Eyes of Tammy Faye

Tammy Faye Bakker, she of the layers of makeup that made her face into a living Halloween mask, will forever remain a camp icon of '80s culture for many of us. Directors Fenton Bailey and Randy Barbato aren't above needling Bakker for her more excessive accouterments, but The Eyes of Tammy Faye is ultimately a loving, sympathetic portrait of "the first lady of televangelism." The film charts her life from traveling evangelist to the mother of three religious cable networks, and her fall from grace when husband Jim Bakker was forced out of the PTL (Praise the Lord) ministry after a scandalous affair. Always entertaining (sock puppets introduce each section) and at times surprising (did you know that Jim and Tammy were the first television ministers to reach out to the gay community and people with AIDS?), it rarely strays from Tammy Faye's version of events. Jerry Falwell becomes the story's sole scapegoat, but even the film's best arguments don't quite make Jim Bakker an innocent victim. But then it's not his film, it's Tammy Faye's, and Bailey and Barbato seem to have fallen in love with their charismatic subject. If nothing else, they reveal the woman behind the cultural joke and celebrate a spiritual survival story. RuPaul Charles narrates, and clips from the 1990 TV movie Fall from Grace feature a young Kevin Spacey as the adulterous preacher. --Sean Axmaker