Monday Movie Review: Seberg
This is such a weird time of year for movies. Like there are things I want to see, but I’ve been feeling kind of meh about going to the movies. Like I got burnt out during awards season and now I need to find my mojo again. I’m not sure if Seberg is the film to help me find my mojo, but it was an interesting watch and a surprise Anthony Mackie appearance is never a bad thing.
I had at least some background info on Jean Seberg (Kristen Stewart) as she was featured in a series of the You Must Remember This podcast (which I haven’t listened to in awhile, but is an overall fascinating podcast). So I knew she was involved with the Black Panthers, was a target of the FBI, and died young (spoiler alert). The film really focuses on Jean’s later years, where she is already involved with political activism, but hasn’t yet landed on the FBI’s watch list. In one of the opening scenes, we see Jean getting off a plane with Hakim Jamal (Anthony Mackie) and posing for the press with her fist in the air, a la Black Panthers. She makes some large donations to the Panthers and some of their outside causes, and begins a brief affair with Hakim (they are both married to other people at the time). The FBI takes an interest in her after seeing her photo and starts to surveil her. They bug her house, tap her phones, and tail her. Jean starts to feel the pressure of the surveillance, especially because her husband (Yvan Attal) doesn’t really believe she is being followed. Things come to a head when the FBI breaks into her hotel room while Jean is in New York for a premiere and ends up killing her dog. Jean freaks out. But things only get worse for her, when the FBI leaks a story to the press that Jean is pregnant with Hakim’s baby (she is pregnant, but it’s not Hakim’s). Jean attempts suicide, and though she survives, the baby does not. She then decides to sue the media for reporting a false story. Through all of this, the young FBI agent assigned her case (Jack O’Connell) starts to regret his involvement. He knows the FBI is overstepping, and when he hears about Jean’s attempted suicide, he hand delivers her the file of information the FBI has on her. That is the last shot we see of Jean, though end credits tell us how Jean was found dead in her car at age forty.
This movie is a lot. I don’t know if I would have been able to really follow the story if I didn’t already have background knowledge on Jean’s life, but overall, I thought the whole thing was super interesting. I am loving Kristen Stewart these days. I hope she’s happily living off her Twilight money and just making whatever movies she wants (seems to be the case). She is great as Jean, Anthony Mackie is fantastic as always, and the supporting cast is great. Margaret Qualley is a standout (you know her from Fosse/Verdon) as is Zazie Beetz, who play Jack and Hakim’s wives, respectively. The main issue I had with the movie was the pacing, which dragged quite a bit for me. This is not a long movie, but it felt long, and that’s never a good sign. Definitely one you can stream at home in a few months, not one to rush out to the theater to see. But I was happy to see Jean’s story, even if it didn’t quite live up to my expectations.
Overall Grade: B-
