Personal Shopper (2017)

Just perfect...

Absolutely the worst movie.

Blistering performances.

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

...even the sight of Kristin "Twilight" Stewart in a faux-bondage corset (with and without brassiere) is not enough to motivate me to ever watch this Parisian travelo---sorry, I mean ghas---er, I mean ghostly (yeah, that's it, ghostly) soporific---I mean mystery, yeah, mystery---again. Others have summarized the plot, others have critiqued Ms. Stewart's acting, others have delineated the nods to media distancing, moped riding, and cigarettes. I'm just stepping in here to let you know that you really needn't waste your time, unless it's for that brief peep at Stewart in her scanties and that kinky black corset. Horror movie? Spare me. The only horror is that large amounts of resources and human capital went into this technically accomplished yet horrendously un-involving character study. Ms. Stewart's studious performance simply can't recommend a dreary, unsympathetic character to my attention. She and writer/director Olivier "Clean" Assayas should have called it a day with "Clouds of Sils Maria." At least then they had Juliette Binoche in the mix.

"For me, Lewis was someone deeply intuitive of others. He understood things that went unspoken. Maybe because he knew he was going to die."Are you suffering from a sleep disorder lately so you always get up with giant bags under your eyes? Or are you hyperkinetic due to an overdose of cola during a night of "binge watching"? No problem. Simply start the movie "Personal shopper" and these problems have been solved without any doubt. If there would be a Oscar category called "Most boring film of the year", this film would have won it easily. In short: The whole movie you'll see Maureen (Kristen Stewart) do some shopping for a high-society model named Kyra (Nora von Waldstätten), driving around in Paris on her moped, meditate while smoking lots of cigarettes and sending a whole series of messages on her iPhone. And she's also waiting for a sign of life (how ambiguous) of her recently deceased brother Lewis. Apart from some ectoplasm and flickering light phenomena, there's nothing ghostly to see. A sleep-inducing performance. And even the few scenes in which Stewart walks around half-naked and even masturbates, won't help. Her cup size is of the same caliber as this film. Meagre.Maybe I'm a bit biased, because I'm immensily annoyed by the person Kristen Stewart. On the other hand. You need a film character who doesn't feel good about herself and who's constantly in a melancholic mood, she's surely the right candidate. If there's an actress you can admire a whole movie without showing one sincere smile and a face that seems to be dipped in starch, then she's definitely the one. I still remember this quote : "Kristen Stewart is like my refrigerator, no matter what I put in it (milk, soda, eggs, vegetables, meat), it's always a refrigerator. And so is she". I really can't understand why she's being praised by everybody. And every time I read about her, superlatives like "authenticity" and "subtle" are being used. Well, you can also say that about the Scarlett Johanssons, Saoirse Ronans, Dakota Fanningsen and even the Jennifer Lawrences in Hollywood. The only difference is that these actresses show some variation in their facial expressions."Personal Shopper" is once again an arthouse creation. And the artificial world of fashion fits extremely well with it. Both the film and the world of fashion have the same irritating effect on me. They create an artificial product that is reasonably pretentious and targets the group of the happy few. The arthouse film lovers are those happy few who are able to see the abstract meaning and the symbolisme behind such an intellectual film. In the fashion world, the happy few are those who can afford an exclusive sewn together piece of confection. And after a certain time they'll loudly proclaim that this expensive piece of cloth is out of fashion. By the way. Who can explain to me the usefulness of such a wire-shaped corset that Maureen wears at a certain moment? The connoisseurs will most likely scream bloody murder and call me a retard who doesn't understand fashion. I hope for myself that that it'll remain like that.Which subject this film tries to tackle, is not so easy to interpret. On the one hand there's the spiritual issue and the connection of the living with wandering souls. On the other hand there is the subject of materialistic thinking and the impersonal world in which we live. The primordial conversation between Maureen and the unknown (the bouncing dots and plopping sounds really started to get on my nerves after a while) is also a reference to the contemporary impersonal conversations among individuals. So how to interprete this movie? I guess you could explain it in many ways. Best you fill in the gaps yourself after watching this movie. Keep in mind that Maureen waits for the unknown person in a hotel room and shortly thereafter you'll see doors open automatically without seeing anybody. That puts the whole in a completely different perspective. Or not? If not, then I think that the very last bang is a clear statement. But you had need endurance to sit out this long ride and witness this slightly intense moment. Ending with Maureen looking straight at the camera. Emotionless. Trust me. Me and Kirsten Stewart. That'll never work out.More reviews here : http://movie-freak.be

At first this movie can come over as a bit slow burner with nothing happening and a tad self indulgent in the arthouse introspective angle but stick with it to the end then you will realise you need to watch it all again and this time you will appreciate it as you solve the riddle. The performance of the lead actress is good although constrained by the introspective character. As a movie there isn't much of a story or a plot outside of the central character. As a movie its nothing special but as an entertaining riddle its actually quite clever.

Maureen (Kristen Stewart) is an American living in Paris whose job is to buy clothes for a wealthy supermodel. Maureen's twin brother has recently died and she attempts to connect with his spirit in the large house on the outskirts of Paris where he lived before his death.Stewart's natural talent and presence are a great aid to this film. She's at her best during a scene involving a police interrogation. But too much of the film focuses only on Maureen when she is alone. This includes an unbearably long sequence that involved her exchanging text messages with a mysterious stranger. Stewart's talents can alleviate this movie's flaws but only up to a point.The movie also suffers from having too many sub-stories none of which seem to meet their potential. The "ghost story" has some mysterious moments but ends with too much unresolved mystery. The narrative involving Maureen's relationship with her mostly absent boss (Nora von Waldstatten) could have benefited the movie overall with more time and exploration. The boss shows up in one scene which is almost comical. She is an obsessive egomaniac who multi-tasks while bullying someone on a conference call as she is trying to save gorillas. The final narrative involves a murder mystery whose impact seems to disappear once the mystery is solved.Considering the film's unearned acclaim - plus the fact that it was made by the talented creator (Olivier Assayas) of such great films as "Irma Vep", "Summer Hours" and "Carlos", this movie is sadly disappointing.