Murder in Fashion

Outside a San Diego bar, the camera lingers suggestively on a sign announcing “Cocktails.” Inside, a 27-year-old gay hustler named Andrew Cunanan (Jonathon Trent) frets over his fading looks and softening six-pack.
According to “Murder in Fashion,” a hysterical, fictionalized account of Cunanan’s three-month, four-state, five-victim 1997 killing jag that culminated with the murder of the fashion designer Gianni Versace, the real culprit was the aesthetic tyranny of gay culture. One after another, Cunanan’s friends and “benefactors” cruelly mock his desire to become a Versace model, precipitating a furious dash to Minneapolis, where he bludgeons one of them to death. (“You just had a bad night,” soothes a lover — and future victim — when Cunanan transforms into a puddle of remorse.)
Filmed in “Miami Vice” colors and with a “Desperate Housewives” level of credibility, the movie has a touching earnestness that blocks our impulse to laugh. In a role that practically demands overacting (even James Franco might have trouble selling a line like “I’m pretty but I’m deadly”), Mr. Trent fully commits to a portrait of Versace worship and narcissistic self-loathing.
On the strength of that performance, we can almost believe that if only a Miami shop assistant had not urged Cunanan toward liposuction, Versace might still be alive.
“Murder in Fashion” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Piercing, posing, pouting and pummeling.
"Murder in Fashion" is part of a triple bill at the Quad Cinema — 34 West 13th Street in Greenwich Village — with “Watercolors” and “Misconceptions.”
Da The New York Times, 22 gennaio 2010