Seberg

There have been many actresses that have graced the silver screen in Hollywood's past that we have grown to love and remember, and there are some that while they were famous, certainly notorious, after a number of decades, have gone into obscurity. One such actress is that of Jean Seberg (""Saint Joan" '57, "Breathless" '60, "Lillith" '64, "Paint Your Wagon" '69, "Airport" '70, "The Wild Duck" '76) plus others. "Seberg" chronicles more her involvement with the civil rights Black Panther Party and the FBI's surveillance thereof.

"Seberg" is inspired by true events about the French New Wave darling and "Breathless" star, Jean Seberg (Kristen Stewart), who in the late 1960's was targeted by Hoover's FBI because of her support of the civil rights movement and romantic involvement with Black Panther's leader, activist Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie), among others. In this noir-ish thriller, Seberg's life and career are destroyed by Hoover's overreaching surveillance and harassment by the bureau's director Frank Ellroy (Colm Meaney) and his agents, Jack Solomon (Jack O'Connell) and Carl Kowalski (Vince Vaughn) in an effort to suppress and discredit Seberg's activism. This covers the years from approximately 1967 to 1971, so it does look at her activism more than her acting career during this time.

Others to round out the cast are Margaret Qualley as Linette Solomon, Jack's wife, Stephen Root as her agent, Walt Breakman, Yvan Attal as Romain Gary, Jean's husband, Laura Cambell as Mary Kowalski, Carl's wife, Zazie Beetz as Dorothy Jamal, Hakim's wife, Grantham Coleman as Bobby Seale and Gabriel Sky as Diego Gary, Jean's son. 

This had a noir-ish style by director Benedict Andrews ("A Streetcar Named Desire" '14, "Una" '16, "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" '18). I wouldn't say this was helmed by a newbie to feature films, however I also wouldn't call him seasoned either. But regardless, this filmmaker certainly has a flair for incredible staging and pacing of his actors. There is a plethora of different personalities in this story, and this director was able to delineate each character with finesse and precision. It was effectively written by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse ("Frankie & Alice" '10, "Race" '16, "The Aftermath" '19) plus TV and shorts. I'm not sure why the writers opted to focus more on Seberg's activism more than her career--possibly because we now live in a society where constant stimulation is an absolute need or maybe an addiction. The surveillance of this actress certainly makes for great fodder, however they hardly touched on her career which is a shame. They could've melded both aspects of her life in a more delineated way. The screenplay certainly played out well--concise and cohesive, however there were a few places that were not fully explained. 
This actress was raised in Iowa and lived in Paris a good deal of her life, and I believe her problem was that she was clinically depressed (they didn't have a diagnosis in that era), and attempted to work in an industry that is so bias and intolerant most of time--even today--that she couldn't survive the Hollywood machine being as passionate and outspoken as she was. She apparently died of an overdose in 1979, however her body wasn't found for ten days after her death. She attempted suicide earlier in her career, but just couldn't overcome her demons. If you like this style of writing, their "Rebecca" is in post production for a 2020 release. 

Biopics are typically interesting as they unfold to us, the audience, however this would've played out better by intertwining the two aspects of Seberg's life more. Stewart's performance as Seberg was stunning in her look and her free-spirited way about her. This capsulizes the essence of Seberg. 

Out of 4 Stars: 3                                          Rated: R                                                102mins.