Z: The Beginning of Everything

True, I was expecting more of a Fitzgeraldian whirlwind after the new take on Gatsby, but oh well. Thanks to Amazon, we have one Zelda series and one Last Tycoon series - very fittingly unfinished. So how is Christina Ricci as Zelda? Is she an unconventional Southern belle full of energy, the first carefree girl of the Roaring '20s? Indeed. Confident, attractive, and charming; ideally the kind of woman who could personify the muse of a great writer. David Hoflin, for a change, plays a Fitzgerald who is yearning, ambitious, with an unfulfilled ego and passionate love. The shorter format of the episodes makes Zelda a joyful one-off from my favorite period of the late 1910s and early 1920s. In addition, it features the superbly chosen period hits "Ain’t She Sweet?" and "Makin' Whoopee." We get to relive the time when the novels "This Side of Paradise" (1920) and "The Beautiful and Damned" (1922) were written, and the only thing we can regret is that we don't get to spend more time with Zelda in this form. (2017.10.02)