Vidal Sassoon: The Movie: movie review

'Vidal Sassoon: The Movie' offers a carefully coiffed look into the life of the legendary hairdresser.

Less of a documentary than a testimonial, Craig Teper’s “Vidal Sassoon: The Movie” offers up a carefully coiffed look into the life of the legendary hairdresser. No doubt producer Michael Gordon’s recent coffee-table book on Sassoon is the perfect accessory to this sleek piece of hagiography.

Still, despite the film’s aura of sanctification, it manages to be fascinating anyway, largely because Sassoon’s accomplishments closely parallel the rise of corporate commercialism in the 1960s and '70s. Working his way out of poverty in London’s East End, he created, using not much more than a pair of scissors and a comb, not only a geometric “look” that was a smash worldwide – think of Mia Farrow’s hair in “Rosemary’s Baby” – but also pioneered, if that’s the word, the celebrity-endorsed worldwide product line. He was the Beatles of the hair business. Grade: B- (Rated PG for some thematic elements, language, and smoking.)

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