I remember the infamous crash in the metro-Atlanta area in the summer of 1999 when a truck carrying Beanie Babies spilled its cargo all over Interstate 285. The freeway that surrounds the city is known for its heavily traveled semi trucks. Because you can shave off a lot of time in theory going from one of the three major interstate (20, 75, and 85) that criss-cross between the center of the city, it can be very busy. And it’s very easy to not get off at the right exit and end up going in another direction.
For anyone who’s ever drove in Atlanta especially before GPS, it can be frustrated. Yet, Interstate 285 is heavily traveled with people going to and from the suburbs that are around the town. The joke is that no one really lives in Atlanta. And the freeway is full of semi trucks hauling and moving things around you feel like it’s something out of the movie Convoy.
So, it was funny on the news seeing all the people stopping on the side of the road risking their safeties to grab the toys off the road. Others were just stopping in the middle and grabbing them. This wreck is shown at the beginning of The Beanie Bubble, which like the 1999 incident, crashes before getting to its intended destination. And like the perimeter freeway, it goes around the heart of the story without really touching on what made the craze so fascinating. Part of the story is like the three major Interstates. It is told through the lives of three women who were all connected to businessman Ty Warner (Zach Galifanikas poorly miscast) either personally and/or professionally.
Galifanikas is wrong as Ty. He comes off looking like a hybrid cross of John Goodman and Stephen Root. Now, if either one of those had played Ty, it might have helped. Both have a knack for playing shady characters while still remaining likeable. But Galifanikas plays the role basically like an over-grown child who constantly wants to take his ball and go home. It’s no secret that Ty was known for his privacy and selfish jealousy. But Galifanikas plays the character like a Saturday Night Live parody.
You need a good actor who can make Ty the occasional sympathetic but mostly pompous sleazeball he needs to be. Mainly, it because this movie pits him up against three fine actresses to go head to head in. There’s Robbie Jones (Elizabeth Banks) who plays his business partner from the start in the early 1980s who eventually becomes his romantic partner behind the scenes. She’s based on the real-life Patricia Roche. Then there’s Sheila Harper (Sarah Snook) who becomes his next romantic partner and almost his wife before she realizes he’s too spoiled and greedy. Does he really want a partner or does he really want a mother? A scene where Ty flips out prior to the wedding that never happens, retreats to a secluded mansion they’re supposed to move to and cowers in the corner in darkness could’ve been handle better if it had happened earlier in the movie. Snook does her best and you can see Galifanakis really nail what makes the man a total narcissist.
However, directors Kristin Gore and her husband, Damian Kulash Jr., don’t know how to frame the movie. It keeps jumping back and forth through time from the 1980s to the early 1990s to the Y2K era that it’s hard to get a grasp on who to follow. Maya Kumar (Geraldine Viswanathan) plays the young college student who’s got a better head for business in the technological age than being a doctor which her parents want her to be. She’s based on the real-life counterpart Lina Triveldi. Maya manages to convince Ty that they need to take advantage of the popularity of the Internet. Unfortunately, this has a different effect as Ty is angry the Beanie Babies are being sold on eBay and people are actually making money off of it and even by blogging.
Just as the fashion designer Halston played by Ewan McGregor, Ty seemed to care more about making things more accessible to real business owners and not the retailers like Target and Wal-Mart. This also drove up the price of the items and made them more valuable. And by pretending they were “limited editions,” people would pay more. Yet, this also created a panic that a business owner really doesn’t want at the end of the day. People fought over them when they partnered with McDonald’s. A divorce couple had to divvy their collection up in court in front of the judge. An administration aide for President Bill Clinton had to relinquish the dolls they got on a foreign trip because of the emoluments clause. (This one I like especially because the director almost became part of the First Family and it’s a dig at the former First Family that got in on an outdated concept.)
However, like all trends, they don’t have a good shelf life. Maybe the trends last a few years if they’re lucky. Beanie Babies were also having to compete with Pokemon (mentioned here), Pogs, Star Wars toys, etc. How did Ty not think that the end was going to happen? Maybe he should’ve done more interviews or sell to the retail department stores. I mean, Amazon was becoming popular in the late 1990s. Eventually, Ty couldn’t keep up. Worse, he decided to show those around him business still belonged to the Boy’s Club and took the wrong direction. I don’t doubt the sexism and misogyny existed but it’s still not handled the right way.
Was Ty such a bad person he wouldn’t give Sheila’s daughter credit for the Spooky Beanie Baby? He isn’t a great person but there’s never any explanation or arc for his behavior. He’s just a jerk because he’s a jerk. But there’s so many times you can see someone like him throw a tantrum that it gets repetitive. Not all biopics should have a scene or two that explains the method to someone’s madness. Yet because Ty is played as such a caricature, he’s just a greedy, vain fool.
The difference between Ty and Halston is that Halston wanted to make something that was unique and not mass market it. Ty was the opposite. But he didn’t want to give anyone else the credit or the money they deserved. He’s an “All the credit but none of the blame” person. They may be why he refused to give interviews. Sooner or later, you let something slip. Or people go digging and find something you don’t want to get out.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 