Since Tom Ford's A Single Man is a period piece, perhaps it's only fitting that the film's reviews tend to reference another bygone relic: print magazines. Seemingly every evaluation of Ford's ultra-stylish debut can't help but compare its look to that of a glossy fashion spread, which is a common criticism leveled at gay directors who've got terrific costumes and immaculate production design. (When the director is straight, critics merely call him "David Fincher.")
Movieline collected 9 such accusations, though really, it was as easy as shooting fish in a Jonathan Adler-designed barrel. Could they come to any consensus on exactly which magazine Ford's film is supposed to resemble? Let's find out!
Keith Uhlich, Time Out NY:
"Christopher Isherwood's seminal queer novel deserves a film adaptation that captures both its sense of place and its activist spirit. Cowriter-director Tom Ford settles for the glossy ephemera of a Vanity Fair cover spread."
Scott Foundas, Village Voice:
"Think of it as Vogue Hommes: The Movie."
David Ansen, Newsweek:
"Would Isherwood's professor live in an Architectural Digest midcentury home and have drawers of perfectly folded clothes?"
Leslie Felperin, Variety:
"The way Charley's pink-and-gold parlor harmonizes not just with her sweeping monochrome dress but also her pink Sobranie cigarettes will evoke swoons of delight in auds for whom magazines like Wallpaper and Architectural Digest are holy writ."
David Poland, The Hot Button:
"Ford, as a first timer, does a nice job creating a living, breathing Vanity Fair magazine."
"A Single Man walks an interesting line by placing a suicidal character in world that could easily be found on the pages of Vanity Fair."
Guy Lodge, In Contention:
"No surprise then, that the handsome, eggshell-delicate character study A Single Man is very much an extension of that identity: trading in polished surfaces and swoonily aestheticized desire, the film looks on occasion like an animated GQ shoot."
Karina Longworth, Indiewire:
"On a superficial level, nearly every frame is highly styled to the point where it would not seem out of place printed in Italian Vogue (it may be too visually esoteric for the North American edition), but style is also a deeper theme."
S.T. VanAirsdale, Movieline:
"A Single Man simply looks too good to feel that bad. His affectations may work in the ad-heavy front 40 pages of a Vogue or Vanity Fair issue, but onscreen they expose the anguish and the artifice of beauty."
WINNER: Vanity Fair, though I suppose that was too easy, since Ford famously appeared on the cover and all. In any case: Rob Marshall, you're next!