Review of Clouds of Sils Maria (2014) by Walter M — 08 Jun 2015

On her way to honor a playwright who gave Maria Enders(Juliette Binoche) her first big break, she learns through her dutiful personal assistant Valentine(Kristen Stewart) that he has died suddenly. Still, the show must go on, even as the tone has changed radically. So, while Maria does her best to avoid a fellow actor she loathes, she also learns of a proposed new version of the same play with Maria playing the older character this time around.

At first, I very much enjoyed the interplay between Kristen Stewart and Juliette Binoche which makes up a large chunk of "Clouds of Sils Maria." But at the end, as I stood up from the art house theatre where I saw this, I began to realize how preachy the entire movie had been. Just because I agree with how unfairly certain young actresses like Kristen Stewart(see also: Heigl, Katherine) are treated by the media did not make me feel any better. And then there is the shrill way that writer-director Olivier Assayas goes after superhero movies which is ironic considering it looks like he has not seen a science fiction movie since about 1979.