Pam & Tommy movie review & film summary (2022)

As an idiots-on-parade heist comedy, it sort of works—Rogen is always a reliable everyman, finding layers of likability in a dopey dude very clearly out of his depth and running entirely on impulse. But it’s hard not to feel that every time we cut away to see what pathetic shenanigans Rand’s up to (including, eventually, having to fashion himself into a reluctant mob enforcer for Andrew Dice Clay’s nasty loan shark), it takes significant time away from the real focus of the story: Pamela Anderson and the tape’s effect on her career, marriage, and life. 

It’s these components that work best, due in large part to James’ stunning lead turn as Pamela. While she doesn’t fully disappear into the role—Anderson, whatever you may say about her as a performer, is impossible to truly replicate—James’ physical transformation (including pouty lips, a breathy Marilyn Monroe whisper, and conspicuously ample chest plate) gets pretty close. What’s more, James does a service to her subject by avoiding the tabloid caricature of Anderson as a dumb bimbo, instead playing her with a refreshing self-awareness and welcome ambition, as blinkered as it may be. (You don’t need hindsight to figure out that Pamela Anderson shouldn’t have hinged her movie-star hopes on something like “Barb Wire.”) 

While the show is clearly Pam’s story, we can’t forget about Tommy, played with childish volatility by Stan. On the one hand, Stan’s Tommy is cartoonish, a hair-trigger buffoon as motivated by his dick as anything else. (One of the series’ most bizarre scenes literalizes this, as he has a heart-to-helmet conversation with his own enormous, prehensile member, voiced by Jason Mantzoukas.) On the other, his love for Pamela is right there on the surface, peeking out through layers of tattoos and the bro-code mores of the dipshit heavy-metal subculture he rides in. It’s not nearly on the same level as James’, but Stan is engaging from moment to moment, and I hope he gets more chances to dip out from his Marvel contract to stretch his acting legs like this. 

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