A Chastain & Isaac Extravaganza: The Eyes of Tammy Faye, The Card Counter, Scenes from a Marriage

This post is for anyone who is a fan of Jessica Chastain and/or Oscar Isaac. Which should be all of humanity really, since they are the two finest actors we have on the planet. Over the past few weeks, I have gotten to watch them star in a bunch of things, and while none of these projects are for the faint of heart, they are an excellent acting showcase of everything these two talented people have to offer.

The Eyes of Tammy Faye: Jessica Chastain stars in this biopic of Tammy Faye Bakker, a woman, who along with her husband Jim (played by the marvelous Andrew Garfield) became a famous televangelist in the 1970s. I was not familiar with the Bakkers and went into this movie completely cold, except I did have friends with very strong anti-Bakker sentiment who were perplexed as to why I even wanted to see this film. Well, that central Chastain performance is all the reason I needed.

Written by Abe Sylvia, based on the documentary of the same name, this is a standard birth-to-death biopic and the beats are fairly familiar. But directed by Michael Showalter, who I ordinarily associate with raucous comedies, like Wet Hot American Summer, this movie has a strangely upbeat and comic tone, even as it deals with serious themes. Chastain and Garfield do an excellent job of capturing the religious fervor of this couple as well as their sly marketing prowess and growing greed for the good life. Spoiler alert, but they were eventually caught up in an enormous scandal of misusing charitable funds to build their empire, but the movie does a fantastic job of following these characters down that slippery slope. Most of the blame is placed squarely on Jim, with Tammy blithely following along and assuming her husband was handling the finances just fine. The entire movie is very sympathetic to her, and I’m not sure if that’s something we should take issue with, but I was simply entertained by viewing this as a piece of fiction.

The hair and makeup department deserve all the kudos, doing wonders to Chastain’s face as Tammy gets older and more obsessed with her image and public persona. The lady’s face is positively shellacked in makeup and she almost doesn’t need to act - her eyeshadow can speak a thousand words. But of course, Chastain does still act and what a powerhouse performance. She has to do that weird Betty Boop voice that can sometimes be cringey and sometimes pathetic. She has to sing her heart out, praising the Lord and leaning into her inner theater kid to portray this woman who so desperately wanted the chance to captivate an audience. Her eyes brim with gorgeous tears at all the right moments, and no matter how you feel about the real-life Tammy Faye, there’s no denying that this onscreen version is a fascinating character. So give this movie a try. It is surprisingly funny and frenetic, and also has a lot to say about the rise of evangelical Christianity in America and how it all got tangled up in politics and hypocrisy. Are you not intrigued?

The Card Counter: OK, so right off the bat, I have to be clear that I am NOT recommending this movie. The people I saw it with yelled at me right when we left the theatre and I had to remind them that we all went to see this because it starred Oscar Isaac, and there was no coercion on my part. However, because this movie was written and directed by Paul Schrader, I secretly knew there was a good chance this film would be an absolute dud. A few years ago, my friend Peggy and I saw another Schrader movie, First Reformed, and to this day, Peggy yells at me about why I made her watch that film. So the streak continues. 

That being said, the movie had such a compelling cast, with Oscar Isaac playing opposite Tiffany Haddish, who is wonderful in a dramatic role that is very different from anything I've seen her in before. Isaac plays William Tell (I know), a minor grifter who goes from casino to casino across the United States, racking up modest wins by counting cards, always leaving the premises right before he makes too much money and has to be escorted out by the casino bosses. Haddish plays La Linda (yes, I know), a woman who wants to serve as his backer and enter him into tournaments where she can then take a cut of his winnings in exchange for fronting him the entry fees. But William has a shadowy past and was previously in prison, and the whole movie unfolds to be about something completely different that I won't spoil here. Suffice to say, "The Card Counter" is false advertising in terms of what this movie is about.

The only thing I loved about this movie was the costume design by Lisa Madonna. Haddish always looked amazing, and Isaac's suits were tailored to perfection. But boy I didn't care for anything else. Schrader's writing made me groan - the dialogue between characters was so incredibly stilted, and the movie was so ploddingly paced and dull. The soundtrack was awful, repetitively bring up this dirge-like song that always took me out of the movie every time it came on. And each scene felt like it existed solely because Schrader found some set or location he really liked so he decided to film there, but nothing ever seemed to come together into a cohesive whole and remained unsettling and weird. The impression I get from most critics is that they absolutely love Schrader, think he's an "auteur" and visionary, etc. Sadly, I'm not one of those people. So check this movie out only if you want to argue with me about my poor taste in cinema, but otherwise, despite it featuring a soulful and tormented Isaac performance, spare yourself.

Scenes from a Marriage: At last we get to the real meat of this post. A five-part limited series where Chastain and Isaac get to face off each other as Mira and Jonathan, a couple that have been happily married for years...until they aren't. In five tense episodes, we follow the saga of their crumbling marriage, subsequent divorce, and then life post-divorce that seems even messier than the crumbling marriage. Hagai Levi and Amy Herzog adapted this show based on the original 1973 Ingmar Bergman series that aired in Sweden and is thought to have contributed to rising divorce rates across Europe. Each episode essentially consists of the two actors talking to each other, fighting, and/or having sex and fighting again. Filmed during the pandemic, there is a very intimate, stripped-down feeling to this show, and it actually features scenes at the top of most episodes showing the masked crew preparing the set and readying the actors before they launch into the world's most dramatic and exhilarating acting exercise. 

Watching this show is like watching a play. I was constantly reminded of the fact that both Isaac and Chastain went to Juillard and are dramatic theatre kids at heart. Here, they get to face off each other and chew the most spectacular dialogue and indulge in heightened and draining emotions. Each episode is an emotional trainwreck, with each person finding new ways to be cruel or get hurt. It's a psychological minefield, showcasing just how confused and illogical human beings in love can be. I'm glad it was released in weekly installments so I could watch one episode a week and then recover for the next six days before the next bruising episode was out. 

It's important to note that this is also a story about a very rich and privileged couple. Mira is a corporate executive who makes a ton of money, and Jonathan is a philosophy professor who has the flexibility to take care of their daughter and still excel at his job. There's a lot of tension around gender roles, with Mira feeling like she'd a bad mother, and around the fact that Jonathan used to be Orthodox Jewish and still has some hang-ups that are a remnant of his upbringing. There's a lot of backstory that these characters mine over the course of five episodes, and it's a rich and compelling portrait of humanity. But boy it isn't a pretty portrait. This is an absolutely excellent show and Chastain and Isaac are guaranteed some awards love for their passionate performances in it. But if you're in need of happiness and light and don't want to be wallowing in drama? Do yourself a favor and don't watch this show.