Seberg (2019, Benedict Andrews) - B-
So it took me a bit to get around to watching this. As is no secret, I'm a huge unabashed Jean Seberg fan and also from her hometown (Marshalltown, Iowa) where, of course, she's something of a legend. Despite my politics and the real life Seberg's being very opposite, I find her story fascinating and deeply sympathetic and read her biography years ago which, like the film, details her life and involved in the Black National movement and Black Panthers in the late 1960's and the subsequent FBI wiring tapping, harassment, and smear campaign. Well, seeing how this film got negative reviews, I was a bit reluctant to watch it, but gave it a try on the strength of Kristen Stewart's ability as an actress.
And for the record, Stewart does a great job. Just a wonderful performance... subdued when called for, but really captures many of the mannerisms and some of Seberg's ticks and charms. She's done her homework definitely. The physicality of her performance is great and the only minor nitpick would be with some of the vocal delivery which comes off as a bit modern and 2000s. If you've ever seen a Seberg film or listened to any of her interviews... she has a very unique and distinctive voice... it has the flatness of being raised the Midwest, but there's a certain eloquence and precision to it (as though each word has deliberate meaning and effect and each syllable carefully articulated), with a hint of charm, no doubt from the French she picked up. Again, that's nitpicking.
The critics are wrong about how awful this movie is because, while there is room for criticism, which I'll get into in a minute, Seberg does one thing exactly right and it's that it is tightly focused and avoids so many of the biopic traps wherein a writer and filmmaker believes that a person's entire life can be condensed into a two or three hour film. Even the biopic obsession of last summer, Oppenheimer, suffered largely from trying to cover too many time periods and too many episodes of the subject's life. Great biopics like Lawrence of Arabia focus on singular episodes or many a handful of episodes, but string them together into a coherent narrative. Unfortunately most biopics feel like a game of "whack a mole" in trying to include a person's "greatest hits" of life. Where Seberg really shines is that it only covers the time period in her life from 1967-1970 and not only that but it largely focuses and maintains the "thesis statement" if you will of focusing on her being the target of FBI surveillance.
Where the film does falter, is really two fold. It fails to really capture the essence of why she would have been sympathetic to the Black National movement and doesn't really show how she either aligned politically or how they had a deep sense of trying to find meaning in life beyond her film career and her deep sense of wanting to help the underdog and do something that would outlive her and exist beyond her own self. How this aspect of her life played at odds with her attempt at a film career beyond just being big in France wasn't really explored. It does have a few scenes that allude to Paint Your Wagon and Airport, but nothing much. The actor who plays her often bewildered agent, does a great job, but is underused. The other big weakness in the film, and it's a HUGE weakness are the FBI agent portrayals by Vince Vaughn and Colm Meaney who are written and played almost as caricatures and are just one dimensional. It's too bad too because normally they are great, but here they just don't have good material. Jack O'Connell (an actor I'm unfamiliar with), however does a spectacular job of showing the subtle nuisances of a person torn between doing their job (in this case spying on Seberg) and the moral conflict that arises when they know what they are doing is unethical. There's also some interesting subtext too here of some Laura vibes going on simultaneous to him growing a conscience.
The music choices were solid too and very much of the period and the smooth jazz based soundtrack was the right choice. Good cinematography as the film looks good and there are several shots in this film that are just down right great and framed beautifully.
This film isn't nearly as bad as what the critics claim, BUT the script is weak, but sprinkled with moments of greatnes, but at times it feels rushed because it doesn't really explore who Seberg was nor does it seem to take the FBI spying in a serious fashion, but more like a made-for-TV movie and half the time I was thinking the Peter Gunn theme would play whenever Vince Vaughn's character shows up. There's a good film in here buried someplace, and it feels like it enjoyed a foundation... again covering her life from 1967-1970 is a good way to go, BUT within those confines it's a bit of a mess and could have been more. It is definitely worth seeing for fans of Seberg or Kristen Stewart... an actress who is quickly becoming one of my favorites of the last decade or so.
Romeo + Juliet (1996, Baz Luhrmann) - A+
This is a great Shakespeare adaptation... one of two that came out in 1996, with the other being the even more superior Hamlet. Say what you will, but the stylistic excesses work well with the tone and themes of the play being the frantic and emotion and hormone filled drives and impulsivity of youth and the mad, almost crippling effects of not having the tools or wisdom to moderate those turbulent imbalances, along with the arrogance and lack of compassion for adults, who SHOULD know better, to write stuff off as non-consequential on one extreme or to be a partner in crime on the other. This is a beautiful film, wonderful shot and while the editing is often breakneck, what is often neglected and overlooked is how there are multiple shots in the film that stay on the image to let its power set in for probably at least 30 seconds or more. The fish tank scene, Mercutio's body lying dead on the beach, and Romeo's face after the fury subsides leaving the aftermath of his murder of Tybalt. The pop music works wonderful and it's a beautiful collage of "in that moment in time" juxtaposed to a piece of literature that is eternal. Romeo and Juliet isn't one of my favorite plays, but this film is definite one of my absolute favorite adaptations.
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