"Impiction" - a series about Monica Levinsky and Bill Clinton

Surprisingly, in the new season of “American History of Crimes”, Ryan Murphy led excessive restraint

On the American FX and in the Russian “Amediak”, the ten -part drama “Impicment: American History of Crimes” was published. Among the heroes are Monica Levinsky, Bill and Hillary Clinton, Linda Tripp and other inhabitants of the White House. Sarah Paulson, Clive Owen and the main discovery of the series - Bini Feldstein in the role of Levinsky played in the impeachment. Film critic Egor Moskvitin tells what the third season of documentary drama Ryan Murphy.

The conversation about “impeachment” should not begin with the impeachment of Bill Clinton and not with the series, but with the cinema. In 2020, the Sandance festival showed the film “Assistant” - a cold psychological thriller about pressure and violence that women in the film industry faced. The picture seemed to show the office of Harvey Weinstein, but the producer himself did not appear in the frame. Instead of him, a young girl who dreamed of finding her place in Hollywood humiliated and used the Hollywood system herself. Men, who also got from the boss, recouped on subordinates. Women, as soon as they climbed a little higher along the career ladder, looked with contempt and fear at young rivals. The main character, which actress Julia Garner played brilliantly, and herself was hardened to the final. Even the office itself - with the posters of films on the site of the windows, spots on sofas, gray corridors and excellent audibility - seemed like a maze of a minotaur. In a word, an “assistant” is an exhaustive portrait of a vicious and cruel system.

Almost everything that happened to this film did not succeed in the series “Impicment: American History of Crimes” - despite the name of Ryan Murphy in the credits and Sarah Polson, Clive Owen, go Falco and other stars in the frame.

The “impeachment”, like the two previous seasons of the anthology “American History of Crimes” (the first described the trial of Jay Simpson , the secondinvestigated the murder of Gianni Versace), was built on the principle of documentary: professional actors play real people, and the script was written in such a way as to cause a scandal - but still do not bring it to trial. The events of “impeachment” unfold through almost all the nineties, the narrative is non -linear, therefore the well -known story of Bill Clinton and Monica Levinsky turns here into a psychological detective, where the audience is primarily interested in the motives of the heroes.

The White House employee Linda Tripp (beloved actress Ryana Murphy Sarah Polson, who played several roles in American Horror History and the nurse Ratchist in a separate series, is almost unrecognizable here) loses his job - the president puts an inexperienced favorite in her place. Tripp decides to take revenge and publish a book about all the secrets of the oval office. Every second resident of Washington plans to do about the same thing, but the woman is lucky with the source: at a new job in the Pentagon, she gets closer to the young Monica Levinsky (actress Bini Feldstein is a real sensation). It is difficult for a girl to keep a burning secret: the most powerful man in the world (Clive Owen to find out under a layer of makeup more difficult than Russell Crowe in the “loud voice” ) twists a service novel with her.

The third participant in the Crusade against the president’s reputation is the provincial of Paul Jones, who was trained at Clinton at the time of his governorship in Arkansas - and who also accused him of harassment. One of the most powerful and disgusting scenes in the series is the press conference. "What the president bowed to you can be done without taking off your clothes?" -Men-journalists are mocking, while the heroine burns with shame in front of the microphone.

According to the description, it may seem that this is a series of dreams, but “impeachment” has many problems. The heavy makeup of famous actors and a noticeable replay of the unknown now and then turn the tragic story into a farce. The artistic solutions are not new: in the “Assistant”, and in the series “Call Girl”, Stephen Soderberg, and in the first season of “American History of Crimes”, the tension and unnaturalness of what is happening was already emphasized by cold and windows without windows, endless pale corridors and buzzing computers of the 1990s.

Paralyzed by fear and bewildered heroes are not ready to act - therefore, the series does not have enough episodes of energy. The White House and the Pentagon in it are two equally sleepy kingdoms. Finally, the “impeachment” is not possible the most important thing is to become a female version of the “all presidential rati” , that is, the history of partners and rivals, who together changed the political life of the whole country.

The series about the key sex scandal of the nineties, going out in the twenties, should broadcast either anger or compassion. “Impiction” does not dare to choose any of the parties: it is not poster, and not fully humane. His revealing intonation prevents the deep psychological drama. And the difficultly built narrative hides the author’s goal from us.

Oddly enough, almost for the first time in the career of Ryan Murphy - the lover of Kitch and Camp , the creator of extravagant heroes, the inventor of absurd plots and a cynical joker with a big heart - failed ... restraint. Previously, we scolded him for indefatigability. Now we miss her.

Egor Moskvitin