This movie, this... er, movie, the term has to be used very loosely here... This movie does not feel like watching a movie. I had the feeling that I was watching the Special Features, the Making of STARDOM, Behind the Scenes on the set of STARDOM, okay, that was the appetizer, now for the real meat... Oops, you mean, that was it?

It's not that I do not get it. Make your own impression from the evidence given, that sort of thing. It's not that I do not like the glitzy images. Of course I do. But where's the story, people, where's the character-driven real watchable story?

Okay, it's not totally devoid of story. Of character. About every ten or fifteen minutes or so, something along that line, well, sort of, I guess, happens...

There has never been a good story about models. There has been a great movie about fashion, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, but about models, no. (Everybody kicks MODELS INC. so I'll be quiet about that) Yet the modeling world is one that could really be the subject of a great movie.

After LOST AND DELIRIOUS, did research on Jessica Paré, and decided to get me STARDOM. There were several warnings posted by reviewers and commentators, but of course, I wanted to see for myself. A downloaded bit, trailer I think, spurred me on. But when watching, you realize how empty the experience is, feels like channel- surfing during Fashion Week. Something here, something there, mostly nothing really.

I give a an exceedingly high score to Jessica Paré's beauty, the look of a newborn thing, I mean, she looks newer than brand-new, ooh wow... But the movie plods on and on without there being any REAL story. This quickly becomes a quagmire of a bunch of looped fashionable images that remains NOT A REAL MOVIE.

I get what they were trying to do, but they should have tackled it in a different way, with a more conventional presentation.

Looks like Second Unit camera work. You know, the guys who film the montage scenes.

Think of what you see here, as the set dressing. Now just add the STORY.

For crying out loud, Jessica Paré deserves better!

"Stardom" is the fourth Denys Arcand film I have watched so far, after - in their chronological order - "Gina", "Jesus Of Montreal", and "Love & Human Remains". Apart from "Gina", which was made much earlier and Arcand was still finding his way, in the other three films I have noticed some shared trademarks: Arcand seems to see filmmaking as a kind of intellectual game with the audience, and he also doesn't like to be constricted in the number of topics that his films touch upon - in fact, in "Stardom" he tackles a different topic in almost every other scene! With that said, the main target of the film is the fashion industry, and in that field Arcand achieves what Robert Altman only dreamed of in his "Pret-A-Porter" (1994). Coming before the social media frenzy and things like "revenge porn" really took over, "Stardom" can be considered quite prophetic as well. Arcand plunges the viewer, as well as the heroine, into a frenetic whirwhind of media coverage; the film is often dryly funny, but also has some amazing serious scenes, like when Jessica Pare confronts her long-missing father. Speaking of Pare, she is a radiant discovery; this must also be one of Dan Aykroyd's best performances. *** out of 4.

I also thought that Stardom was interesting, before seeing it, that is. It starts off with some funny moments, but runs too long. You don't really get into the characters so you end up not caring what happens to them. The performances were good, but the whole movie was just all over the place. Definite rental only.