What’s it rated? TV-MA
When? 2023
Where’s it showing? Netflix
Ryan White (The Keepers) directs this intimate and revealing portrait of blonde bombshell Pamela Anderson, who became a superstar playing C.J. Parker on the hit TV series Baywatch in the ’90s, fumbled an attempt to segue into film with Barb Wire (1996), and then saw her world implode after her sex tape with then husband and Mötley Crüe drummer Tommy Lee was stolen and widely distributed.
Anderson has always seemed like a caricature—a hyper-sexual bimbo who’s easy to make fun of. Her image wasn’t helped by her own need to please. She’d always gamely go along with jokes about her enormous implants on talk show appearances, and she had no problem shedding her clothes for Playboy magazine or slow-motion running on a beach in her iconic red swimsuit.
This new documentary humanizes Anderson in the most refreshing way and paints her as a thoughtful, sympathetic woman who just wanted to love and be loved. I came away with a new respect for her as a person, a mother, and an artist. Yes, this recontextualization of her life was created with her blessing, so you might accuse it of curating her life, but but it feels as unvarnished as her makeupless face. (112 min.) Δ
This article appears in Mar 9-19, 2023.
