Seberg

The picture is potent and engaging; even its fictionalized elements ring with the spirit of truth. And Stewart is off the charts, though that’s hardly a surprise.

If the story of Jean Seberg is one of the more wretched footnotes in the chronicle of fame, that’s all the more reason to treasure those occasions, onscreen, when she was not a victim — when she bore herself, and whatever pains she harbored, with mastery and grace.

The chief problem with Seberg, as is often the case with biopics, is that the filmmakers never really find the character underlying the historical figure.

Stewart (per usual) is the best thing about the film.

Every time it threatens to truly pierce the psyche of its subject, played with typically intriguing, elusory intelligence by Kristen Stewart, the more ordinary mechanics of the movie she’s serving get in the way.

Superficiality soaks the entire film.

Although Kristen Stewart pulls off Seberg’s short haircut, she hardly embodies any of the presence or persona of the French New Wave “It” girl. Stewart’s monotonous delivery makes her character sound uninterested and bored.

On paper, "Seberg" sounds intriguing enough -- an international starlet jeopardizes her career when she gets romantically involved with a black community activist . The problem here is that the title character seems more motivated by lust and a desire to shed her wholesome girl-next-door image than to become someone who follows her heart and uses her position to fight against racial injustice. The result is a film that uses the FBI and its desire to neutralize even peaceful community organizations as merely window dressing instead of being the focus of the material. Kristen Stewart and her able cast do the best with what they have to work with, but one is constantly reminded of the white gaze. Perhaps the material would have been more compelling if it focused more on the good work that the Panthers and other grassroots organizations were doing in the community instead of the more confrontational aspects.

It's always sad to see a film that could have been great but doesn't quite make it. So it is with this biopic of '60s actress Jean Seberg, whose career was cut short by an apparent suicide brought about by relentless FBI harassment over her involvement with the civil rights movement. While the title bears her name, the picture inexplicably reduces her role in the story to more of a supporting part than that of the lead, a narrative decision that leaves her back story and character woefully underdeveloped at times, sadly shortchanging the powerhouse performance of Kristen Stewart and overemphasizing subplots more than they deserve to be. The potential was definitely here, but, unfortunately, it didn't quite live up to it.

"Lacks emotional connection with audience"

This film is billed as a "thriller." After seeing it, I can't agree less. Kristen Stewart plays movie star Jean Seberg (Breathless) who became an ardent supporter of the black power movement in '60s LA. To suppress her activism, the FBI launched an effort to discredit her involvement and destroy her career. Some might construe it as underplayed, but I think Stewart is at her most wooden in this role. To make matters more unfortunate, the bland writing and lax direction do little to create even a smidgen of tension. A "thriller" it isn't, but it is a story of government overreach in a dry, dull package.

Kristen Stewart is a limited actress, that cannot be denied but at least I must admit she has been trying to get out of a niche of conformity in which she could've stayed quietly after her participation in The Twilight Saga. Ironically, all of her best roles have been in small movies and Seberg is no exception, after two disappointing big-budget flicks like Charlie's Angels and Underwater she gives another solid performance in a film that unfortunately fails to exploit her work. Seberg is doubtful and therefore unconvincing and its director never manages to propose a marked course and completely misses the work of its main actress and the really interesting theme of the story the film is telling. I really expected more.