About Face: Supermodels Then and Now

Fewer models with more time to talk about themselves and much less about the "fabulous people in the industry" that treated them like goddesses would have made this documentary as good as it is glamorous.

Instead of going in-depth with a few models, there's a carousel of names and familiar faces each awarded only a few soundbites, taken up mostly with biography, before the camera moves on.

About Face addresses some deeper implications--Gia Carangi's early death is a cautionary tale--but knows better than to over do it. [6 Aug 2012, p.39]

There are interesting tidbits about the history of fashion photography--the racism, the drugs--but not much serious discussion about the cultural consequences of the evolution of the business.

Filmmaker Timothy Greenfield-Sanders (The Black List, The Latino List) might have done well to just keep the camera on [Carmen Dell'Orefice] and let everyone else hit the cutting room floor. But other former supermodels are quite interesting as well, among them Isabella Rossellini, Jerry Hall, Paulina Porizkova, Carol Alt, China Machado, Marisa Berenson and Lisa Taylor.

Nobody here offers shattering insights into the meaning of life or even of modeling. They're just among a large group of attractive women telling stories to the camera.

HBO tackles some familiar territory--beauty and the perils of aging, crowsfeet to sagging cheeks--but treats the subject from several new angles thanks to the candor of the older, wiser, still stunning former models.

About Face is raucous and lovely. [3 Aug 2012, p.69]