Seberg on Amazon Prime stars Kristen Stewart as Jean Seberg, the actor best known for her role in Jean-Luc Goddard’s French New Wave film, Breathless. But director Benedict Andrews doesn’t focus on the actor’s career. Instead, he shows us the disturbing true story of how Jean Seberg
was tracked, harassed, humiliated, and eventually drive to suicide by
the FBI, who were surveilling Seberg’s involvement in the Black Panther
Party and the Civil Rights Movement in the ’60s.
 |
| Img Source: Google |
The Gist: The year is 1968, and Jean Seberg (Kristen
Stewart) is a famous actress best known in France and by American
cinephiles for her work in Jean-Luc Goddard’s Breathless. She
is an American raising a son in Paris with her French husband, novelist
and filmmaker Romain Gary (Yvan Attal), but spends a lot of time away
from them in Hollywood.
One day, while on a first-class flight to Los Angeles, Seberg
witnesses a confrontation between the white flight attendant and a
member of the Black Panther Party named Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie),
who is refused a seat in first class despite the fact that he’s willing
to pay for it. Seberg, intrigued, offers him her seat. After the flight,
she joins Jamal for a photo opp with the Blank Panther Party, fist
raised. Unknowingly, she puts a target on her back for the FBI, who we
now know was tracking and surveilling the Black Panther Party, along
with many other civil rights activists, using covert and illegal
methods.
Seberg becomes more and more involved with the political activists,
including writing sizeable checks to the Black Panthers and sleeping
with Jamal. The FBI agents assigned to her case (played by Jack
O’Connell, Vince Vaughn, and Colm Meaney) see everything. They start to
harass and intimidate Seberg, including tipping off Jamal’s wife (Zazie
Beetz) to his infidelity and eventually planting a false story about
Seberg in the papers. To others, it seems like Seberg is growing
paranoid and losing her mind—but of course, she’s right.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Another Amazon Studios political thriller, The Report, comes to mind. Like Seberg, The Report is based on a true story of a government agency gone wrong, and like Seberg, a solid performance from a big star is the main draw of the film.
Performance Worth Watching: Had this been a tighter
script, Kristen Stewart’s name certainly would have been on the
shortlist for Oscar season last year. She’s endlessly watchable—her eyes
quiver with fear and pain that makes your heartache for Seberg. And it
doesn’t hurt that costume designer Michael Wilkinson dressed in some of
the best looks of her career.
Memorable Dialogue: “The revolution needs movie
stars.” This line from Zazie Beetz to Kristen Stewart made me laugh, not
because it’s not true, but because it is true, and that’s just a bit depressing.
Sex and Skin: The sex scene between Stewart and Mackie
does get fairly explicit. As an added layer of voyeurism, the FBI agents
who live in Seberg’s phone listen to all of it.
Our Take: While I’m of the belief that every story,
when told properly, does deserve a movie, you have to justify it in your
storytelling—especially if you’re going to embed a more interesting
story in the sidelines. I’m not sure if Seberg ever quite
achieved that. The script, written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse,
spends far too much time attempting to humanize a fictional FBI agent
played by O’Connell, and not nearly enough time exploring the
fascinating dynamic between Seberg and the real-life civil rights
activists she worked alongside. The result is a surprisingly slow-moving
recount of a deeply interesting story.
That said, I came out of Seberg knowing 100 percent more
about Jean Seberg than I did going in, and with a newfound empathy for
the actor. I don’t consider that time wasted. That’s mostly thanks to
Stewart, who gives a helluva performance. There’s no doubt that she and
Mackie have chemistry, and while I would love to have like to see three
times as many scenes as they ended up having, I still very much enjoyed
watching their easy back-and-forth on screen.
Finally, a word about the costuming: It’s great. Designer Michael
Wilkinson pulled out all of the stops. Every time Stewart appeared in
scene in a new, fun, colorful outfit–be it a peach silk robe, or canary
yellow jacket, or thick-rimmed glasses, or red high-waisted shorts—well,
it felt like a gift. I’m not saying Kristen Stewart’s wardrobe in Seberg is gay rights, but Kristen Stewart’s wardrobe in Seberg is gay rights.
Our Call: STREAM IT. This is a flawed movie, and
it’s a shame it’s not better. But I’m still glad I watched it, and I
think you will be, too. Jean Seberg’s story deserves to be told. Not
only did I learn a lot about her from Seberg, but I also got watch a great performance from Kristen Stewart in some frankly fabulous outfits along the way.
0 Comments