbie as Carpenter premise is certainly clever, but it is not simply an exercise in cleverness: it is a surprisingly but appropriately genuine exploration of its subjects' complexities, and it is worth the considerable trouble required to see it. -TK 11/7/10
overby When I first heard of a Karen Carpenter movie acted out by Barbie dolls, I thought, "Yeah, right." Actually, it's not half-bad, revealing the ugly side of brother Richard and their parents. It's a shame the movie has been only available through the underground, though, as it portrays the heart-breaking effects of anorexia through clinical narration, montage, and pop culture to great effect. The use of dolls is actually ingenious, as we come to see how Karen was manipulated by her family, her record company, and society to conform to unattainable perfection. Although banned by numerous lawsuits, this film is available through alternative resources. If you look hard enough, you can find it.