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"Lots of good reviews, but also some mixed views at Cannes since it apparently has some unique aspects to the film which some reviewers didn't understand or something." I believe the discrepancy which many of the critics who did not like Personal Shopper have in common is they may be attempting to critique this film based on their idea of what constitutes a good film. For example, the vast majority of good Hollywood films are based on an archplot, which involves conflict and inciting incidents driving the story forward which reaches a crescendo point during the climax and concludes on a positive note, where the lead character has a clear arc where she makes undeniable progress of some sort, a character whom the audience can empathize with and thus live vicariously through this character's ordeals and root for her. In contrast, European art house films, even the good ones, are usually based on an antiplot and are usually more dialogue driven than story driven like their American counterparts. The scenes in many European art house films don't necessarily interconnect to form a cohesive whole in the way that most good Hollywood produced films do, in the sense that one scene is a payoff for the next scene, repeating this process over and over again throughout the film. Such films often have open-ended, even ambiguous endings as is the case with Personal Shopper. Perhaps this is the reason why some booed this film when it premiered at Cannes, because the ending did not bring the closure they expected. This will be the reason why, despite Kristen churning out another Oscar-worthy performance, that the Academy won't give her performance the time of day. In other words, the right kind of performance, the wrong type of film. Because Kristen's acting still transcended her role and the European art house style of filmmaking, as even some of the critics who did not particularly enjoy watching Personal Shopper still spoke very highly of Kristen's performance nonetheless, if only she would be cast in a similar role, but this time in an Oscar bait type film, then the Academy would not be able to ignore her talent even if they tried. But this will take a top tier director who is willing to cast Kristen as a lead in his film along with hiring an accomplished screenwriter who will tailor make his screenplay to play to her strengths and allow her to run with it.

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

With actors who were born and/or raised in Boston, such as Casey Affleck, Mark Wahlberg, Edward Norton, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Ben Foster, Eliza Dushku and Uma Thurman, just to name a few, and there are several other noteworthy actors born in the state of Massachusetts for that matter such as Kurt Russell, Steve Carell and Elizabeth Banks, I thought that something must be in the water which Bostonians drink which make them predisposed to screen acting.

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

Sure looks as if this film is finally getting greenlit as another trade publication, The Hollywood Reporter, recently confirmed this news as well Carved, as in this film is good to go--I repeat...good to go!: <a href="http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/laura-dern-talks-kristen-stewart-jt-leroy-biopic-987930">http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/laura-dern-talks-kristen-stewart-jt-leroy-biopic-987930</a> A fan of Kristen recently Tweeted an excerpt from Production Weekly, arguably the provider of the most comprehensive and up to date film production data, which appears to state that this film will start production in June 2017 as some have been speculating about over the past few months: <a href="https://twitter.com/TeamK_1/status/844745735707017216">https://twitter.com/TeamK_1/status/844745735707017216</a> If this info is legit, it looks as if Kristen will have a very busy year as the production for Underwater doesn't wrap up until May 26--so filming JT Leroy in June will mean another back-to-back project for Kristen--similar to her super hectic year in 2015, especially during the month of November when she filmed Personal Shopper just weeks after Cafe Society's filming wrapped up.

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

Not sure if you're aware of this but casting directors for the movie Underwater are looking for stand-ins along with an actor for their New Orleans, Louisiana cast who fits the description: Man #2: 6'0" to 6'2" African American looking male with brown hair and a slim build. <a href="http://www.projectcasting.com/casting-calls-acting-auditions/kristen-stewarts-underwater-casting-call-new-stand-ins">http://www.projectcasting.com/casting-calls-acting-auditions/kristen-stewarts-underwater-casting-call-new-stand-ins</a> I myself match the height and build, but unfortunately I'm not "African American looking" and unluckily I can't act if my life depended on it--not to mention I live in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Judging by your YouTube videos you appear to match the description quite well expect for your height, perhaps by a few inches. If only they were filming in Orange County instead of New Orleans. I'm guessing Ron must be a pretty good actor since he, after all, hails from Boston, while Carved can practically drive to NOLA from Florida without breaking a sweat. So perhaps we four should form a composite "6’0” to 6’2” African American looking male with brown hair and a slim build" in order to costar with Kristen in Underwater.

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

"Anyhow, great to see her on set in a bigger movie. Not that big or small movie matters, it's the kind of roles she takes on that are interesting. Still only less than ten names in the cast so I don't know who is in the full cast." Who will be the lead actors in this film besides Kristen is still sketchy. And pretty much the only details about the storyline is what we glean from articles and interviews such as the story being set in a research lab sometime in the future, involving an underwater scientific crew with Kristen's character Nora working as a mechanical engineer. Perhaps my biggest question at the moment is: Who will be playing Nora's love interest? I'm guessing Nora will be good friends with T.J. Miller's character, whom I'm guessing will be portraying a computer geek of some sort, while providing the comic relief for this film--he was superb in Deadpool--but I can't quit fathom him being Nora's main squeeze as they aren't anywhere in the same league--even if they're the last two survivors left standing 20,000 leagues under the sea. But then again, Kristen and Jesse Eisenberg, as his usual geeky self, were soulmates in three films--well make that two: Adventureland and American Ultra--while in my opinion, her character Vonnie was supposed to have been Bobby's soulmate in Cafe Society--but in a Woody Allen film, which has become more a vision from an art house auteur than a film with a prototype Hollywood happy ending, it just wouldn't have been sexually repressed/elusive enough for Vonnie and Bobby to live happily ever after even though they continued to dream about each other after going their separate ways.

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

Interesting observation Carved. Being that some were comparing Underwater to Armageddon, I was assuming the main character, in this case Kristen's character, would sacrifice her life in order to save other crew members.

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

One more review from a top film critic, Richard Brody, which was submitted earlier today (3/20/17), which despite being a negative review, may be the most telling and revelatory as far as how talented a critic considers Kristen to be in relation to her performance in PS: "'Personal Shopper' and the Misunderstood Art of Kristen Olivier Assayas’s “Personal Shopper” is a big leap and a big risk, one that puts his artistry to the test along with that of the movie’s star, Kristen Stewart; from the start, it’s an admirably bold movie that suggests an unusual and palpable urgency on Assayas’s part, which only makes its failings all the more pronounced. In “Personal Shopper,” Stewart is front and center throughout the film; though it has many characters, it’s the closest thing to a one-person show that the movies have offered in a while. For much of the movie—including in its best scenes—she’s acting alone, confronting a special-effects-conjured spirit, a series of menacing text messages, and a fancy wardrobe and its psychological implications. The sheer audacity of the plan is thrilling, especially following the art-snob sludgery of “Sils Maria,” “Summer Hours,” and some of Assayas’s other recent work. Kristen Stewart is as fine an actress as she is a misunderstood one. I have always been bewildered by the old meme about her inscrutably blank expressions. In fact, her spontaneous subtlety, the passing of emotions through her with a minimal outward display, is among the qualities that put her at the forefront of her generation’s performers. Her dominant talent is being herself: her manner is spontaneous, angular, awkward; she’s the geek who blossomed into a cool girl without changing at all—she was always cool and it just took the rest of the world time to catch up. She’s not a conspicuously technical actor, and that’s the core of her art. The closest artistic counterpart to Stewart is Greta Gerwig. What they have in common (to borrow Norman Mailer’s line about Marlon Brando) is that whatever they’re about to say on their own seems likely more interesting than whatever a screenwriter has written for them. Stewart is, in effect, a mumblecore actress stuck in studio movies. Where Gerwig got started by being herself, improvising in Joe Swanberg’s “Hannah Takes the Stairs,” Stewart was an international star while still a teen-ager, performing lines written for her long before filmmakers might have become interested in what she could say for herself. The implication of personal life in performance with which Gerwig launched her career might be unbearably risky for an already-established star of Stewart’s stature. In any case, “Personal Shopper” puts Stewart through scenes and texts so closely defined as to allow her little leeway beyond the narrow margins of stage directions. As directed by Assayas, her performance abandons her powerfully emotional near-neutrality and veers and lurches between familiarly indicative, visually legible expressions. It’s impossible to know whether this is a result of too much direction or too little—whether Assayas filmed Stewart goggle-eyed with awe at her talent or deference to her celebrity and therefore left her to interpret his intentions effortfully, or whether he directed her insistently and specifically to the detriment of her artistry. In either case, the result is that Stewart’s distinctive qualities are submerged; as engaging a performer as she is to watch, she could as easily have been replaced, in “Personal Shopper,” with another of the leading lights of her generation, such as Jennifer Lawrence or Tessa Thompson. In fact, while watching the film, I found myself imagining their more overt emotionalism in lieu of the strained expressivity to which Assayas pushes Stewart. The problem of Stewart’s performance is indicative of Assayas’s broader weaknesses as a director. In “Personal Shopper,” his subject is intimacy and sensuality, but the film offers neither. The form and the touch of the finery that Maureen buys and tries on is supposed to rattle her very soul, but Assayas neither gets close to the clothing nor to Maureen; there are no hands, no texture, no sense of scent, no allure other than the one that’s dictated in the script. There’s no physicality to the way that Assayas films the luxurious garments and accessories or Maureen’s approach to them. He films a series of playlets in which the actors merely play out the facts in the script. For that matter, he doesn’t get close to Stewart, either; using almost no close-ups, capturing her in indifferent middle shots, he mainly follows her, in a show of directorial faux-submissiveness. He neither dramatizes Maureen’s intimacy nor conveys Stewart’s own." ~Richard Brody <a href="http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/review-personal-shopper-and-the-misunderstood-art-of-kristen-stewart">http://www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/review-personal-shopper-and-the-misunderstood-art-of-kristen-stewart</a>

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

posted 7 years ago in General Discussion

Yes indeed Ron, Underwater is a big-budget, major studio film with a production budget estimated at $65 million according to this site:<a href="http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2017/03/whos_filming_in_new_orleans_kr.html">http://www.nola.com/movies/index.ssf/2017/03/whos_filming_in_new_orleans_kr.html</a>

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

Would you say the same about all these other actors who recently hosted SNL? I don't follow your logic.

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

This film currently has a Certified Fresh rating of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes while 91% of the top film critics liked it.

posted 7 years ago in Personal Shopper (2017)

Kristen's hosting of Saturday Night Live ranks #3 for SNL: Season 42 Episodes, with a grade of A-: <a href="http://tvline.com/gallery/saturday-night-live-season-42-best-worst-episodes-photos/#!14/saturday-night-live-season-42-59/">http://tvline.com/gallery/saturday-night-live-season-42-best-worst-episodes-photos/#!14/saturday-night-live-season-42-59/</a> Pretty amazing since she beat out some pretty hefty competition by any stretch, including: 2017 Best Actor Oscar winner Casey Affleck, 2017 Best Actress Oscar winner Emma Stone, 2017 Best Supporting Actress Oscar nominee Octavia Spencer, 5-time Golden Globes nominated actress Emily Blunt, 4-time Golden Globes nominated actress Scarlet Johanson, Oscar nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch, Oscar nominated actress and star of Rogue One Felicity Jones, A-list box office draw Margot Robbie, Oscar nominated actor and 17-time veteran host of SNL Alec Baldwin along with comedic actors Kristen Wiig and Aziz Ansari who is also a well known stand-up comedian--actors who have all hosted an SNL: Season 42 episode. I was a bit disappointed Kristen couldn't top funnyman Dave Chapelle or 5-time Oscar nominated/8-time Golden Globes nominated actor Tom Hanks who are ranked #1 and #2 respectively. Oh well, perhaps she'll be invited back next season to give them a run for their money.

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

"Right, this is probably the biggest reason, that Sils Maria was a foreign film. But the Academy does give certain awards to foreign films, though perhaps not Oscar awards. But also, I mentioned and you elaborated on, she received great accolades from prestigious critics groups and film festivals. I remember at the time how significant it all was, yet not a mention in Oscar talk." By all the critical praise that Kristen is receiving for Personal Shopper, it sure looks as if her two most critically acclaimed performances thus far in her career will be in foreign films. Unfortunate, as far as Oscar accolades go, since she won't be nominated for any Oscars despite being deserving of such recognition. If there's any consolation, at the least the critics treat her as if she's an Oscar worthy performer by showering her with praise and critics group awards.

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

I would give Kristen the edge because of her career trajectory as well as the amount of critical acclaim she has received, especially over the past 2 years. That being said, I do consider Emma to be a talented actress with noteworthy screen presence and sure do hope she chooses more challenging roles in films such as The Perks of Being a Wallflower to showcase her range. Here are my fave clips of Emma in this: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf0UtEdWh50">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pf0UtEdWh50</a> BTW, I'm anticipating a good performance from Emma in her upcoming film starring opposite Tom Hanks in "The Circle".

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

"Kristen does quieter, smaller films, lots of Indies so those aren't the flashy films. Those are more artsy type roles/films and not usually seen by large audiences. Not saying Kristen deserves Oscars but that the kinds of roles she does don't easily get picked up for Oscar awards. But her and her films have garnered huge praise at film festivals, especially her role in Sils Maria which got rave reviews. That film won her a French Cesar award, top French film award which is extremely rare for a non-French actor." One thing I've learned is that Oscar voters aren't necessarily film buffs who make it a point to watch every single critically acclaimed performance, as some have even admitted in the past that they haven't watched some of the films which have been nominated for Oscars. That being said, the reason why I keep harping on the fact that the Academy should have nominated Kristen was because she didn't merely receive a few rave reviews here and there for her stellar performance in Clouds of Sils Maria--she actually received more prestigious critical acclaim than any Best Supporting Actress nominee in 2015 including eventual BSA Oscar winner Alicia Vikander. Take for example Kristen winning the New York Film Critics Circle award which is a very big deal, as the NYFCC remains one of the most acclaimed Oscar precursors in the industry as only a few NYFCC winners have failed to be shortlisted by the Academy. The Los Angeles Film Critics Association and National Society of Film Critics aren't slouches either and Kristen winning awards from all three of these prestigious film critics groups should have been a precursor to her receiving an Oscar nom at the very least. So while I didn't expect Kristen to win an Oscar, I could realistically expect her to at least get nominated, for in addition, like you mentioned, she became the first American actress to have ever won a Cesar award. Sure, not many moviegoers, including Oscar voters saw Sils Maria in theaters--nor were screeners mailed to AMPAS members of the actors branch. Yet in my opinion, that's still not a good enough reason for Oscar voters to ignore her performance because it was the most critically acclaimed performance that any actor from all four acting categories received in 2015, if one goes by the prestigious critics group awards she won. There is however, one thing I can think of--besides politics of course--which probably hurt her chances of getting nominated for CoSM and most likely Personal Shopper as well, in that these aren't just roles in artsy type films like you also mention--these are roles in foreign art house films. Over the past decade, out of the 200 Oscar nominations in the four acting categories, only 5 of these were nominations for performances in foreign films. For 2 of these noms, the actor/actress starred in a film which was nominated for a Best Foreign Language Film Oscar: Emmanelle Riva who received a Best Actress Oscar nom for Amour and Javier Bardem who received a Best Actor nod for Biutiful. The French film Elle, should have also received a Best Foreign Language Film nom according to several media sources such as The Hollywood Reporter, The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, etc., so perhaps this outrageous snub may have helped Isabelle Huppert's chances at receiving a Best Actress nom, although I'm not in any way taking anything away from her outstanding performance in this. The other two noms went to Marion Cotillard in the French films La Vie en Rose and Two Days, One Night, which is a testament to her mesmerizing performances, as both were in foreign films which weren't nominated for Best Foreign Language Film Oscars--as in no coattail noms for Cotillard by any stretch.

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

As evidenced by these rave reviews by several of the top movie critics in the industry, 91% to be exact according to Rotten Tomatoes:<a href="https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/personal_shopper/">https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/personal_shopper/</a>, the top critics appear to be in Kristen's corner just as they were when she received more prestigious critical acclaim, via winning awards from the most prestigious film critics groups in the world (i.e., New York Film Critics Circle, Los Angeles Film Critics Association, National Society of Film Critics, Boston Society of Film Critics) for her stellar performance in Clouds of Sils Maria. For fun, I'll try to illustrate how this 91% RT rating stacks up to the top critics ratings that all the 2016 Best Actress Oscar nominees' films received: Kristen Stewart - PERSONAL SHOPPER - RT Top Critics rating of 91% Emma Stone - LA LA LAND - RT Top Critics rating of 96% Natalie Portman- JACKIE - RT Top Critics rating of 82% Meryl Streep - FLORENCE FOSTER JENKINS - RT Top Critics rating of 92% Ruth Negga - LOVING - RT Top Critics rating of 94% Isabelle Huppert - ELLE- RT Top Critics rating of 88% Keep in mind that Kristen was pretty much a one-woman show in Personal Shopper and its 81% overall/91% Top Critics RT score is largely due to her mesmerizing performance in this film, whereas in the case of La La Land, it benefited from its director, lead actor, lead actress and cinematographer, all of whom won Oscars for this film, along with this film receiving Oscar nominations for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay among several other AA nods--a perfect example of an Oscar bait film if you ask me. Loving's RT score benefited from strong performances by both leads, actor Joel Edgerton and actress Ruth Negga, both of whom received acting Oscar noms. The only major Oscar nom which Jackie, Florence Foster Jenkins and Elle received were for Best Actress--so thus Natalie Portman, Meryl Streep and Isabelle Huppert should be given much of the credit for the RT scores for the films they starred in.

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart

Continued "'Personal Shopper' review: Kristen Stewart embodies woman haunted by grief "No matter what sort of movie you're expecting from "Personal Shopper," you'll get it. You'll also contend with three others, and then the movie you first expected will turn inside out. So all that awaits the receptive viewer, along with a dangling modifier of an ending guaranteed to satisfy virtually no one. Even so, this is one of the most intriguing pictures of the year, a genre-hopper of unusual gravity. It's also the latest proof that Kristen Stewart has the goods for a long-haul acting career, with all sorts of directors, playing all sorts of characters. In many ways this is a tale of a young woman's agitated grief, pure and simple, and Stewart's wonderful and wholly persuasive as that woman. Assayas is an artist with a natural aversion to extreme emotions, but the feeling in "Personal Shopper," fleeting yet distinct, gives Stewart everything she needs as an actress." ~Michael Phillips <a href="http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/sc-personal-shopper-mov-rev-0313-20170313-column.html">http://www.chicagotribune.com/entertainment/movies/sc-personal-shopper-mov-rev-0313-20170313-column.html</a> "Kristen Stewart shines in supernatural thriller ‘Personal Shopper’ Actress Kristen Stewart may forever be associated with the popular “Twilight” franchise, movies that center on the growing pains of vampires and werewolves. Lately, however, she has shone in more serious fare from such directors as Woody Allen (“Cafe Society”) and Kelly Reichardt (“Certain Women”). With her latest film, French director Olivier Assayas’s “Personal Shopper,” Stewart returns to the kind of supernatural themes that made her a star at the multiplex — only this time it’s in a stylish, highly entertaining art-house thriller. Assayas has always worked at a consistently high level of excellence, but “Personal Shopper” is his most vital film in years, at times recalling the verve of his 1996 breakthrough “Irma Vep” (whose star, Maggie Cheung, Stewart evokes whenever she gets on a motorcycle)." ~Pat Padua <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/kristen-stewart-shines-in-supernatural-thriller-personal-shopper/2017/03/16/1e1f72d4-0993-11e7-b77c-0047d15a24e0_story.html?utm_term=.e67495c8a5fc">https://www.washingtonpost.com/goingoutguide/movies/kristen-stewart-shines-in-supernatural-thriller-personal-shopper/2017/03/16/1e1f72d4-0993-11e7-b77c-0047d15a24e0_story.html?utm_term=.e67495c8a5fc</a> "As in her previous movie with Assayas, Stewart bristles with intelligence beneath the facade of an aimless millennial. She’s the perfect stand-in for Assayas — he wrote the script specifically for her — giving him a young person’s view of our cultural “now” while allowing him to coolly observe its weird mix of fame, media and technology. (Many of the movie’s most intense scenes involve just Stewart and her iPhone.)" ~Rafer Guzman <a href="http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/personal-shopper-review-kristen-stewart-in-psychological-thriller-1.13270549">http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/movies/personal-shopper-review-kristen-stewart-in-psychological-thriller-1.13270549</a>

posted 7 years ago in Kristen Stewart