Grey Gardens (2009)

Thankfully not the grotesque vanity project one might have feared, this unflinching yet respectful biopic offers some worthwhile context and understanding of the Beales phenomenon, even if Barrymore and Lange’s evocation of the two Edies can never hope to entirely satisfy.

A few golden moments only make us wish the original documentary had caught them for real, like little Edie’s verbal bitchslap to Jackie Onassis that under different circumstances it might have been she who became first lady. It’s interesting therefore to note the Maysles brothers’  classic documentary began as a study of Jackie and her sister, but the makers found them wanting as a subject and instead turned their camera upon her aunt and cousin. Win.