Personal Shopper

Personal Shopper is pretty straightforward and the ending concretizes it: Kristen Stewart projects her malevolent existence outward and it manifests as ghostly images, sounds, moving objects, and texts which draw out her insecurities. There are secondary plot elements that are less important and some thematic touches on how technology creates isolation, but they are thin and stats quo for today. The movie draws you along until the end reveal and then you realize it was pretty empty like the message it conveyed.

I saw this movie a few days ago and have been haunted by it ever since. I am writing this review more to clarify my own thoughts and feelings rather than to try and influence anyone to see (or not see) it. I have always believed the sexiest/most compelling thing about a woman is her confidence, and, for me, Personal Shopper is the cinematic equivalent of that belief. I cannot remember ever seeing a movie so supremely confident in itself, which kept my eyes glued to the screen wanting to know more. Director Olivier Assayas managed to create a film that is so sure of itself it defies all genres, conventions, and expectations. He found a perfect balance between not caring what the audience thinks about his movie without alienating or insulting his audience with how much he doesn't care. No emotional manipulation or trying to cater to/please the widest possible audience here, which is so very refreshing. This is what he has to say. Take it or leave it. Love it or hate it. So, while it is not the best movie I have ever seen and has it's flaws, I am still giving it a very high rating for daring to be different. On a side note, taste in movies is extremely subjective, so I can understand and respect the reasons why other reviewers gave this movie such low ratings. However, I do not agree with the common practice of putting down other reviewers/calling them idiots for having different opinions. In a perfect world, I wish we could all just agree to disagree without being hateful/hurtful. Peace.

Another movie where Kristen Stewart plays Kristen Stewart. I mean, come on; the gal can't act to save her life and yet everyone seems to be oblivious to the fact. The script is bad. Some lines are downright ridiculous, and the screenwriter seems to have been blind to the thin line between intriguing unanswered questions and plot holes. If you are willing to fill in the gaps with your imagination, though, and you don't mind the excruciatingly slow pace, you may enjoy the movie.

The picture's main problem is that it simply doesn't know what it wants to be, leading to a number of plot strands and genre cues that feel as though they aim to carry the rest of the narrative but then just fizzle away, almost as quickly as they arrived, with little to no consequences. The end result is a highly unfocused piece that bounces around between story points without ever really connecting the dots, fluttering from a character-based ghost story to a pseudo psycho-sexual thriller and back again, to the point where even a major murder mystery seems inconsequential. There are also a few plot pretensions in 'Personal Shopper (2016)' that are simply pretentious, serving only to add confusion rather than mystery, and the flick finishes ten minutes too late to be anything other than annoying (seriously, the perfect enigmatic ending happens and then the film just carries on). It also frustratingly treats its supernatural elements as ambiguous when we have been overtly shown them several times before, so - despite a few decently compelling sequences - the overall experience sadly falls pretty flat. 5/10

First it seems like a haunted house trope, but no, then a ghost hunt, nope, then some kind of mystery thriller, but neither... It´s ultimately a grief film that drags on and on, relying exclusively on Kristen Stewart to sustain everything. It´s so subtle is almost not even there. To people who might make it to the end here´s a fine minimalistic drama that holds back from many clichés, a serious story, too serious maybe. There are a couple of great moments but it isn´t really rewarding. It just disguises a realistic drama as a ghost story, which is not the best idea cause it calls for an audience bound to be disappointed. I´m trying to like it but it´s just not good enough, it seems to add slightly relevant events just to fill the runtime. And it is confirmed, Kristen Stewart can´t smile. She tries at one point and it was like watching Wednesday Addams all over again.