Superstar: The Karen Carpenter Story (1988)
The final 17 years of American singer and musician Karen Carpenter, performed almost entirely by modified Barbie dolls. The first film from Todd Haynes (Velvet Goldmine, I’m Not There), Superstar is a hauntingly beautiful biopic that garnered immediate praise among the local film community but quickly received 2 cease-and-desist letters from Mattel, the maker of Barbie, and Karen Carpenter’s family. To this day, this movie has not seen further release.
Genre: Animation, Drama, Music
Director: Todd Haynes
Actors: Bruce Tuthill, Cynthia Schneider, Gwen Kraus, Larry Kole, Melissa Brown, Merrill Gruver, Michael Edwards, Nannie Doyle, Rob LaBelle, Todd Haynes