DOXA 2015 review: Iris

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      This is 80 minutes in the delicious company of Iris Apfel, the self-made, 94-year-old Manhattanite whose unlikely genius for matching ridiculous clothes with even crazier accessories has made her a fashion guru with populist appeal.

      Her one-woman show at the Met was a record-breaker and it’s obvious why. Apfel manages to look perfect no matter what kind of crap she’s draping herself in, and she says all the right things, like, “I don’t care for pretty.”

      In her previous life she was an interior decorator of equal renown with the White House as a regular client. Apfel chides her adorable husband Carl when he lets it slip that “Jackie [Kennedy] was a problem,” but it reminds us that Iris is a sort of inverse to another of documentarian Albert Maysles’ greatest subjects, the Jackie-related Beales of Grey Gardens.

      Maysles passed away in March, and he makes a quietly touching cameo at the end. This closing night film is a fantastic way to go out, for him and us.

      Playhouse, May 10 (7 p.m.); Vancity, May 10 (9 p.m.) 

      Follow Adrian Mack on Twitter @AdrianMacked.

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