UPDATE2: 2 reviews added!
UPDATE: 3 reviews added! Rob's work called terrific, edgy, understated, charismatic and more!
I've really enjoyed Rob's reviews out of Berlinale. Click HERE if you missed the initial reviews for Queen of the Desert. The films have received mixed reviews but Rob's performances have been mainly on mainly positive side. Critics just don't disrespect his work like they used to and that's certainly pleasant to read.
UPDATE
Telegraph:
Dane DeHaan and Robert Pattinson shine in Anton Corbijn's low-key portrait of James Dean...But Stock, too, who has an ex-wife and young son he barely sees, is playing the angles, sniffing out a meal ticket. The underrated Pattinson is playing a cold fish here, and does a credible job getting inside Dennis’s aura of shifty desperation: he pesters Dean, pursues him to New York, hangs around his grimy apartment building. The star is half-alarmed, half-amused, and can’t decide if he needs this vulture buzzing around him or not...There are photographers whose camera is like an extra limb, but he’s not one of them. Every time Pattinson reaches for his, he seems sneaky about it, as if he’s stealing something, aware that the authenticity of the moment is under threat.Observer:
Anton Corbijn’s Life stars Pattinson in an admirably low-key role as mid-century photographer Dennis Stock and his frustrated attempts to land a Life magazine photo spread with laconic and wary up-and-comer James Dean (Dane DeHaan, doing disaffection with a surprisingly convincing pout). The slow-burn film is an absorbing study of how arresting, emotionally potent circumstances become iconic imagery.HeyUGuys:
Considering we’re living vicariously through Robert Pattinson’s Dennis Stock in Anton Corbijn’s ambitious biographical drama Life, we rely on our protagonist earning the trust of Hollywood icon and star James Dean, to be granted the fortune of getting beneath the surface of his subject, to allow the audience to do so themselves. What transpires is an absorbing insight into the life of one of the industry’s mot renowned, and elusive stars....Given the undeniable charm and charisma of Pattinson, there was always the fear that he would steal the show from his counterpart, and be perceived as the star. However such is his understated, subtle turn, it allows DeHaan to take on that very role, which, given he’s playing James Dean, simply has to be the case.Cine-Vue:
DeHaan and Pattinson are also both terrific, at once elegant and charismatic, yet equally uncomfortable in the skins they inhabit. Dean's ability to mirror the dilemmas of a disenfranchised generation of youngster made him a star and whilst DeHaan's performance is a little over-exaggerated, he still manages to capture that sense of relatable despondency. This also affords Pattinson time out of the spotlight in one of his strongest roles to date.London Evening Standard:
Pattinson as the restlessly ambitious Stock is more edgy (you can’t help wishing he had been cast as Dean instead)Boston Herald:
How honest, personal and affecting is LIFE.... Robert Pattinson is perfectly cast as Stock, a man adrift with an ex-wife from a teenage marriage and guilt filled about the young son he never sees.
Canvas:
Updating...
The main things you'll remember are Pattinson's best performance and the finest projectile vomit scene you’ve ever seen.Variety:
Robert Pattinson in a sly turn as Dennis Stock...It’s the peculiarly moving, even subtly queer friendship between the two men that distinguishes “Life” from standard inside-Hollywood fare, while gorgeous production values and ace star turns make it a thoroughly marketable arthouse prospect...DeHaan and Pattinson enact this anti-romance beautifully, each man quizzically eyeing the other for leads and clues, while coyly retreating from scrutiny. Pattinson, adding to his post-“Twilight” gallery of sharp-cut screw-ups, brings intriguing layers of childish dysfunction to a character who is only ostensibly the straight man in the partnership.Gone With The Movies:
For Robert Pattinson, his take on iconic photographer Dennis Stock is equally as impressive as he enters the world of Hollywood from the other side of the carpet (and at bottom). Spotting Dean's talent early, Stock, in the two-hour running time attempts to get photographs of Dean before fame kicks in. Deadlines, pressure and awkwardness soon mount-up, and Pattinson expertly presents it onto screen.Little White Lies:
Robert Pattinson impresses in this stylish drama about the relationship between celebrity and the media. An intense mob formed around the Berlinale press screening of Anton Corbijn's Life — such is the continued allure of Robert Pattinson. His fans beyond the festival will be pleased to hear that his brittle performance as LIFE magazine photographer, Dennis Stock, outshines Dane DeHaan's over-baked rendering of James Dean, although the latter is poignant enough to enliven this tale of men helping each other to take a leap into greatness...Pattinson's performance is as crisp as the white shirt and black suits his character always wears. This is a camouflage for his own problems that slowly unfurl, adding colour and improving the film...The social backdrop is just as carefully wrought. In another film, Ben Kingsley's fuming studio head, Jack Warner, would be The Other Man to Jimmy Dean and the tussle would be Saving Mr Banks flavour. Instead, Kingsley ball-busts just enough to give Jimmy's non-conformity gravitas, but the viewfinder is trained on the man behind the camera. Pattinson steps up, allowing more of his character's insides to come out. As Life proceeds the pace picks up and by the third act, it is a compelling dramatisation of an artistically fascinating alliance.Screen Daily:
The two leads convince as actors; it’s the characters that are more of a problem. DeHaan method acts his way into the persona of a consummate method actor whose cool persona was partly a protective screen; his Dean is very much in the mould of the Dean remembered by his East Of Eden co-star Lois Smith, who once said: “He was a sweet, rustic person, but there was also this suspicious, taut, guarded young man”. Pattinson’s hangdog character is defined by an exchange in which, after Dean tells him he’s disappointed in him, he replies “you’re not the only one”.The Hollywood Reporter:
While Pattinson has endured a lot of gratuitous bashing post-Twilight, he gives arguably the most fully rounded performance hereThe Guardian review is bleh but I did wonder if anyone was going to muse about if Rob was in the role of Dean instead. It was something many of us thought when Rob was first cast and several media outlets during the casting announcement thought so as well.
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