Bara 11 utav 118 filmkritiker gillar inte Kristen i "Welcome to the RIleys"


Kristen Stewart
was cast in Welcome to the Rileys before the Twilight movies became a cultural phenomenon. (As was the case of The Runaways and also with Walter Salles' upcoming On the Road.)

She was just 18 and still without finish her participation in the filming of Welcome To The Rileys, when she had to leave the set of filming to do the promo tour for the first installment of the Twilight series. After weeks she returned for wrap up the filming but her world had been changed completely... The "Twilight Tsunami" had placed her in the middle of a big frenzy to which she certainly was not prepared psychologically.

Suddenly she was over exposed 24 hours a day, having dozen of paparazzi urging her take an angry posture, people bullying her like Perez Hilton, thousands of teenagers and also grown ups fighting over her, people from the entertainment and gossip business standardizing her without know her well or to have watched her body of work and from the Business itself, analysing all, each breath she took, each action and each word. She became a phenomenon herself! A brutal example of "over exposure"! If you put the name "Kristen Stewart" in the Google, you will have 26.600.000 results! She lost the human right of grow up as a person and an actress before became an selfconscious adult and consecrated actress at the public eyes. 

People like Nathalie PortmanAnnette BenningHilary SwankMichelle Williams between others, in the last two THR roundtables with the actresses, said that they thank God everyday for have had time to grow up as a person and as an artist, mostly away from the public eyes! No one born perfect in any way! 

You will see below that this "over exposure" certainly interfered in the analyse of some reviewers.

Rotten Tomatoes (RT) had 60 reviews, MetaCritic (MC) had 29 reviews, Movie Review Intelligence (MRI) had 29 reviews and the Movie Review Query Engine (MRQE) had 40 reviews but some reviews are represented in the two or three or four of them, so in the end, we have much less than 158 reviews but there are also a lot of reviews that neither of these sites listed. In the end, we found 118 reviews from professional film critics, included 38 so call Top Critics).

P - Positive review (97 reviews)
P/N - Mixed review or not gave opinion or is indifferent (10 reviews)
N - Negative review (11 reviews)

The first lesson that we learned about film critics reviews was: Doesn't matter how well the film was reviewed or how well it did in the box office, the review for the actor's performances is independent. So... You can't judge an actor's performance just looking the scores of the movie in sites like RT, MC, MRI or MRQE. You have to read all!
Läs mer här!
/Erica

Recension för "Welcome to the Rileys" på HD.se


Regi:
Jake Scott
I rollistan: James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo, Kristen Stewart.
Längd: 1 tim, 50 min.
Röda Kvarn, Helsingborg
Betyg: 2

"Welcome to the Rileys" sänder tydliga "amerikansk independentfilm"-film signaler, även om man inte ska bedra sig: regissören Jake Scott backas upp av pappa Ridley Scott och farbror Tonypå produktionssidan.

Hur som helst förstår vi snabbt, att här handlar det om vanliga människor och deras relationer, kriser och vardag.
Anslaget är lätt teatralt, berättelsen rejält tillspetsad. Två av huvudrollerna spelas av riktiga skådespelare, kända sådana, men de är ändå inte filmstjärnor som ängsligt vårdar sitt varumärke. Och deras prestationer ska läggas på filmens pluskonto.

Paret som handlingen kretsar kring, Lois och Doug Riley, spelade alltså av Melissa Leo, som var fantastisk i "Frozen river" häromåret, och James Gandolfini alias Tony Soprano. Sedan deras dotter tragiskt dog håller sorgen hela deras liv i ett järngrepp. Lois torgskräck begränsar henne till en snäv bana runt förortsvillan i New Jersey, och hon håller i sin tur Doug som i en lina runt sig.

Allt förändras när Doug gör en utbrytning och åker på affärsresa till New Orleans. På en klubb träffar han den unga Mallory (Kristen Stewart från Twilight-filmerna), som rymt hemifrån och lever på att strippa och prostituera sig.

Trots att filmen på ett motsägelsefullt sätt högexponerar Mallorys kroppsliga företräden, är det fadershjärtat som vaknar hos Doug. Han blir mer eller mindre ett plåster på flickan, flyttar in i hennes unkna lägenhet och börjar renovera både det som rör sig och det som inte gör det. Att Mallory spjärnar emot gör honom bara ihärdigare.

Hur rörande Dougs enorma behov av att få vårda än är, så är hans beteende och hela situationen för underlig för att det ska gå att svälja.

Han verkar faktiskt lite sjuk i huvudet på ett sätt som inte bara kan komma ur sorg. Det blir inte mindre konstigt när Lois tar sig ur sin egensnickrade bur och ansluter sig.

Manuskonstruktionen är så tydlig att den gnager sönder all inlevelse. Inget blir bättre av ett symbolspråk som ställer det blodfulla New Orleans mot ett nordligt präktigt suburbia, och på ett ytterligt grumligt sätt speglar den trasiga Mallorys utåtagerande sexualitet i Lois pryda moderlighet.
Källa

/Erica

Recension för "Welcome to the Rileys" i Sydsvenskan


Genre: drama
Regi: Jake Scott
Skådespelare: James Gandolfini, Kristen Stewart, Melissa Leo
Land: USA
Utkom år: 2010
Från den kyska Bella i Twilight-serien till en storsvärande minderårig strippa och prostituerad i New Orleans är steget stort. Till det mest sevärda i Jake Scotts regidebut hör just att möta Kristen Stewart i ett helt annat rollfack. Något mångbottnat, djuppsykologiskt porträtt gör hon visserligen inte, men hennes Allison fungerar ändå i spelet mot Gandolfinis krisande man, vars äktenskap helt gått i stå efter en tonårsdotters död. Han möter Allison under ett industrikonvent, faderskänslorna lever upp och han bestämmer sig för att inte återvända till den känslomässigt djupfrysta hustrun (Melissa Leo). Det leder i sin tur till att hon väcks ur passiviteten. Trots ett sympatiskt, lågmält spel och en bra, trovärdig miljöskildring kvarstår intrycket av konstruktion. Det förstärks i slutet, då historien måste knytas ihop. En öppen final hade visserligen varit känslomässigt mer påfrestande för publiken. Här väljer manusförfattaren i stället en medelväg, som inte utmanar. Lite mer djärvhet krävs om man vill väcka engagemang.
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/Erica

Recension om "Welcome to the Rileys" från Entertainment Weekly


För att se bilden och läsa i större storlek, klicka här!

/Erica

En till recension om "Welcome to the Rileys"


Kristen Stewart is continuing on her crusade to try and distance herself from the Twilight series, and establish herself as a serious actress. Last year she did it with Adventureland, and this year, she had a couple more serious films at Sundance. In one, she plays Joan Jett, and in it has a lesbian love scene with Dakota Fanning. In the other, Welcome to the Rileys, she plays a 16 year old, runaway, making ends meet in New Orleans as a part-time exotic dancer, and part-prostitute. Okay, we get it Kristen, you’re a serious actress. Fortunately, she has some great company in Rileys that makes her look pretty good.

This film comes from director Jake Scott. Scott has done some TV stuff, but most notably, he’s directed music videos for Radiohead, Tori Amos, REM, and The Cranberries. The story is written by Ken Hixon, who hasn’t written anything since the 2002 De Niro film, City by the Sea. When summarized, the story sounds awfully cliched. James Gandolfini plays Doug Riley, a successful business owner who’s married to a literal shut-in played by Melissa Leo. She hasn’t left the house since her daughter died in a car wreck four years ago. In an attempt at a normal relationship, Doug starts sleeping with a diner waitress, who dies at the beginning of the movie.

During a business trip to New Orleans, Doug comes across Mallory (Stewart), who looks quite a bit like his deceased daughter, and clearly needs help. He moves in with her. He takes the energies formerly focused on his affair, and redirects it on her. This prompts the shut-in mother to drive down to the Big Easy, where she ends up moving in with the two, and they become a makeshift family, teaching each other to heal.

Yes, it’s about as cliched as you get. Fortunately, there are some fantastic parts of the film. Leo’s performance is outrageously good. Usually stuck in heavy-handed crime dramas (Homicide, Frozen River), she was free to showcase her perfect comedic timing. I’m not being overly superlative to say that she was the best part of the show.

Next comes Stewart, whom I love to hate. I’m not sure why. But this is the first film that I’ve seen her in where I felt like she wasn’t playing herself. She really made an impression and if this is the sort of stuff we can expect out of her, I’ll soon be a fan.

Then there was Gandolfini, who can’t do a southern accent to save his live. The script had fun making him a puritanical sort, which made his speech to Mallory about not using the f-word just SO hilarious since we all know him as Tony Soprano. Yes, the irony is that in-your-face. This is certainly standard Sundance fare, especially considering the ending, which is the same as several festival films this year. However, after a slow start, it picks up quite nicely. It’s definitely above average, and is both charmingly funny, and will tug at your heartstrings.

Score: 7.5/10
Pros: Great supporting performances, plenty of authentic laughs
Cons: Somewhat conventional, the script is weak at parts
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/Erica

Recension om "Welcome to the Rileys"


One of the most emotionally eloquent moments in Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls, is when a grieving mother who's lost her children cries out in despair, 'God didn't save my babies.' To which another character replies, 'Then save some other women's babies.' This key episode in excavating human hope when there's not much around, more than makes its point but never follows through. Welcome To The Rileys on the other hand, assumes the burden of that mission in the extreme, and however unlikely.

James Gandolfini drops his tough guy Sopranos persona and gets in touch with his sensitive side in Welcome To The Rileys as Doug, a suburban Indiana plumber running a successful equipment business. He's also trying to move on with his life as best he can after the death of his only child, while keeping looming midlife crisis at bay. Unlike Doug's withdrawn, chronically depressed wife Lois (Melissa Leo) who still fusses over their departed daughter's room as if she's still around, and has even made the couple's reservations so to speak, much to his dismay, at the local cemetery for internment next to their child's grave.

Doug's frustrating, seemingly borderline terminal existence gets turned around during a plumber's convention down in New Orleans one night, when he heads off to a low end strip bar to drink away painful memories. But he's cornered instead by sexually aggressive combo stripper/lap dancer and underage incidental hooker Mallory (Kristen Stewart) and spurns her relentless flirty advances.

When Doug runs into Mallory the next day by chance, he's soon moving into her life as father figure to a surrogate daughter as substitute for the one he's lost whether she likes it or not, and she mostly doesn't. And after Lois' wayward spouse announces he's not returning home anytime soon, she somehow overcomes her self-imposed physical isolation from the world. And impulsively heads off to join him in a quite thankless and most unwelcome parenting endeavor, targeting a fiercely resistant Mallory.

Welcome To The Rileys is the feature film debut of Ridley Scott offspring, Jake. And with Jake Scott's embrace of psychologically driven, muted dramatic momentum over action, he's evidently not a chip off the old block.

But while the pacing often sags, Stewart and her radical transition along with impressively expanding range from Twilight's moping teen to abrasive, profoundly damaged rude womanchild, effectively picks up the slack. As she settles into a sleazy routine that seems just as relaxed hanging around infatuated vampires, as glued to stripper poles and pasties. Though a testosterone stifled Gandolfini appears somewhat less comfortable in his own extreme switchup from wise guy to relative wimp, and assigned here to deferring to Stewart as the no-nonsense sassy chick in charge.

Samuel Goldwyn Films
Rated R
2 1/2 stars
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/Erica

"Welcome to the Rileys"-recension av rottentomatoes.com


Welcome to the Rileys, to its credit, doesn't conform to narrative expectations. It's a drama, but a drama on the edge of utter destruction. Kristen Stewart is Allison ... or Mallory, depending on the scene (trust me, this makes sense). She's an exotic dancer in New Orleans, she meets James Gandolfini (who is on a business trip), and we're off from there.

James Gandolfini (as Doug Riley) is a damaged man. His wife, played by Melissa Leo, is a damaged woman. And of course Kristen Stewart's Allison is not exactly emotionally stable. As such, the interplay between the relationships involved is fraught with peril. It makes for an engaging, if tense, viewing experience.

On the acting front, Stewart is a live wire throughout the near two-hour running time presented here. She comes off like a rabid dog, completely unpredictable; it's easy to see why directors see so much potential in her work. She's great here. Gandolfini is also excellent, he continues to pick tremendous scripts (his work in In the Loop was also exceptional).

The intriguing part about Welcome to the Rileys is the innovation level of the story itself. It's not about New Orleans, it's not about strippers, it's not about any one thing in particular, though the broad themes of personal responsibility, grief, and trust are certainly broached. Each scene involves heavy doses of dialogue, but heavy doses of silence and body language, too. It's a patient and deliberate effort out of director Jake Scott and it portends well for his career. Mr. Scott clearly has a deft touch, something that will serve him well should he choose to continue in the genre of indie/dramatic work.

My only knock on Welcome to the Rileys? It's probably too subtle a work to really stick with viewers. The dialogue and settings are so natural that they don't lodge in your memory for long afterward. But you could do far worse. See it for Stewart's electric performance, Galdolfini's papa bear strength, or to scout an up-and-coming director in Jake Scott. If it makes it to a theater near you, give Welcome to the Rileys a few hours of your life. We'll meet back here to discuss.

Grade: B

Källa

/Erica

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