Kristen Stewart was cast in Welcome to the Rileys before the Twilight movies became a cultural phenomenon. As was the case with The Runaways and also with Walter Salles' upcoming On the Road.
She was just 18 and still filming Welcome To The Rileys, when she had to leave the set of to do the promo tour for the first installment of the Twilight series. After weeks she returned to 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 pose, 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 to Google, you will have 26.600.000 results! She lost the human right of grow up as a person and as an actress before becoming a selfconscious adult and consecrated actress in the public eye.
People like Natalie Portman, Annette Benning, Hilary Swank, Michelle Williams between others, in the last two THR roundtables with the actresses, said that they thank God everyday for having had time to grow up as a person and as an artist, mostly away from the public eye! No one is born perfect in any way!
You will see below that this "over exposure" certainly interfered in the analysis 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 119 reviews from professional film critics, included 38 so call Top Critics).
P - Positive review (101 reviews)
P/N - Mixed review or not gave opinion or is indifferent (11 reviews)
N - Negative review (12 reviews)
The first lesson that we learned about film critics' reviews was: It 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!
Lets start!
P 01 - Al Alexander - Milford Beacon - "...But then, with actors the caliber of Gandolfini, Leo and Stewart, how could he fail." "...They (the actors) bail him out at every ridiculous turn with performances that are as rich as they are heartfelt. But their greatest gift is their ability to inject realism into a story that could only take place inside a writer’s mind."
P 02 - Aldo Singer - Indie Media Magazine - "...To Stewart’s defense, she delivered a solid performance that all ‘Bella’ fans should take note of, she’s hardcore." ...The film could have used Stewart a lot earlier then when she entered. The more scenes Gandolfini and Stewart had together, the better this film became."
P 03 - Alexis L. Loinaz - Metromix.Com - "But a trio of superb performances..." "Stewart creates the loudest bang as a lost child who taunts Doug with "cooter" come-ons (her word) and a potty mouth..."
P 04 - Amanda Stefaniuk - UP Town Magazine - "A talented cast can make a good script great and an awful one bearable. In the case of this Sundance Festival darling, stars James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo, and Kristen Stewart — the Twilight ingénue proves she can emote when she wants to — make a mediocre story of damaged souls interesting. .... Stewart’s usual fan base may be shocked by her gritty role, but she does a commendable job of portraying the teen struggling to deal with the Rileys’ sudden affection."
P/N 05 - Andrew Schenker - Slant Magazine - (His review just talk about script and director's work. He didn't like at all the movie! Because of that, he don't talk about the performances! So... I'll put this review as "not given".)
P 06 - Anthony Breznican - USA Today (TOP CRITIC) - "Kristen Stewart's shocking depiction of a self-destructive 16-year-old stripper/prostitute in Welcome to the Rileys is bound to scandalize. Those who prefer her only as Twilight's lovestruck Bella may be shocked, while others who know her more nuanced work in films such as Adventureland will see a fearless new side of the actress confirmed. . . . Stewart deserves credit for taking the risk of playing this part. It's a shockingly sexual performance...For an actress like Stewart, it would be easy to play it safe. Knock out a romantic comedy or a Nicholas Sparks weepie while the vampire cash keeps rolling in from Twilight sequels. Instead, Stewart is challenging herself, and moviegoers, too."
P 07 - Ashley Ratcliff - Movie Media Magazine - "Stewart gives a remarkable performance in this drastic departure from her “Twilight” series role, while Gandolfini and Leo bring depth to their characters."
N 08 - Avi Offer - NYC Movie Guru - "but, unfortunately, Kristen Stewart could use some acting lessons because she’s unable to convincingly and organically tackle a wide range of emotions as Mallory transforms innately."
P 09 - Bags Hooper - Character Approved Blog - "Stewart is best known for her role as Bella Swan in the Twilight franchise. While this series is wildly popular, it doesn't really showcase the range Stewart has an an actor. Her role as a runaway in Welcome to the Rileys tests her prowess, and it's an overwhelming success. As Mallory, she expresses the pain and anguish of living a harsh life, while also giving voice to an orphan that subconsciously and desperately wants a family." "Stewart and Gandolfini are Character Approved for their on-camera chemistry. This is easily the most powerful role Stewart has played on film and we're looking out for more from this talented actor."
P 10 - Ben Kendrick - Screen Rant - "‘Welcome to the Rileys’ is a competent indie drama that offers great performances..." "Surprisingly, Leo’s scenes with Stewart are especially intriguing." "Any moviegoers who were expecting Twilight starlet Kristen Stewart to drag the entire project down with pouty melodrama, will only be half-right. There is plenty of hair flipping and lip biting, but the anxious and awkward character fits within Stewart’s repertoire – as well as the movie at hand. Sure, at times, Stewart seems over-eager, as if she knows that roles like Mallory are key to being taken seriously as an actress in her post-Twilight career. In general, she succeeds in holding the film together, though it’s hard to consider it a breakout role for her..."
P/N 11 - Beth McCabe - BigPictureBigSound.Com - "It's Ms. Stewart that seems a little out of place, and probabaly out of her depth, with her seasoned costars. Her stacatto delivery is abrupt at times, and not always suited to the dialog, though she does bring an awkward vulnerability to her role that seems to (mostly) fit."
P 12 - Betsy Sharkey - Los Angeles Times (TOP CRITIC) - "Stewart, who was cast in the film before the "Twilight" tsunami hit, continues to gravitate to characters that the world has roughed up, with Mallory a few shades darker than the actress' well-crafted young Joan Jett in "The Runaways" earlier this year. She just gets better at bringing a naked vulnerability to her performances. Here it's like watching a slide show of anger, pain, innocence, outrage and mischief play across her face."
P 13 - Bill Goodykoontz - Arizona Republic (TOP CRITIC) - "Too often we're taken out of the story and wind up watching the actors, not relating to them. Luckily for Scott, they're so good that it makes Welcome to the Rileys a more-satisfying film than it probably should be."
P 14 - Brian Orndorf - eFilmCritic.com - "...Stewart's tic-riddled, far-fetched work here (she's Runaway 101 with her smeared eyeliner and greasy hair) more palatable than expected."
P 15 - Capone - Ain't It Cool - "I have to admit, I didn't think Stewart really had it in her to surprise me, but as the foul-mouthed Mallory, she reminds me that there was a time when she was a strong actor and not just an accidental cultural icon."
N 16 - Cary Darling - Dallas Morning News (TOP CRITIC) - "Gandolfini and Leo play their parts with an exquisite sense of quiet pain. Never mind that the film should have been shorter or that Stewart, a long way from her days as the tortured Twilight teen, is a bit one-note. Welcome to the Rileys is a welcome surprise."
P 17 - Chris Bumbray - JoBlo's Movie Emporium - "...I like her, and I think that outside of TWILIGHT she's a great actress,..." "... Leo has a few really nice scenes with Stewart, where they establish a type of mother and daughter bond that is nicely splayed by both of them." "Of the three, Stewart probably has the most clichéd role, with her playing the young hooker with a heart of gold. Nevertheless, Stewart does a great job. Sundance has been very good to Stewart this year, with her showing up in two good films, and playing markedly different characters. She's actually a very good young actress, and I hope that her success in TWILIGHT means she'll continue to get quality films like this one made."
P 18 - Christopher Lloyd - Sarasota Herald-Tribune - "I'm personally of the opinion that those "Twilight" movies have been a net burden to Stewart's career. Watching her textured work here, in which she shows us Mallory's carefully constructed walls of defensiveness, it's hard to imagine this is the same actress moping around with vampires."
P 19 - Clark Douglas - DVDVerdict.Com - "I would mention what a pleasant surprise it is to see how good Kristen Stewart is in a role that actually challenges her, but then I've already seen her in The Runaways. Instead, I'll simply say that this is a film which further confirms how good she can be when the role requires her to be. She's impressively raw in her earlier scenes as the unapologetically slutty, vulgar runaway stripper, but what really impress are her moments of conflicted emotion later in the film. Stewart excels during those moments in which Mallory struggles to choose between her buried desire for safety and her fiercely independent streak. She plays very well off of her fellow cast members, particularly Gandolfini."
N 20 - Claudia Puig - USA Today (TOP CRITIC) - "Stewart's idea of inhabiting this part seems to be to scowl a lot and let her hair go unwashed. The Twilight star doesn't have the depth or emotional agility to go toe-to-toe with Gandolfini and Leo. She emerges as a wretched caricature"
P 21 - Cole Smithey - ColeSmithey.com - "as an actor's showcase for Melissa Leo, James Gandolfini, and the ever watchable Kristen Stewart than it does as a complete work of cinematic dramaturgy." "But it's Kristen Stewart's rebellious sensuality that fills the recesses of the melancholy narrative."
P/N 22 - Connie Ogle - Miami Herald - (She don't talk much about the actor, only talk about the characters because she thought the movie and the characters "too false to offer much hope...". She laments it because the good actors.)
N 23 - Dan Kois - Village Voice (TOP CRITIC) - "But Jake Scott’s Welcome to the Rileys is so underwritten that, despite a more energetic performance, Stewart makes much less of an impression." "... Try as Stewart might, she can’t turn this Manic Trixie Nightmare Girl into a real person."
P 24 - David D'Arcy - Screen Daily - "...this heartfelt portrait of loss and regeneration should enjoy exposure thanks to its marquee cast, enhancing the independent credibility of both Gandolfini and Stewart in the process." "...Gandolfini and Stewart bring energy and some fine nuances to the would-be father-daughter odd couple, even though Gandolfini’s mission to lift Stewart out of squalor and sin is a dramatic stretch. Spitting out curses, Stewart takes to the explosive role of a hooker who shows no interest in being tamed. While she isn’t breaking new ground here, she captures the entropy of a damaged angry child."
P 25 - David Edelstein - New York Magazine (TOP CRITIC) - "And Stewart is a mess. She has oily hair and a complexion that either went to hell or was made to look as if it did. She also twitches every second." "Her rapport with Leo’s Lois, moved to join her wayward husband, has that mixture of tension and ease that puts across the mother-daughter vibe without pushing it. These people seem truly at sea, settling for glimmers of hope amid the crushing quite-realness."
P/N 26 - David Fear - Time Out New York - "Both Gandolfini and Stewart shrug off the baggage of being tied to other iconic roles, though neither adds much to their parts"
P 27 - Dee Doyle - Starpulse.com - "While it has solid performances and an interesting setting, there seems to be something lacking." "...A lot of people are discussing this as a break out role for Stewart, and she did well. She did do her usual type casted pouty thing at times, but there was a lot of depth to Mallory that she genuinely brought out."
P 28 - Don Clinchy - Slackerwood.com - "I have some friendly career advice for Kristen Stewart: Kristen, it's time to invest the fortune you made from the Twilight movies (for investment advice, consult a financial advisor -- not a film critic) and refuse all future roles in Hollywood schlockbusters, especially those marketed to tweenage girls. You're rich. You're famous. So, now you can prove your acting bona fides in grown-up films like Welcome to the Rileys. Seriously, Kristen. I know Twilight's Edward Cullen is all sensitive and romantic and whatnot. But when you can so convincingly inhabit the role of a bitter teenage runaway turning tricks in a dank New Orleans strip club, you really don't need ol' Eddie Wussyfangs anymore. You have the acting chops to do much more, and it's time to move on." "...Welcome to the Rileys is a captivating film, thanks to the strength of its performances if not the plausibility of its story. Never mind that some of the characters' actions aren't fully explained; Stewart, Gandolfini and Leo are so dead-on that the story is more believable than it should be. Their intense, nuanced portrayals make us accept their characters' sometimes contradictory behaviors." "It's worth seeing for many reasons, if not for Stewart's performance alone."
P 29 - Drew Tinnin - Gordon And The Whale - "Kristen Stewart’s quirks serve her well here, but her ratty appearance and bipolar behavior lend themselves to a drug problem that we never get introduced to. The performance is bold and racy, and Stewart doesn’t seem self conscious at all throughout the film." "...the relationship between Gandolfini and Stewart is highly entertaining in most scenes and the two make a memorable onscreen pair."
P 30 - Elena Nola - BSCReview.Com - "Stewart was the best I have ever seen her, hands down. I think I’d have been slightly more impressed if I hadn’t seen her use the same stutter-method in Twilight, but at least Jake Scott answers for me one of the questions I’ve had about her as an actress since that first atrocity in the “saga”: what can she do with a competent director helping her characterize? She played surly, frightened, helpless-yet-determined-to-fight-it with aplomb. ...I will point out that drawing high-caliber performances with nuance and power from three people is a big statement from a first-time director about his abilities to connect his cast to his vision. ...I’m certainly curious to see what Jake Scott does next, and this was beyond competent for a first effort."
P 31 - Eric Ditzian - MTV Movies Blog - "Kristen Stewart is utterly fearless in "Welcome to the Rileys." That's the takeaway from the film's world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on Saturday afternoon. You can quibble all you want with her portrayal of a 16-year-old runaway turned stripper and prostitute. But you cannot walk away from a viewing and say the actress doesn't fearlessly expose herself physically and emotionally, and doesn't do so with astonishing maturity and believability." "...In 'Rileys,' Twilighters will find nothing so much to be shocked by, rather than the fulfillment of a promise Stewart has been hinting at since 2002's "Panic Room": the woman is a fine, fine actress."
P/N 32 - Eric Eisenberg - Cinema Blend - "While Stewart’s performance is tolerable at best, the biggest disappointment is Gandolfini."
P 33 - Eric Kohn - indieWIRE / The Wrap (TOP CRITIC) - "Kristen Stewart Redeems Herself" "Kristen Stewart’s status as the mopey face of gothic teenage angst in the “Twilight” franchise has easily overpowered the other achievements of her brief career. At age twenty, she has appeared in a number of thematically advanced character studies (“Adventureland” among them), suggesting the antithesis to the murky innuendo and hackneyed drama of the big screen vampire craze. More often than not, the Twilight movies downgrade Stewart’s talent from credible understatement to a plastic vision of post-adolescent frustration. In Welcome to the Rileys, the second feature from music video director Jake Scott, Stewart delivers the legitimate version of that archetype with a role that rejects commercial standards." "One of the higher profile stories in the weeks leading up to the Sundance Film Festival was the presence of Kristen Stewart in two movies, neither of which featured vampires or werewolves. The "Twilight" star has essentially gone back to her roots by appearing in two independent productions, much as she did for several years before getting involved with a big scale franchise. .... Fortunately, Stewart's acting abilities are on full display in her other Sundance offering, "Welcome to the Rileys." .... As a foul-mouthed underage stripper, Stewart risks making a spectacle of herself, but she remains intriguingly subdued in a manner that lends mystery and layers of depth to her character. .... The directorial debut of Jake Scott, it both displays his potential and reminds audiences why Stewart was so alluring in the first place."
N 34 - Erik Childress - Cinematical - "But thanks to an earnest performance by James Gandolfini anchoring it, we can almost forget the weight of Kristen Stewart dragging it down with every hair flip and tug." "...The same can't be said for Kristen Stewart though. Set aside how grown up she has become since Panic Room to be taking on more adult material (she has offered herself sexually one way or another in The Cake Eaters, Into the Wild and in some vampire series about abstinence, amongst others), it doesn't mean she has matured as a performer. Someone must remind her that if you are going to resort to a bag of tricks, the proverbial pouch must be pluralized with material. Hair-grabbing, protruding your face in anger and making an unprovoked bounce in-between thoughts may be more than one trick in expression, but they are singularly Stewart. And the more they turn up, especially when acting alongside one pro becomes two, it turns Mallory into a caricature of Stewart's entire resume instead of becoming her own genuine character."
P 35 - Film-Book - film-book.com - "Welcome to the Rileys is the film that currently contains the best dramatic turn for Kristen Stewart to date."
Kristen Stewart’s best scene in the film involves services rendered, something sexual she won’t do, and a theft. She is livid, angry, turning to the only real friend she has. She’s bouncing all over the space as a bystander stares and Doug tries to calm her down. Then there is a realization and Mallory breaks down. Stewart’s fright acting in The Messenger was good but it is nowhere as good as her self-hatred and sorrow delved into here. Mallory is a beaten down human being, bludgeoned repeatedly by her own continuous deleterious actions, much like Randy “The Ram” Robinson in The Wrestler."
P 36 - FilmJabber - filmjabber.com - "People trash Kristen Stewart because of Twilight, but it's her little movies - the dramas that have dotted her short career - that remind us just how talented the actress really is. Welcome to the Rileys is just one more of those reminders. .... Stewart is excellent as the troubled teenager, a girl who masks her innocence and naivety about the world with crudeness and impulsiveness. Stewart embodies her character, locking onto the emotional core of a seemingly unsympathetic character. .... More importantly, he (Gandolfini) and Stewart have amazing chemistry with each other. The tug-and-war relationship between the two is extraordinarily engaging, one that grows and evolves in unpredictable and sometimes grating ways."
P 37 - Frank Swietek - One Guy's Opinion - "But the film does provide the stars with an opportunity to explore facets of character unlike the ones they usually portray." "Stewart sheds the morose gloom of her Bella in the “Twilight” series, but overcompensates by overdoing the facial tics and grimaces here."
P38 - Gary Karbon - Culture Feast - "But Melissa Leo as Doug’s depressed wife Lois and Kristen Stewart as a teenage hooker also excel beyond description. Why I haven’t heard the names of these amazing actors before; I have no idea. But I’m sure we’ll hear about them frequently in the future, especially Stewart given the fact that she is still so young and in the early years of her career. May it be a long one. I think she’ll fill in the shoes of Marcia Gay Harden nicely. Stewart is another Natalie Portman or Michelle Williams in the making."
P 39 - Gary Thompson - Philadelphia Daily News - ""Rileys" isn't believable for a second, but it's often watchable, thanks to its hardworking cast. It's fun to watch Stewart step out of her "Twilight" chastity belt and have a go at this hooker role, spitting out dialogue that has about 30 synonyms for various parts of the female anatomy. As Mallory, she talks candidly about the parameters of her job, stipulating that she will not have sex with German shepherds. Which I think is very bad news for Team Jacob."
P 40 - Graham Fuller - In A Lonely Place or Huffington Post (TOP CRITIC) - "But Stewart makes Mallory, the girl in Rileys, so defensive and evasive, so willing to offer a lap-dance or oral sex in lieu of explanations, that we know she has a history fraught with traumas, desertions, and betrayals." "Following Stewart's stealthy, brooding Joan Jett in The Runaways, her performance in Rileys further complicates the actress's image, which has been founded on passivity and a certain wryness. Not that Bella is archetypal. In making her moodier and less knowing than most high-school movie heroines, and bequeathing her her own shyness, Stewart has maintained the character's elusiveness; no mean feat to pull off over the course of three tentpoles..." "...As damaged as Mallory is, Stewart gives her the bitter integrity of someone who, having made her squalid bed..."
"One of the byproducts of the huge media attention focused on Stewart -- specifically her relationship, whatever it is, with Robert Pattinson, her Twilight co-star -- has been the obscuring of her talent. Few critics have analyzed her understated style or the way she dominates the frame without appearing to do or say much. There are actors Stewart's age as beautiful as her, but none as compellingly reticent. In Welcome to the Rileys, as in the Twilight series and such diverse films as Into the Wild, Adventureland, and The Runaways, Stewart's acting has a steady pulse that's interrupted by sudden violent zigzags of emotion. She has no idea why her presence is so muted."
Second review at The Art Desk, in November/16/2011, for the release of the movie on UK
P40-1 - Graham Fuller - "As supremely silly as they are, the Twilight movies are made watchable by Kristen Stewart’s Bella Swan, whose combination of fidgetiness and aloofness puts me in mind of James Dean’s Cal Trask and Jim Stark. If not as virtuosic as Dean (she's as beautiful), Stewart has made Bella as potent an empathy-figure for today’s alienated teenage girls with Gothic fantasy lives as Dean made Cal and Jim for would-be rebellious youths in the Fifties. You can fully understand why she has millions of female fans.
With her latest role, however, Stewart flies in the face of Bella’s virginal cool by bravely playing a character with whom only a lunatic would identify. The risk to her popularity was minuscule since the Twilight legions were never going to turn up to watch Jake Scott’s Welcome to the Rileys when it opened in the US a year ago: it made just $153,000 domestically.
Foul-mouthed and feral, the kohl-eyed stripper-prostitute portrayed by Stewart in Scott’s indie is a battery of neurotic tics: Mallory nibbles her fingers, scratches her undefined lips, and shakes one foot mechanically. There are bruises on her calves from pole dancing. Her hair is unkempt, her skin waxy. In her wilful self-neglect, she is pitiful.
Strung-out and slummocky, Mallory is more convincing than the film itself
This 16-year-old apparition could, in a different life, be Bella’s sister - the promiscuous one who acted out and vanished, leaving Bella uncertain, unsmiling and ill-equipped to deal with rejection. There’s no such sister, of course, in the Twilight movies to rationalise Bella’s depressiveness, isolation and her attraction to the undead and the vulpine - though part of it stems from her parents’ split. But Stewart makes Mallory so defensive and evasive, so willing to offer a lap dance or oral sex in lieu of explanations, that we know she has a history fraught with abuse and betrayals.Following her stealthy, brooding Joan Jett in The Runaways, her performance in ...Rileys complicates the actress’s image, which has been founded on passivity and wryness. Not that Bella is archetypal. In making her moodier and less knowing than most high-school movie heroines, and bequeathing her her own shyness, Stewart has maintained the character’s elusiveness; no mean feat to pull off over the course of three blockbusters (with the fourth out this week and the fifth due this time next year)."
P 41 - Gregory Ellwood - Hitfix - ""Welcome to the Rileys" features fine performances by stars James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo and Stewart,... Stewart has the gutsiest role as she shows a sexual side she's never displayed to this level before. Fishnets, huge high heels, some revealing rear end shots and running around in her underwear aside, Mallory/Alison is a foulmouthed kid who will pretty much do anything but one specific sexual act not prime for publication. And yes, you'll words come out of Stewart's mouth you may never hear again over what should be a long cinematic career."
P 42 - J.R. Jones - Chicago Reader - "...yet this modest three-hander is capably acted and genuinely touching."
P 43 - Jack Giroux - The Film Stage (TOP CRITIC) - "... But due to subdued and patient direction from Jake Scott and a trio of terrific performances, Welcome to the Rileys is a film filled with well-earned heart. ... Mallory is similar to Doug and Mallory, but her emotions are more furious and uncontrollable. Stewart holds her own with Gandolfini and Leo once again proving when she’s outside of the Twilight universe, she’s capable of so much more."
P 44 - Jake Coyle - Associated Press (TOP CRITIC) - "The scenes between Doug and Mallory are the best thing in "Welcome to the Rileys," which was written by Ken Hixon. Gandolfini, with a believable and not overstated Southern accent, plays reformer. Stewart, in what may be her best performance yet, warms to his caring while vacillating between hard rage." "But she's a captivating blend of fragility and strength. It's obvious that Doug's attempts to tame her can only partially successful."
P 45 - James Verniere - Boston Herald (TOP CRITIC) - "What makes "Welcome to the Rileys" watchable is the cast." "Stewart, who was terrific earlier this year in the neglected Joan Jett biopic “The Runaways,” again goes out on a limb, stretching beyond Bella’s cooing, kvetching teen angel. She first appeared on the radar as the daughter in David Fincher’s “Panic Room” (2002), and is convincing as a girl who has been forced by biology and circumstance to live by her wiles, however recklessly. Stewart’s desire to grow as an artist is enough to make you shout: Go team Kristen!"
P 46 - Jay Seaver - eFilmCritic.com - "Kristen Stewart also turns in decent work as Mallory; even as she gets pushed from lead to supporting character over the course of the movie, she keeps the girl an consistent but changing individual." "The cast does well enough in their roles, although this movie isn't likely to be a career highlight for any of them." "It's got decent performances, although I suspect that the actors could have delivered even more had the movie left some of its fits a little less perfect and polished its rough patches a little more."
P 47 - Jeannette Catsoulis - NPR (TOP CRITIC) - "Proof positive that even the most shambling movie may be rescued by fine acting, Welcome to the Rileys is a defiantly cheery title for an achingly bleak story." "As for Stewart, her nuanced and mature grasp of this broken character is impressive. But after pouting and brooding through the Twilight franchise, we can only hope her next project gives her some reason to smile."
P 48 - Jeff Leins - NEWS IN FILM - "Stewart delivers the sort of gritty, impressive turn she typically brings to her indie roles, and a confident, saucy alternative to her awkward, chaste Twilight lead."
P 49 - Jen Yamato - Movies.Com (TOP CRITIC) - "...To his credit, director Jake Scott (spawn of Ridley) is unafraid of painting an ugly picture of the world, and even less afraid of plopping his respectable actors into the worst of it. He films the hyper-twitchy Stewart, frequently half-clothed and garishly made up, in sleazy strip clubs, illicit motels, and flophouse digs with relish; she, in turn, displays an admirable commitment to embracing her character, facial blemishes and bruises and filthy hair and all. Welcome to the Rileys is the Twilight starlet’s grimiest role to date – and in a year that saw her puke and party as Runaway punk rocker Joan Jett, that’s saying something."
P 50 - JimmyO - iamROGUE - "Kristen Stewart is clearly the one to watch here. Since taking on Bella in the Twilight Franchise, it seems she has had to prove herself more than most young actresses. In ‘Rileys’, she still pulls at her hair and has a sly nervousness that she evokes. Yet in nearly all her non-Twilight features, she offers a sort of vulnerability which you just can’t fake. Her relationship with James is very touching and sometimes very real. Once Melissa’s character enters “Mom” mode, there is an even more delicate and heartbreaking mother/daughter bond. Gandolfini, Leo and Stewart are well and able to carry this story pretty far, and it truly is a success for that reason."
P/N 51 - Joe Morgenstern - Wall Street Journal (TOP CRITIC) - "Mallory is marginally interesting at best; the harsh reality is that she's an infantile slut. And Ms. Stewart's performance is unsurprising. She's a talented young actress—her work in "Into the Wild" demonstrated that—and a spectacularly successful one by virtue of the "Twilight" vampire sagas. But she sometimes mumbles and often rushes her lines; one hopes that success hasn't cut her off from the direction that almost every young actor needs."
N 52 - Joe Neumaier - New York Daily News (TOP CRITIC) - "The only saving grace is the larger-than-life presence of James Gandolfini. He helps balance the buzzkill of Kristen Stewart, who gives another empty-eyed, surly-as-garlic turn, just as she does in the "Twilight" movies and pretty much everything else." "Doug and Mallory's friendship, though, might as well be sketched on the back of a cocktail napkin. She's a trash-mouthed street kid, and Stewart chooses to make her snarly and phony as well. If the movie's silver lining weren't inevitable, Mallory may have earned her edge. Instead, it seems like Stewart is doing a little one-act that requires her to merely find the most immediately readable tone, and she simply sticks with that."
P 53 - Joey Magidson - Awards Circuit (TOP CRITIC) - "Both James Gandolfini and Kristen Stewart give nomination worthy performances in the flick. ....Stewart is just as good, and her foul mouthed and overtly sexual role should prove without a shadow of a doubt that she’s more than just Bella Swan. Some of her tics that annoy her critics are still here (I’m not one of them, as I adored her in ‘Adventureland’ last year), but they make sense for this character. She breaks your heart on more than one occasion, but Stewart is so convincing that you never quite lose the sense that she’s a dangerous person. Some of the plot points for her character are standard issue stripper/hooker points, but Stewart sidesteps the dangers inherent in those and creates an incredibly memorable portrait of a wayward youth." ".....‘Welcome to the Rileys’ features 4 star acting, 3 and a half star directing, but only 2 and a half star writing." "....I was blown away by some of the acting in this film, and I think you’ll find it to be exceptionally strong as well. This is a deliberate piece of cinema, so know that, but it’s a rewarding experience overall."
P 54 - Jeffry Wells - Hollywood-Elsewhere.com (TOP CRITIC) - "Pudgy James Gandolfini is excellent in his usual unforced way, and Kristen Stewart matches him move for move."
P 55 - Justin Strout - Orlando Weekly - "Kristen Stewart proves yet again she’s most comfortable in indie world" "... Stewart, whose non-Twilight resume continually affirms her next-Jodie-Foster thesp status, Scott proves he’s as shrewd as he is talented. Stewart’s twitchy, unfiltered turn is ferocious in its simplicity; her refusal to apologize or explain why her character behaves the way she does shows Stewart to be an intuitive actress capable of holding the screen in a way no other young starlet has quite learned how." "... the sexless father-daughter relationship between Doug and Mallory is captivating whenever we go back to it, so raw is Kristen Stewart and so capable of absorbing abuse is Gandolfini. These two really deserve their own movie."
P 56 - Karen Bernadello - shockya.com - "...Stewart proves that she’s at her best in smaller, independent movies. Much like her other independent drama released this year, ‘The Yellow Handkerchief,’ Stewart proves she can truly develop a role that isn’t based on a popular book character, like Bella from ‘The Twilight Saga,’ and expectations to play her a certain way. She made Mallory relatable by showing her pain of being out on her own, struggling to survive."
P 57 - Keith Cohen - Entertainment Spectrum - "James Gandolfini ("The Sopranos"), Kristen Stewart (best known as Bella Swan from "The Twilight Saga" movies) and Melissa Leo ("Conviction" and the upcoming "The Fighter") put on an acting showcase in this emotional story of damaged individuals." "... Stewart shows her versatility in stepping out of her comfort zone. She previously demonstrated her acting chops in the little-seen "The Yellow Handkerchief" (2008), now available on DVD and also worth checking out."
N 58 - Kimberly Gadette - Indie Movies Online - "Welcome to the Rileys welcomes us to look anew at both Jake Scott and Kristen Stewart." "... As for Stewart, she plays a pouty teen who bridles when adults suggest choices other than self-destruction. Ah, well -- so much for Stewart branching out, deviating from the kind of character she usually plays ..."But her scenes falter when she plays against Stewart's Mallory, who can't come close to matching Leo's depth. It's as if the actress' features were dipped in Teflon ... and the only visible changes on her face have much more to do with make-up than emotion."
P 59 - Kirk Honeycutt - Hollywood Reporter (TOP CRITIC) - "the film feels old-fashioned and somewhat removed from contemporary indie filmmaking. "Twilight" starlet Stewart should deliver a curious audience -- and she certainly satisfies that curiosity -- yet no one s hould anticipate much theatrical business. The movie will gain better traction in VOD and DVD." "but Ken Hixon's screenplay does serves as a blueprint for three fine performances." "Kristen Stewart came to town with two films (The Runaways & Welcome To The Rileys) and I think there was the kind of feeling of "Lets see what that Twilight's girl can really act!" I think that is misplaced because at 19 she is already a veteran!" "She done a very good job here!"
P 60 - Luke Bonanno - DVDizzy.Com - "Boasting strong performances and an engaging script, Welcome to the Rileys proves to be an interesting drama."
P 61 - Laremy Legel - Film.com (TOP CRITIC) - "Kristen Stewart and James Gandolfini give outstanding performanes for director Jake Scott" "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." "See it for Stewart's electric performance, Galdolfini's papa bear strength, or to scout an up-and-coming director in Jake Scott."
P 62 - Larry Richman - Independent Film Analysis - "Most of all, Welcome to the Rileys is character-driven, with Leo, Gandolfini, and Stewart each owning their roles with an intensity that never wanes. ... Stewart takes risks which would be daunting to actors twice her age. Brash and offensive, her Mallory is like a wild tigress in heat that's escaped from the zoo and evades capture at every turn. This could be her most shocking and memorable performance yet."
P 63 - Leah Rozen - The Wrap (TOP CRITIC) - "If you’re at the gym stretching is good for you. If you’re an actor … not so much. While acting by its very definition implies constant change and range, the most successful of stars often find themselves confined to a straightjacket of sameness. Audiences want to see them playing the same role over and over again, with only the slightest variation from project to project. ...The case of Gandolfini and Stewart, of course, is different than Roberts, Bullock et al. He has never been a major movie star -- he was a supporting actor on screen before finding fame on the small screen -- and she was already considered a talented young actress pre-‘Twilight,” having given impressive and wide-ranging performances in “Panic Room” and “Into the Wild.” In the minds of their fans, though, their images are fixed. He’s Tony Soprano and she’s Bella Swan. Both are long way from the characters they play in "Welcome". These are actors who know what they’re doing, do it well and rarely push too hard."
P 64 - Lisa Schwarzbaum - Entertainment Weekly (TOP CRITIC) - "As an original indie drama, though, the overload of soapsuds (and the production's excessive attention to on-location squalor) at times overwhelms the earnest performances of the three very good lead actors, who work hard to convey the feelings of loss and loneliness that come from lack of communication. Incidentally, Rileys has been casually dubbed ''Kristen Stewart's stripper movie,'' but the handle doesn't stick: Stewart may wear skimpy clothes and grind once or twice from the neck down, but from the neck up she's all hollow, bruised eyes, twisted little mouth, and classic, coltish K-Stew rebellion."
P 65 - Leonard Maltin - Maltin on Movies - Rellz Channel -
P 66 - Lou Lumenick - New York Post (TOP CRITIC) - "Audiences tend to avoid Kristen Stewart's non- "Twilight" movies like vampires fleeing daylight. Believe me, it's their loss." "Welcome to the Rileys," her latest, is another gritty indie drama from Sundance that will likely disappear as quickly as the underappreciated "The Yellow Handkerchief" and "The Runaways" earlier this year. Which is a shame, because Stewart's intense, courageous performance as a 16-year-old New Orleans prostitute is really something special."
P 67 - Luke Y. Thompson - Eonline - "As a runaway-turned-sex-worker, Stewart gives the kind of raw performance those of us who'd practically fallen asleep during her comatose Twilight line readings forgot she was capable of. Perhaps her experience as a child actor was fraught with equivalent perils, but whatever she's tapping into here, it clearly hits her nerves, and ours."
P 68 - Manohla Dargis - New York Times (TOP CRITIC) - "As she has elsewhere, Ms. Stewart twitches her way through too many scenes, a habit that might become difficult to shake. But she’s an exceptionally appealing screen presence, and she makes Mallory’s confusion — the swings between vulgar braggadocio and clutching vulnerability — reverberant and real."
N 69 - Marc Mohan - Portland Oregonian - "but Stewart seems stuck in the same sneering, pouty mode she's practically trademarked."
P 70 - Marjorie Baumgarten - Austin Chronicle - "Terrific performances can’t save this preposterous film from itself, but they do make it more bearable to watch." "After so much time playing the professional virgin in the Twilight movies, it’s nice to see Stewart play a character with pimples, bruises, and self-inflicted scars."
P 71 - Mark Dujsik - The Parallax Review - "The obviousness isn’t an inherent fault to the movie, which features a trio of fine, if equally obvious, performances. It doesn’t help much, though. ....Even with a more focused third act, the writer/director relationship of Welcome to the Rileys still comes across as confused from what’s on screen, though. That and the work of Gandolfini, Leo, and Stewart as the dysfunctional faux-family don’t make the inevitable “dad” work, but they do make it tad easier to accept."
P 72 - Marshall Fine - Hollywood and Fine / Huffington Post (TOP CRITIC) - "Stewart, by contrast, is all jagged edges and instinct." "Stewart attacks her role with a clarity and ferocity that is compelling. Stewart brings an emotional nakedness and spirit to the role that is reminiscent of certain male actors when they were young: Sean Penn for one, Leonardo DiCaprio for another."
P 73 - MaryAnn Johanson - Flick Filosopher (TOP CRITIC) - "The performances all around are great: ... Stewart proves she’s got real chops, as she did with The Runaways, when she’s got something meatier than a vampire romance to, um, sink her teeth into..." "... there’s some nice near-mother-daughter interactions between Leo and Stewart..."
P 74 - Matt Pais - Chicago Metromix - "This isn’t a movie; it’s acting practice. Obviously Stewart, Gandolfini and Leo took the roles for individual challenges and not for the actual movie, which backs away from a psychologically complicated situation that becomes more creepy than moving. Stewart’s performance identifies something strong hidden within a beat-up teenage runaway,..."
P 75 - Michael - Online Movies Hut - "The promising factor in the movie is Kristen Stewart who takes a break from her well known role as the vampire sweetheart to become a troubled young woman. As Mallory Stewart plays a major role in Welcome to the Rileys since it is her character that generated much of the drama in the movie. She comes with an electrifying performance that shows her true potential and this will be a landmark in her career." "One of the highly commendable factors to be mentioned in Welcome to the Rileys movie review should be the brilliant performances done by main three leading stars." "...Kristen Stewart had gone on to prove that she can go beyond character of Bella Swan because her role as a troubled teenager has been rather convincing."
P 76 - Michael Merlob - Fused Film - "Kristen’s Stewart’s portrayal of girl yearning for guidance in spite of her poor lifestyle choices is honest and frank."
P/N 77 - Michael O'Sullivan - Washington Post (TOP CRITIC) - (He didn't analyse the performances just the script. So I will consider as indiferent, because he really didn't like the movie and didn't think it was important the level of the performances if the script was so bad.)
P 78 - Mick LaSalle - San Francisco Chronicle (TOP CRITIC) - "And it's a pleasure to see Stewart ("Twilight") not trying to navigate sex with a vampire or a werewolf, but as a young actress, impressive with her quirky timing, unexpected line readings and expressive eyes. She doesn't go in for sentiment - at all. Actually no one does here, which means this is director Jake Scott's doing, too, and he deserves the credit."
P 79 - Mike Scott - New Orleans Times-Picayune (TOP CRITIC) - "'Welcome to the Rileys' built around surprising heart, strong performances." "It's not surprising that it's good, mind you. With a cast boasting James Gandolfini and Kristen Stewart, it would be hard for it to be downright bad." "an impressive showcase for the daring and eager-to-grow-up Stewart." "Without the fantastic performances from Gandolfini, Stewart and Leo, it wouldn't hold together nearly as well as it does."
P/N 80 - Nancy Kim - Blast Magazine - "Stewart, widely known for her awkward, dark and edgy acting, isn’t exactly groundbreaking nor is she inappropriate for the role of Mallory. She is passable as the lowly, unfortunate teen, but it’s her wardrobe (or lack there of) that characterizes a more obvious portrayal. Being the catalyst that brings Doug and Lois back together, you want Mallory to be more than the skimpy outfits and dingy actualization but Stewart’s inability to add depth makes it difficult. It seems that Stewart hasn’t stretched her acting ability beyond the realm of “Twilight,” “Into the Wild” and “The Cake Eaters.” ...While Stewart gives a fair performance, it’s Gandolfini and Leo whom you need to watch out for."
N 81 - Nathan Rabin - The Onion A.V. Club - "Jake Scott’s perversely quiet melodrama traces a familiar arc from alienation to unlikely connection, yet the deeply internal Gandolfini and scowling Stewart remain trapped in their own hermetic universes. Their scenes together are less a passionate duet than the sad spectacle of two people humming softly, sadly, and tunelessly to themselves in unison."
P 82 - Neil Miller - Film School Rejects - "Kristen Stewart is at her bravest. When we first meet Mallory, she's surrounded by quick-cuts and music video sex appeal, but there's clearly something else going on. She's broken, tired and as we learn later, just a frightened little girl. Stewart plays through all of these layers incredibly well. She's sexy, tortured and frightened. At some point, all at once. This isn't her character from Twilight. It is a far more mature role, and one that is a polar opposite to Bella. Unless Bella starts showing her bare ass in the third movie..." ".... if there's one thing to be gleaned from Welcome to the Rileys, its that a movie can be plodding and uneven, but can still be saved by performance. In the end, Gandolfini, Leo and Stewart carry the film across the finish line and make it not just watchable."
P 83 - Nick Da Costa - Eye for Film - "...but the performances are so intricate and nuanced that you’re willing to let it slide." "A special mention has to go to Kristen Stewart who strips herself bare, both literally and figuratively. It's the details that matter here, not some petulant one-note image drummed up by the press. The rawness of the stripper’s uniform, profane, all panda eyes and duct-taped nipples contrasted with the timid girl scrubbed of make-up, pulling sweater cuffs over her hands and picking at her acne.
She builds such a strong rapport with Gandolfini, who evinces a surprising amount of vulnerability from that bear-like stature, that you almost forget she isn’t his daughter. And it reminds you that these seemingly harmless displays of concern between genuine family members can actually be threatening between strangers. A shot of Stewart shoulders hunched, arms crossed, head dropped to her chest in contrition as Gandolfini looms over her sums this up perfectly."
P 84 - Nikki Finke - Deadline - "Fine acting from James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo, and Kristen Stewart highlight this drama about the effect that a young runaway has on a married couple."
P 85 - Perri Nemiroff - CinemaBlend.com / shockya.com - "As for Stewart, she's okay. She does what's required of her, which isn't much of a strech from her typical moody characters,... Both she and Gandolfini put on above average performances,..."
P 86 - Peter Debruge - Variety (TOP CRITIC) - "With a cast like this, buyers are sure to be interested, although writer Ken Hixon's story is anything but an easy sell, especially given Scott's almost tediously self-serious treatment of the material." "Where the "Twilight" movies try to hide Stewart's pimples, here, those natural imperfections (plus a few bruises and suicide-attempt scars painted in for good measure) suit the character just fine. Hiding behind raccoon-eye mascara and electrical-tape pasties, Stewart is the perfect wretch, utterly convincing as a lost girl leveraging her sexuality to compensate for her complete powerlessness."
N 87 - Peter Keough - Boston Phoenix - "It seemed that Kristen Stewart might be expanding her range with her roles in The Runaways and Adventureland. But in Jake Scott's unwholesome melodrama, her performance suggests her Twilight character playing a 16-year-old runaway stripper/hooker in the high-school play. Call her Bella du Jour."
P/N 88 - Peter Rainer - Christian Science Monitor - "Stewart, at least, is playing someone with a real-world connection. She makes the mistake, as she often does in her films, of racing through her lines in a drony monotone while looking wantonly sulky. But she sparks many of her scenes with Gandolfini and Leo, both of whom are otherwise regularly reduced to insipidity."
P 89 - Peter Travers - Rolling Stone (TOP CRITIC) - "The actors and admirably sensitive director Jake Scott (son of Ridley) can't compensate for Ken Hixon's long slog of a script."
P 90 - Philip Martin - Arkansas Democrat Gazette - "If you know Kristen Stewart - who (do I really need to say it?) plays the stripper - only from those kiddie porn vampire flicks, well you don’t know Kristen Stewart. While The Runaways was a disappointing mild bio-pic, her Joan Jett was spot-on. Andif you saw her in The Cake Eaters at the 2009 Little Rock Film Festival (it’s unlikely you saw it anywhere else), you wouldn’t be surprised to learn she actually can act."
P 91 - Prairie Miller - NewsBlaze - "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."
P 92 - Ray Pride - New Film City/Chicago - "Both actors are painfully endearing, as is damaged, abandoned wife Lois (Melissa Leo). These actors are exquisite miniaturists. Gandolfini’s slow-burn miffs and tiffs are fine, and Stewart’s exquisite and vital facial features are in full play. ...Stewart is game to capture the straggly gamine, down to the third act’s riot of simulated pimples and cold sores that pock her face. (Barelegged for the most part, Stewart shows the makeup designer’s skill at skidded shins and wayward bruise.)"
P/N 93 - Rex Reed - New York Observer (TOP CRITIC) - "Great Acting Can’t Save the Leaden Welcome to the Rileys" (He didn't like the movie but aprecciated the acting, although he only talk about the old couple characters and the two old actors. He write Ms Stewart with respect but don't go deep. Seems to me, he thought her character as not so important in the drama. He gave more value to the couple drama. So... I will consider this as indiferent!)
P 94 - Richard Mowe - Boxoffice Magazine - "Stewart as the foul-mouthed Mallory takes the chance to expand her acting credentials." "The film has its moments, with much pleasure to be had from the pairing of Gandolfini and Stewart. As a showcase for their talents it works even if the overall impression is less than the sum of its parts."
P 95 - Robert Levin - amNewYork - "These are complex, believable characters, wholly deglamorized and bestowed with the layered complications that define real life. The actors bring great conviction to their parts, deftly conveying deep-seated emotions without veering toward easy, obvious choices."
P 96 - Robert W. Butler - Kansas City Star - "... the film works because its stars make up a trifecta of terrific performers who overcome the clichés inherent in their characters. ...Stewart confirms once again that away from the “Twilight” franchise she can be a daring and dangerous performer. Here she deftly contrasts Mallory’s childlike aspects against her jaded, crude side. Stewart isn’t afraid to be unpleasant and unattractive."
P 97 - Roger Ebert - Chicago Sun Times & rogerebert.com & blogs.suntimes.com/ebert (TOP CRITIC) - (at his blog at Sundance 2010) "The discovery once again is Kristen Stewart, who after this year's festival can be considered completely rehabilitated after the "Twilight" films." "Kristen Stewart here is tougher even than her punk rocker in "The Runaways." Who knew she had these notes? I'm discovering an important new actress." (at his review for The SunTimes) "...It's good, too, to see how director Jake Scott uses the physical presences of his well-cast actors. Stewart here is far from the porcelain perfection of the “Twilight” movies, and it's a relief to see that it is, after all, physically possible for a teenager to have complexion problems in a movie. Leo is worn out by loss and worry, but smart and kind."
P 98 - Roger Friedman - The Hollywood Report (TOP CRITIC) - "Kristen Stewart, she of “Twilight” fame, is also very good as a teen prostitute whom the couple befriends."
P 99 - Roger Moore - Orlando Sentinel (TOP CRITIC) - "“Welcome to the Rileys” is a movie about life after death. Not the supernatural sort, but the life that those left behind choose to live after a loved one dies. Well cast and nicely acted, it’s another piece of the puzzle of what Kristen Stewart’s career might look like after “Twilight” turns dark." "She’s a wreck, all dirt, bruises, sleepy eyes and chapped lips. Stewart and Gandolfini’s scenes have an edge, but her scenes with Leo have a moist-eyed warmth that give the film its heart."
P 100 - S. Jhoanna Robledo - Common Sense Media - "WELCOME TO THE RILEYS moves slowly, but it packs a mighty punch. It paints a picture of grief without sentimentality, an accomplishment that relies not on gimmicks but on strong performances from all three leads,..."
P 101 - Sandrine Sahakians - Daemons Movies - "As for Kristen Stewart, she proves without a doubt that she can hold her own in any movie, and is not tied in any way to her character of Bella in the Twilight Saga, which not every actor would be able to do with such a franchise. If you’re a fan of hers, you’ll find her pretty unrecognizable in Welcome to the Rileys. Mallory is also a very interesting character because of not only the relationship she has with Doug, but also the journey she goes on after she meets him."
N 102 - Shirley Sealy - Film Journal International - "Sensitive performances by James Gandolfini and Melissa Leo—and a sensationally sleazy one by Kristen Stewart—are simply not enough to enliven this downer of a movie about profound grief and how it makes people behave in strange ways—very strange ways. ...Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for Kristen Stewart, the young actress who has attracted accolades playing Bella in the Twilight series. In Welcome to the Rileys, she does her best to look the part of a battered prostitute and drug addict who, in the end, is smart enough to see she has to figure out her own fate. But until that revealing moment, Stewart gives no hint she understands a complex character like Mallory."
P 103 - Scott - We Are Movie Geeks - "I will tell you that the three main actors in the film, James Gandolfini, Melissa Leo and Kristen Stewart all turn in amazing performances. It would have been very easy for things to go south in each of the roles but Jake Scott pulled out what could be one of the best performances of Stewart’s career and definitely my favorite of Gandolfini and Leo."
P 104 - Scott Mantz - MovieMantz Review / Access Hollywood (TOP CRITIC) -
Starts at 0:30
MovieMantz - Access Hollywood - October30, 2010
P 105 - Scott Menzel - MovieManMenzel.Com - "Stewart and Gandolfini step outside their norm to deliver powerful performances in "Welcome to the Rileys""
"The best part of “Welcome to the Rileys” hands down are the performances. I have been following Kristen Stewart as an actress for several years now ever since I first saw her in “Panic Room.” Many people seem to have a love/hate relationship with her thanks to her unemotional and stiff role as Bella in the “Twilight” franchise. I would love to convince people to give her a shot as an actress but people seem to be rather set in their ways on her. For Stewart, it's hard not being the typical hot young actress. She's a rather unique actress with a non-typical Hollywood look and that's what I like about her. As for her performance in “Welcome to the Rileys,” she is both raw and risque. The amount of bad language and how dirty Stewart looks in the film would make a sailor look clean. Stewart's performance is by far the best one in the film. She is a lost soul with very little self respect in the film. She plays a stripper, which is a role I never thought I would ever see her play but just plays it perfectly. This is without a doubt Stewart's best role to date and even tops her performance as Joan Jett in “The Runaways.” I would even argue that Stewart deserves an Oscar for her performance here, that's how good I felt she was in the film."
P 106 - Stephanie Zacharek - Movieline (TOP CRITIC) - "Mallory isn’t letting go of her crap so easily, and the movie, thankfully, doesn’t offer any immediate, facile solutions to her multiple problems. What it does do is offer Stewart plenty of chances to frown and scowl unpleasantly; maybe she avails herself of too many of them. But she can’t be that sullen for long with Gandolfini’s Doug around, and the two of them end up making quite a pair. And when Lois shows up on the scene, Mallory doesn’t immediately accept her as the proverbial mother she never had. There’s conflict ahead, but then, conflict is sometimes the only way to move forward. Stewart appears to have been constricted by the rigid parameters of the Twilight movies. Her character here is wary, not trusting (s Bella is), and maybe for that reason, she seems to take pleasure in a role that requires one long, kicking-and-screaming “No!” But two-thirds of the way through the movie, she hints with her eyes that she’s possibly considering a “maybe.” Welcome to the Rileys is a gentle, well-acted picture..."
P 107 - Stephen Saito - The Independent Eye/IFC.COM - "LAFF director Rebecca Yeldham came out to introduce the film and moderate the post-screening Q & A (a job usually handled by programmers or volunteers), and before the film started, Melissa Leo spoke on behalf of herself and co-stars Stewart and James Gandolfini, who stood off to the side, a reminder that "Welcome to the Rileys" not only boasts a talented ensemble, but one of the most spotlight-weary as well."
P/N 108 - Stephen Whitty - Newark Star-Ledger (TOP CRITIC) - "And Kristen Stewart — well, yes, once again she’s got a bad case of the mopes. But the flashes of rage convince. And physically — bruised, broken-out, filthy — she does everything she can to avoid any Hollywood touches." (The "bad case of mopes" that he refers is a expression he used in his review of Twilight - New Moon, where he wrote ""...Still, the three leads approach their parts with conviction. Kristen Stewart is a little twitchy ("Can’t she get through one scene without playing with her hair?" a friend of mine sniped afterward) but her antics and moody moping are perfectly appropriate to the troubled-teen character."" So... I understand that he is stating that she chose again a "mope" character. This way I will consider this as mixed)
P/N 109 - Steven Rea - Philadelphia Inquirer (TOP CRITIC) - "When actors are so thoroughly linked to a specific role - Kristen Stewart's Bella Swan, say, or James Gandolfini's Tony Soprano - any project that offers the chance to try something different had better be good, or else. Welcome to the Rileys is the or else. Flat and predictable, with a script (by Ken Hixon) full of cheap redemption and gloomy earnestness..." (He don't talk about the acting because he just didn't like the movie, period!)
P 110 - The Playlist - indieWire (TOP CRITIC) - " It’s not exactly the shock of the year to imagine Kristen Stewart in this role, though she manages to capture something uniquely upsetting about how innocence can be corrupted before youth has set in." "...The pacing is glacial at times, but with excellent performances from Leo, Stewart, and Gandolfini (the former Tony Soprano, now wearing Red State simplicity over a powerfully fractured heart) allow each moment to feel real, lived-in, understandable." "Tougher, more sympathetic performances haven’t been seen yet from these three: Stewart in particular defies expectations in an uneasy role. Her performance suggests a spirit in transit that the film wants to pigeonhole into little-girl-lost clichés, and Stewart gamely follows suit in an arc that never seems believable."
P 111 - Thelma Adams - Us Weekly - "Kristen Stewart sheds her Twilight image in this gritty drama, playing a New Orleans stripper and prostitute in a performance that screams "take me seriously." While she achieves her goal -- perfecting every tic and hair fling of this bruised 16-year-old runaway -- the rest of the movie falls short."
P 112 - Thomas Cadwell - Cinema Autopsy - "Kristen Stewart, in a role even grittier than the one she played in The Runaways."
P 113 - Timothy Werth - Movie Fill - "Gandolfini, Leo and Stewart have a seamless chemistry that keeps the film on the rails. For her part, Stewart portrays on-the-edge without overacting or appealing for pity. She plays this wayward soul with heart and finesse, though its often hard to tell because she's spends most of her screen time cursing and taking off her clothes. Despite the grim subject matter, the movie also has an easy humor, built on little moments between the characters (Allison: "I have my dad's tits.").... Kristen Stewart proves that she does have a future outside of Twilight, and as for Gandolfini and Leo, I expect nothing less than amazing. They deliver, even when the movie can't."
P 114 - Tricia Olszewski - Washington City Paper - "To be fair, regardless of Stewart’s actorly tics, she’s terrific as the raw, damaged Mallory, never once calling to mind her superficially angsty Bella."
P 115 - Ty Burr - Boston Globe (TOP CRITIC) - "I want to say that Welcome to the Rileys stars two good actors and Kristen Stewart, but that’s not only mean, it misrepresents the case." "Stewart? As usual, she’s just there, but I can’t think of another young actress who makes her there-ness work so well. All three actors come at this gloomy, borderline-preposterous tale from different directions; that they meet up at all — and they do — is a tribute to sincerity and craft." "Stewart somehow builds a character out of her patented mix of shrugs and sullenness. The movie deglamorizes both Mallory and the actress playing her; by the final scenes, the character’s very much the raw adolescent the other two mistakenly see as a replacement daughter."
Some new film critics Podcast
P 116 - Spills - spill.com -
From Deauville Film Festival (France)
P 117 - Elodie Leroy - Jeuxactu.com - "Kristen Stewart creates surprise with a composition very touching, delivering her best performance to date as an actress."
P 118 - Metro France - "‘The Twilight Saga’s heroine embodies deeper characters in ‘The
Runaways’ and ‘Welcome to the Rileys’. Before playing Twilight’s Bella, Kristen Stewart was seen in Sean Penn’s ‘Into the Wild’. Since then, vampires came along. Even if Stewart didn’t make the trip to Deauville, two of her films are there to testify that she has found the “wild”! First, by embodying Joan Jett in ‘The Runaways’, Floria Sigismondi’s first movie.
Guitar in hand and with black eyes, she formed a fierce and ultrasexy duo Dakota Fanning, contributing greatly to the joyful energy of this really rock’n'roll movie that has an explosive soundtrack. Radical change with ‘Welcome to the Rileys’, film of redemption signed Jake Scott. Kristen plays Mallory, a stripper-prostitute-runaway 17 years old girl.
As convincing as ever, Kristen swears and smokes like a sailor; with her messed up mascara and torn fishnet stockings, we wouldn’t expect that she would still look good in old jeans and t-shirt. Not only is there a life after Twilight for her, but best is yet to come for the 20 years old actress.’"
P 119 - Mulder - Mulderville.com - "Deauville festival allowed us to rediscover Kristen Stewart through independent movies. After The Runaways, inspired by a short period of rocker Joan Jett’s life, she’s again the center of a drama, Welcome to the Rileys.
P 120 - Nicolas Gilli - filmosphere.com - "...we did not expect much of Kristen Stewart, excellent in Into The Wild or The Runaways, but too dull in the Twilight saga. And she proves here with a certain talent - even if she has a hard time to let go of her angry teenager look - that she'll easily negotiate the rest of her career once the crappy vampiric saga is over and forgotten. ... And the real surprise is Kristen Stewart, as a young prostitute, who finally breaks her gullible romantic image. Good choice! ... In the lead a Kristen Stewart who's not afraid to shatter her image so Twilight doesn't stick to her, good for her,..."
P 121 - Tootpadu - Mulderville.com - "Kristen Stewart never ceases to amaze us during Deauville American Films Festival. Through her second role in as many days, she gets rid of her annoying reputation of innocent girl in the Twilight saga, to surprise us with her acting even more compelling here than in The Runaways.
Swiss Newspaper Review
P 122 - Cineman - "Although saddled with a predictable plot, the second film by Jake Scott, son of Ridley Scott, is nevertheless sensitive and moving, with some fine acting by stars James Gandolfini, Kirsten Stewart and Melissa Leo."
Source : Robsteners
N 123 - Pascal Blum - ZÜRITIPP - "You accept every distress from James Gandolfini, but you prefer watching Melissa Leo. On the other hand Kristen Stewart looks as sexy as a crack whore, furthermore she lacks in her acting quality: When she breaks out into tears, you'd wish a vampire would come running to comfort her."
Source : Robsteners
Brazilian Review
P 124 - Douglas Elias - Plantão PoP - "Kristen Stewart persuaded to do a fine young man lost, and with no prospect that life willdeliver the drugs and the world of prostitution, very different from adolescent "fool" thevampire saga, but a proof that this new generation, it is by far one of the most talented."
Haters to the left!
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| So cute! |
Make sure to return for "The Runaways" compilation reviews
