Personal Shopper (2016)

I cannot for the life of me understand this movie. Don’t get me wrong – I LIKE it. It’s incredibly stylish with some very good art (and fashion) introduced/represented and the pace of it appeals to me. But I have no fucking idea what it is supposed to be about. The only thing I found bad was the dumb CGI makers felt the need to superimpose instead of just leaving us with her reactions, and music. When there is music in the film, it’s just plain brick-like. Especially that weird Marlene Dietrich piece while the heroine is rubbing one out.

As for the plot… mostly we’ve got the anemic corpse of Kristen Stewart walking around or driving her scooter or telling famous fashion designers what she feels would be fitting for her famous client. This client is supposed to be spoiled and bitchy but so loved that her dumped lover murders her, pretty much WHILE he’s stalking and text-harassing the personal shopper.

That’s one side of the film: shopping for a rich bitch and hating it. Though she exercises reliable taste when it comes to others, the heroine herself actively hates fashion, or dreads it, and dresses Ugly Betty style, leaving her hair mostly unkempt, though rocking the gadgets, like coffee, iPhone and sneakers.

The other half of the story is her desperate attempt to separate the world of the living with the world of the dead: she suffers from a heart condition that killed her twin, whom she is trying to confirm in the afterlife. People seem to believe she is a medium, or she believes she is, and she looks for ghosts and when she finds them she runs away hysterically.

And that’s it. Between having an affair with her stalker, doling expensive shopping hating it, and bothering ghosts, she does absolutely nothing. She resides in Paris and it could easily be Downtown Middle of Nowhere, Ohio, for her appreciation of it. It’s a profound experiment of non-existing, which only the educated rich millennials can afford. Whereas most other characters are doing just fine, act alive, she gravitates further from it, falling into the world of the dead - where ironically she feels better and better about herself. No fucking idea what the ending is supposed to represent. Is she dead already or what?

This film is almost exactly the same as Clouds of Sils Maria, same cast, same credits, except that in that one the role of the lead is carried by a more powerful actress and so it’s a little less despondent to watch. But if you liked that one, this one follows suit – Kristen Stewart is pretty much in the same role, and she nails it. I liked them both. If nothing else, the director trusts the talent to forget the camera which is constantly in their faces and the result is refreshingly peepers-like. 

Hilma Af Klint makes for bit of a plot <3