Feud: Capote vs The Swans review - Crass, confused and deadly dull, it's this ... trends now
Feud: Capote vs The Swans (Disney+)
Truman Capote was the ultimate Gay Best Friend. A delicious gossip when he was sober, a venomous tattler when he was drunk, he clung to New York's society ladies, stroking their egos like lapdogs.
They demanded loyalty, flattery and entertainment — he was, said one, a 'homosexual court jester singing for his supper'. He called them his 'swans' because, 'they have to paddle twice as fast and vigorously as an ordinary duck, just to stay afloat'.
Capote was celebrated for his books, including his novella Breakfast At Tiffany's and true-crime tale In Cold Blood. But after his talent was washed away by a tidal wave of gin and vodka, he tried to earn one last publishing payday by writing about his ladies and laying bare their secrets — their drug habits, their sex lives, even their crimes and cover-ups.
British actor Tom Hollander, 56, playing American novelist and screenwriter Truman Capote
The fallout from the exposé is the focus of Feud: Capote vs The Swans. Tom Hollander plays the writer, imitating his arch mannerisms, mimicking his high, sibilant voice, and generally acting his little pink socks off.
Facing him across the tables of Manhattan's most chic 1970s restaurants are an array of grandes dames: Chloe Sevigny, Calista Flockhart, Diane Lane and at their head, Naomi Watts, as queen of the socialites Babe Paley.
