It’s been an unusually good year or so for divisive high fashion art house Euro horror. With both Personal Shopper and The Neon Demon I suspect we’re either on the verge of a very unexpected new trend, or that we just happened to chance upon one weird-ass coincidence.
Not that the two films are particularly similar, aside from all the obvious similarities. Nicolas Winding Refn’s sadistic takedown of fleshy superficiality is as glamorous and brassy a motion picture as they come, but Olivier Assayas has something more intimate on his mind with Personal Shopper. His film isn’t about a supermodel, but the relatively normal woman who buys all of a supermodel’s accessories and fancy dresses, because said supermodel is just too busy. Kristen Stewart plays Maureen, a woman on the outside of couture, looking in, and feeling just jealous enough to possibly do something creepy about it.
She’s also a medium, did I mention that? Personal Shopper takes place in a world where our heroine believes in ghosts, and sees them outright, and yet that may or may not be completely incidental. At the start of our story, Maureen is still reeling from the recent death of her twin brother, from a heart defect that she suffers from as well, and she is eagerly trying to reach him on the other side of the veil. But her pursuit has some very unexpected payoffs, and leads her into a bizarre game of cat and mouse with a mysterious stranger who could be her dead brother, who could be a creepy stalker, or who could even be a serial killer for all she knows.
IFC Films
Personal Shopper belongs in the horror genre, that much is certain, but it’s not particularly violent, it’s not especially lurid, and it only frightens at a few, key moments. Olivier Assayas has written a film that has more to do with the anxieties and dissatisfactions that fuel of our obsessions, and the real fears at the heart of all the superficial fears that we usually complain about. At one point, the mysterious stranger grills Maureen about what truly unsettles her, and she says horror movies do, because they focus on women being stalked and victimized. What she’s really afraid of, the person/entity points out to her, is the emotion of fear.
Still, there’s “deliberately paced” and then there’s “pushing your luck,” and Personal Shopper tiptoes over that line a little too often for its own good. When the film’s plot finally kicks in, and Maureen finally experiences her own sorts of fears, the film’s languid pace becomes a hindrance. It may be a mystery but it’s not an altogether complicated one, and the amount of free time Assayas gives his audience is more than enough to piece the puzzle together long, long, long before Maureen does.
Fortunately, Personal Shopper is not about its plot. It’s about our troublesome tendency to make death all about ourselves, and to ascribe deeper, sometimes horrible meanings to events that may or may not have anything to do with what we think they represent. It’s a textured perspective on the horror genre, matched beautifully by Kristen Stewart, who gives an astounding performance as a woman who’s not quite sure how badly she’s been torn apart. Watching her try to sew herself back together anyway is captivating.
[Editor’s Note: This review was previously published during the 2016 Toronto Film Festival. Personal Shopper opens in theaters this weekend.]
Thirteen Must-See Films at TIFF 2016:
Top Photo: IFC Films
William Bibbiani (everyone calls him ‘Bibbs’) is Crave’s film content editor and critic. You can hear him every week on The B-Movies Podcast and Canceled Too Soon, and watch him on the weekly YouTube series Most Craved, Rapid Reviews and What the Flick. Follow his rantings on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
TIFF 2016: 12 Films That Should Excite You
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All I See Is You
Blake Lively stars as a blind woman who regains her sight, and discovers that her marriage might not be all it seemed to be. A challenging concept with a great cast, directed by Marc Forster (Monster's Ball).
Photo: LINK Entertainment
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The Bad Batch
Ana Lily Amirpour brought her unique sensibilities to the vampire genre with the acclaimed A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night, and for her big follow-up she's tackling community cannibalism. Another impressive cast features Suki Waterhouse, Jason Momoa, Jim Carrey and Keanu Reeves.
Photo: Annapurna Pictures
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Colossal
Anne Hathaway stars in a very unusual kaiju story, about a woman who loses everything but discovers she has a connection to a giant monster. Nacho Vigalondo (Time Crimes) directs, Jason Sudeikis and Dan Stevens co-star.
Photo: Warner Bros.
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Elle
Paul Verhoeven may be best known to American audiences as the director of Robocop and Total Recall, but his latest film sounds dark as hell. Isabelle Huppert stars as a successful business woman who is sexually assaulted, and begins stalking her assailant for revenge.
Photo: SBS Productions
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Free Fire
Kill List and High-Rise director Ben Wheatley travels to America for a shoot out movie with a stellar cast, including Cillian Murphy and recent Oscar-winner Brie Larson. Will the horror master who brought us Kill List be able to change the way we look at action?
Photo: Film4 Productions
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The Handmaiden
Shock filmmaker Chan-wook Park has blown our minds with disturbing films like Oldboy and Stoker, but his new film is a classy period piece about a handmaiden (hence the title) conning her new mistress, but falling in love with her anyway. The promise of sumptuous costumes and production design, old school romance and - since it's still Chan-wook Park after all - a few mind-blowing twists make The Handmaiden one of the most enticing films of the year.
Photo: CJ Entertainment
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Jackie
Since winning a Best Actress Oscar for Black Swan, Natalie Portman hasn't really found a high-profile role worthy of her talents. Perhaps this biopic about Jackie Kennedy, which takes place over the course of the JFK assassination, will finally give her the opportunity to shine again.
Photo: Wild Bunch
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La La Land
Damien Chazelle does an about-face after his impossibly dark, award-winning Whiplash for a colorful musical about Hollywood, inspired by European classics like The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling reteam for a film that everybody is already raving about after its premiere at other festivals.
Photo: Summit Entertainment
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Loving
One of the most important court cases in American history, dramatized by the great Jeff Nichols (Mud), starring the great Ruth Negga (Preacher) and the great Joel Edgerton (Warrior), as an interracial couple who dared to get married when their love was literally illegal.
Photo: Focus Features
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A Monster Calls
The Orphanage director J.A. Bayona returns to the supernatural genre with an adaptation of the hit novel by Patrick Ness, about a boy who deals with his mother's illness by escaping into a world of the supernatural. A Monster Calls could be one of those rare films that bridges the gap between horror and drama in a way that awards voters find palatable... if it's good enough.
Photo: Focus Features
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Nocturnal Animals
A Single Man director Tom Ford finally - FINALLY - returns with an ambitious dramatic thriller, starring Amy Adams as a woman who gets lost in a novel written by her first husband, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Whatever Tom Ford is doing, we're interested.
Photo: Focus Features
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(re)Assignment
Genre master Walter Hill is back with a premise so audacious, it's downright offensive. Michelle Rodriguez plays a man who is forced to undergo genre reassignment surgery, and sets out to exact revenge. Will (re)Assignment be completely wrongheaded and worthy of scorn, or will Walter Hill prove that he has something worthwhile to say?
Photo: SBS Productions
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The Unknown Girl
The Dardennes Brothers try their hand at the thriller genre with an emotional drama about a doctor at a clinic who ignores a patient's cries for help, and winds up exploring the unknown woman's life out of guilt after she dies. Few filmmakers navigate difficult emotions more beautifully than the Dardennes.
Photo: Diaphana
