I have posted this back in January during the Sundance Festival (with The Runaways' Review) but since we are doing promo for 'Welcome to the Rileys' I thought of reposting this review of Mr. Roger Ebert. Sighs, just skip the usual 'Twilight' bashing.
Ebert: "I'm discovering an important new actress."
Moviehole: "This movie belongs to Kristen Stewart..."
Roger Ebert's Sundance Journal
Welcome to the Rileys:
Welcome to the Rileys was one of the buzz champs of Sundance 2010.
The discovery once again is Kristen Stewart, who after this year's festival can be considered completely rehabilitated after the "Twilight" films. The lead is James Gandolfini, as an Indianapolis plumbing contractor who goes to New Orleans on a business trip and meets (quite innocently) a runaway lap dancer who may be 16. At home, his wife (Melissa Leo) hasn't been able to leave the house after their own daughter's death, and Gandolfini decides on the spot to sell his business, stay in New Orleans, and rescue this angry and damaged girl.
That sounds like unlikely melodrama? So it is. But Gandolfini, Stewart and Leo inhabit it with persuasive performances, and director Jake Scott uses French Quarter locations that add another level of atmosphere. Gandolfini does something here he often does, as in John Turturro's "Romance and Cigarettes" (2005): He demonstrates that although he may not be conventionally handsome, when he smiles his face bathes you in the urge to like him.
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.
And also from
Moviehole Another repost
from January this year- 2010 Sorry, can't find the original link.
But the film belongs to Kristen Stewart, raw, uncompromising, magnificent at every turn, delivering a ferocious and emotionally-charged performance. “Welcome to the Rileys” is a tough, challenging work, one that takes its time in exploring the fragility of human behaviour. It is a haunting, beautiful work with a masterful performance by Stewart at its heart.
The full review after the CUT
