Seberg (2019) Amazon/Drama RT: 102 minutes Rated R (language, sexual content, nudity, some drug use) Director: Benedict Andrews Screenplay: Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse Music: Jed Kurzel Cinematography: Rachel Morrison Release date: February 28, 2020 (Philadelphia, PA) Cast: Kristen Stewart, Jack O’Connell, Margaret Qualley, Zazie Beetz, Vince Vaughn, Anthony Mackie, Colm Meaney, Stephen Root, Yvan Attal, Gabriel Sky, Laura Campbell, Jade Pettyjohn, James Jordan. Box Office: $675,808 (US)
Rating: **
The story of actress Jean Seberg is a sad one. After making a huge international splash in Jean-Luc Godard’s crime drama Breathless, she divided her time between Europe and the US before relocating to Hollywood in ’68. Not long after, she became the target of an FBI defamation campaign due to her political activism; namely, her association with the Black Panthers. Bear in mind, this is the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, an SOB to beat all SOBs. They were out for blood. What they did to her is nothing less than criminal. They not only ruined her reputation, their dirty tactics affected her family, career and mental health. She died of a “probable suicide” in ’79 at 40.
There’s a great story to be told about Jean Seberg, but you won’t find it in Seberg, a bungled biopic that also acts as a paranoid political thriller. The main problem is the grievous miscasting of Kristen Stewart in the title role. Aside from the platinum blonde pixie haircut, the Twilight actress bears absolutely no resemblance to Jean Seberg. Her body type or personality is hardly what you’d call gamine. At times, she barely registers as a presence. She sleepwalks through the movie monotonously delivering her lines in a way that suggests she’s bored with the whole affair. I never for a minute bought Stewart as Seberg. Her performance is mostly responsible for sinking Seberg although to be fair, its other miscalculations share the blame.
As indicated, Seberg focuses on the years the actress was the subject of a vicious FBI investigation. She was in their crosshairs from the moment she stepped off the plane from Paris at LAX and showed her solidarity alongside black activist Hakim Jamal (Mackie, Falcon from the MCU). They’re there when she pulls up to his house in Compton in the middle of night in her little yellow convertible. In addition to financial support, she also starts an affair with the married activist. Given all the attention such a high-profile figure is likely to bring to a group deemed a threat to national security, it’s only natural that Hoover will take aim at this person’s credibility. So begins the wiretapping and spreading of false stories including one regarding the paternity of a baby she ultimately loses (along with her sanity).
That’s the true story portion of Seberg. The fictionalized part centers on Jack Solomon (O’Connell, Unbroken), a young, well-meaning FBI agent ordered to play dirty in the Seberg investigation. Predictably, he’s conflicted between duty to his country and his conscience. He sees what it’s doing to Seberg and feels bad about it, but what can he do? He has to follow orders; it’s his job. His character is clearly meant to be the film’s moral compass; the problem is he’s too contrived to be effective. If anything, he’s a distraction.
The director of Seberg is a fellow named Benedict Andrews who previously directed a couple of National Theater Live productions and a movie called Una that I haven’t seen. I can’t speak to the quality of his other work, but his simplistic and shallow treatment of the material does a great disservice to the actress’ memory. We never get a real idea of what drew Seberg to activism aside from misguided youthful idealism. Andrews never dives deep into her story or persona, rendering her as distant and enigmatic as ever. The only clue to her inner being is the director’s heavy-handed use of Seberg being horribly injured on the set of Otto Preminger’s Joan of Arc biopic while filming her death scene. The whole getting burned analogy is in no danger of being lost on anybody.
Then there’s the depiction of FBI agents as one-dimensional villains. I speak not of Jack, but his superiors played by Vince Vaughn (True Detective) and Colm Meaney (The Commitments). Vaughn is especially embarrassing with his misguided patriotism and the way he runs his family with an iron fist. He’s like a bad guy from a comic book. BTW, I did NOT need to see this one agent kick Jean’s little dog to death. That’s just messed up.
There’s so much else wrong with Seberg like the half-assed screenplay by Joe Shrapnel and Anna Waterhouse (The Aftermath). Their clunky dialogue combined with Andrews’ obvious lack of direction makes it even harder on Stewart already lost in a role for which she’s clearly unsuited. It also commits the crime of underusing Margaret Qualley (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and Zazie Beetz (Joker) as the jealous wives of Jack and Hakim respectively. One wants to know what interest her husband (and the FBI) has in the actress while the other wants the actress to stay away from hers. They’re not given nearly enough to do.
Other than some decent cinematography and clever use of lighting, the only thing Seberg has going for it is that it isn’t boring. It’s much more interesting than Ordinary Love which I saw earlier in the day. I realize it’s apples and oranges comparing these two movies, but I’m just trying to be truthful. As long we’re using the fruit analogy, I’ll close by simply saying that Seberg is a real lemon.
