On Friday mornings, The Current’s afternoon host Mary Lucia joins Jill Riley to discuss and dish on movies, books, and other topics. For the first edition of the Business of Show, it’s a closer look at House of Gucci, the 2021 film now available for streaming and purchase.

I happened to watch House of Gucci. Now, just as a quick little backstory, it is based on a book, about the family empire behind the Italian fashion brand House of Gucci. This outsider comes in from humble beginnings and marries into the family — and then everybody falls apart and gets murdered.

It stars Lady Gaga and the cast is epic. For one, Jeremy Irons, looks half dead. It looks sort of like Boris Karloff in The Mummy. And then, there's Jared Leto, who, I kept thinking, “He's wearing a lot of prosthetic makeup.” And I thought, "Was there no actual actor that resembled this Gucci son?" But if you can get past his redonkulous look, it's just the campiest high-camp performance ever.

It's almost three hours, and I found myself laughing out loud. But then I thought, "Wait, was that supposed to be funny?" You're not completely sure, because it's not played for a full camp laugh factor. But there is so much that goes on that you just go, "What the what?" It is cray cray.

And Gaga, okay, she's brilliant and born to be performer, that is for certain. I had read somewhere that she said she always had wanting to be an actress rather than a singer. But after watching this movie, I'm just so glad she's a great singer. This is such a total departure role for her. First of all, she plays Patrizia Reggiani, who is this working-class chick. She she plays a pretty unlikable person.

Oh boy, it's also set in the '80s. So you get some really horrific fashion moments. But the music is really good. And the scenery, of course, in Italy is to die. And the the one main son that she's going after and ends up marrying, he's so reluctant to take over the family fortune. He's played by Adam Driver. He sort of plays it in this one-note kind of thing. And Al Pacino, of course is in it. Salma Hayek plays a psychic on television that Gaga gets to be friends with, and then I shouldn't tell you... There's the twist at the end.

Gaga is good in the sense that she's obviously an emotive person. She's she's in touch with those emotions. You know that by her singing, but maybe it's just because she's wearing ridiculous shoulder pads and belted blouses. And maybe it's just harder for me to take that seriously. But it is a fine line between “I'm laughing,” and “Should I be laughing?”

[One Academy Award nomination for Makeup and Hairstyling] would probably be about it. Because, it's a cast of insanely great actors, but given the script and the material they're working with, which is based on a true story, it's just so campy. I can see how the the snooty Oscar committee would be like, "Ugh, no."

But, you know, it is worth it just to see Jared Leto in that bald cap, and it is nuts. But again, is it worth your three hours? If you walk into it thinking you're not sitting down watching something that's going to be life-changing? Yes. The scenery, the clothes, the music, and Leto.