User Reviews

Seberg is a decent film based on Jean Seberg's battle against the FBI. The problem is, this is a highly sanitized version of the story. Stewart was great here but the film falters due to its not exactly accurate and highly sanitized portrayal of the events surrounding Seberg. Its still worth a watch for those who are unaware of Seberg

An interesting film that perhaps I liked better than many reviewers because I came to the film knowing nothing about Jean Seberg and very little about the years of her life the film portrays. I also admired Kristen Stewart’s performance because she became the enigmatic Seberg and made her interesting. Where did Seberg come from? Where was she going? The film was full of very specific detail, yet Seberg always seemed like a bottle drifting in the middle of an ocean where no shore was in sight.

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.

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.

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.

"Lacks emotional connection with audience"