One theory—Kristen Stewart was acting in a totally different movie than her costars. Or, theory two—she has not matured in her craft since her Twilight days. I don’t begin to comprehend how Stewart continues to get opportunities to work in decent indie and big budget films, and every time she does, she underperforms. And STILL sis gets booked. I don’t get it!🤔💭💭

I was honestly excited to see this film given its subject and history, and the ensemble cast: Stewart, Anthony Mackie, Zazie Beetz, Vince Vaughn, and Margaret Qualley. Jean Seberg was known for her activism and was an icon of  French New Wave cinema, so I hoped this would be Stewart’s Judy and help re-propel her career back into the limelight. But this ain’t it. 🥴🥴 🥴 (I should note, I didn’t love Judy, but I thought Renée Zellweger’s performance was great.)

Shouts to Amazon Studios for stepping up their film productions lately, and with great recognition (e.g., Manchester by the Sea, The Big Sick, I Am Not Your Negro).  This one ain’t it, but y’all tried! If they’d switched out the main actress, and worked a little harder on the screenplay, this would’ve been fire!! Missed opportunity, sad to say. Jack O’Donnell killed this performance, but it seemed so misplaced in all the other mush. I can tell O’Donnell, Beetz, Mackie, and Qualley ACTED though dips in the script, and they all still did a great job with their performances.

The costuming and hairstyling was great, but unfortunately, and outside of performances from the supporting cast, there wasn’t much else to hold on to with this film.

The score felt familiar—similar to Harriet. A sort of paint-by-numbers motif in that it’s specific and pronounced in moments that were intended to induce some sense of great drama in the main character’s plot, like in a Lifetime Original Movie or telenovela, where something hyperbolic happens and the audience needs a crescendo of music to heighten the ~feels~. But because the (heightened) score was often coupled with Stewart’s mediocre performance, and (possibly) a wonky script, it fell flat. I counted three times that the score annoyed the shit out of me.

And the soundtrack! What film were they working on here?  Like I understand it’s a period piece, but that Nina Simone song at the end as the text appears next to Seberg’s face about her mysterious death was an odd choice, and just a twinge of cringe! 😫😫😫