'Olympia': Massachusetts actress Olympia Dukakis is subject of new documentary

    In the new Apple TV+ documentary, “Olympia,” Oscar-winner Olympia Dukakis sums up her remarkable life in one slightly off-color dare in which she frankly asks, “Do you wanna (expletive) or do you wanna fight.” Coaxed by director Harry Mavromichalis, the Massachusetts native — and cousin of former Bay State governor, Michael Dukakis — freely offers opinions on everything from her sexual prowess to her regrets about being a too-permissive mother to her three children.

    What’s missing is any value or substance to observations presented randomly and often without context. It’s all cursory all the time. It’s an all-too-conventional look at a highly unconventional woman. Ironic since Dukakis is borderline obsessed with self-examination. Mavromichalis feeds us some of that, but never lends it a lick of depth. For instance, how can he let her admission of being suicidal in her youth pass without asking what brought her to the brink of such a desperate act.

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    It’s the same blank slate when she broaches religion, drug-addiction, motherhood and tolerating a cheating husband in fellow actor Louis Zorich to whom she was wed for 55 years prior to his death in 2018. Where is the follow-up? Mavromichalis is content to let these intriguing subjects slide in favor of umpteen clips of acquaintances fawning over Dukakis. And why all the hosannas?  Don’t we already know she’s a terrific actress? Who’s he attempting to please? His audience, or a subject in need of a little ego stroking as the 89-year-old adjusts to being boxed in to playing sassy Italian grandmothers?

     The answers are obvious and they render “Olympia” more hagiography than honest exploration of a woman who overcame a lifetime of sexism in a business where strong, spirited women were viewed as a threat to male domination. That such archaic attitudes are no longer in vogue is largely due to feisty, strong-willed women like Dukakis, but the film oddly gives her significant contributions a frustrating short shrift. It’s the same when she opens up about a promiscuous youth littered with one-night stands instigated out of a need to sample a variety of men. How can Mavromichalis let such a revelation go so painfully unexplored?

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    Her “sampling” of male anatomy ended the night she tumbled into bed with Zorich. Instead of making her usual fast, early morning exit, she felt the urge to stay. And she remained for more than five decades, during which the two thespians shared not only a bed but stages across the world, often acting opposite each other. Colleagues note the level of their delivery often matched the state of their marriage on a particular day. In other words, they brought their domestic squabbles to work, often to the benefit of an audience left rapt by the level of truth in their performances.

     Yet, we’re never made privy to what it was that enabled them to pull off such a feat. In its place are empty clips of the two getting ready to head to the Shrine Auditorium on the night she would win the Supporting Actress Oscar for her unforgettable portrayal of Cher’s bristly mom in “Moonstruck.” Yawn!

    Equally dull is Dukakis’ obligatory return to her family’s roots in Lesbos, where the locals seem more interested in her cousin Michael’s political exploits than her acting accomplishments. Accompanying her is daughter, Christina, who remains strangely silent throughout. Her reluctance to open up stands in contrast to her brothers, Stefan and Peter, who recall getting used to having a mother who wasn’t always present. What gives? Like everything else in “Olympia” it leaves you vexingly craving more.

Movie review

OLYMPIA

(Not rated.) A documentary by Harry Mavromichalis. On Apple TV+  Grade: B-

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