This frequently startling documentary begins with some fairly banal observations about the nature of a contemporary sickness. In jaded tones, a female voice-over says, “After years of worshiping monarchs and majesty, we now worship the celebrity.” What follows for the next 20 minutes or so of “Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl” constitutes a fast-paced account of the ascendancy of famous-for-being-famous rich kids — the Hilton sisters, the Miller sisters, Amanda Hearst, Olivia Palermo, Casey Johnson. The publicist Kelly Cutrone, describing New York nightlife in the late ’90s and early aughts, remembers, “People were doing blow and they were hanging out and they were making the world go ’round.” ’Twas ever thus, one supposes.
But the filmmaker Zackary Drucker’s narrative soon alights on the blogs that covered the social whirl, then one in particular: Park Avenue Peerage, at the time a kinder, gentler alternative to Socialite Rank and Gawker and one especially besotted with Tinsley Mortimer. The creator of Peerage is the true center of this documentary and, not to be glib, but their story is a doozy.
The blog’s origins were nowhere near Park Avenue. James Kurisunkal, the son of South Asian immigrants, started working on it from his student residence at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He was fascinated by Mortimer and her world while dwelling on the idea that he was “not attractive, not skinny” and not white. When New York magazine offered him a job in the city, the stage was set for catastrophe.
And his downfall was dramatic. Our culture likes to talk about people reinventing themselves. If you don’t already know this story (heartbreak, drug addiction, extreme weight loss, bankruptcy, gender transition) the sleight of hand Drucker uses — which includes a circle back to the jaded voice at the movie’s beginning — delivers its particulars with a wallop. And the finale is as compassionate as it is sad and unnerving.
Queenmaker: The Making of an It Girl
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 27 minutes. Watch on Hulu.
