Spencer (2021) We only endured the excruciating torture of sitting through this since Kristen Stewart, to everyone's surprise, managed to squeeze herself into a Best Actress Oscar nomination.......
Just mentioning Kristen Stewart in the same sentence with 'Best Actress' nomination sounds like an oxymoron to us.......
'Spencer' is a perfect storm of things we dislike most in films.......a stillborn, non-existent pace so beloved by film festival culture vultures.......an unlistenable, pretentious music score that's akin to hearing a toddler drag fingernails across a blackboard for two hours.........and the always overpraised, overrated Kristen Steward, an actress who mystifies the world as she dazzles gullible film critics with an emotional range that goes from A.....to A.
Billing itself as a 'fable' based on fact, the film moves at 2 miles an hour through a fictitious Christmas weekend from hell...... where the unhappy Princess Diana (Stewart) must put up with her estranged husband Charles and the rest of the Royals, who mostly treat her with a silent patronizing contempt and behave like they're already dead and just haunting the dump to kill time.
The film depicts the Royals' Sandringham estate as vast, empty and creepy as Stephen King's Overlook Hotel from 'The Shining'. (Diana even takes steadi-cam walking tours tours through the endless corridors...if she'd only used the "Shining" kid's trike, she could've shaved off a half our off the running time.....).
Since "Spencer" only focuses on Diana's inner torment about her fairy tale life gone awry, it plays to Kristen Stewart's one and only strength......depressive moping.
And in this movie, she's found the ultimate vehicle to deploy her primary, singular talent. 'Spencer' always stays completely still to allow Stewart free reign as the Empress of Ennui, The Baroness of Boredom, the Duchess of Doldrums, the Monarch Of Melancholy......well, you get the idea.......
Hearing about Stewart's inclusion in the Best Actress category reminded us of those fake snarky Oscar nominations in the Kevin Kline comedy "In and Out"....("for Best Actor....Steven Seagal for "A Snowball In Hell"....)
Suitable only for Academy Award completists who feel compelled to watch every single nominated film and performance, no matter what the pain level involved. Everyone else......only with strong black coffee and uppers. 1 star (*)
No comments:
Post a Comment