11 movies with Kristen Stewart to watch instead of "Twilight"

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

Today the actress turns 29 years old.

It was once considered good form to scold Kristen Stewart. Even now, Bella Swan from the Twilight franchise is still often cited as the apotheosis of talentless and wooden acting. And the very film adaptation of the series of novels by Stephenie Meyer is called empty cinema for girls (as if there is something bad in it).

But to figure out who Kristen Stewart is - an unimpressive starlet from the teenage vampire saga or a serious actress of a wide range, you should watch other films with her participation. Perhaps after this, many will change their minds about Stewart, opening her from a new side.

1. Panic room

• USA, 2002.
• Drama, thriller.
• Duration: 112 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 8.

After divorcing her husband, Mag Altman (Jodie Foster), along with her daughter Sarah (Kristen Stewart), moves to a creepy house in Manhattan. Upon examination, it turns out that the building contains an impregnable bunker through which, with the help of cameras, you can observe the residents.

At night, three criminals enter the house, including the grandson of the previous owner (Jared Leto). They want to take a large amount of money from a secret safe. After waking up and finding uninvited guests in their house, mother and daughter hide in a bunker. But the problem is that the safe with the money is in the same place.

At some point, the production of David Fincher's thriller was in jeopardy. Nicole Kidman was supposed to play the main role, but she had to withdraw from the film due to injury. She was eventually replaced by Jodie Foster. In a similar way, the young Kristen Stewart got into the project - the girl got the role of the retired Hayden Panettiere.

Jodie Foster immediately noted the smart and multifaceted play of the young actress. Subsequently, he and Kristen Stewart became good friends.

2. Speak

• USA, 2004.
• Drama.
• Duration: 92 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 3.

In the center of the plot, based on the story of the American writer Laura Anderson, is the school outcast Melinda Sordino. After being raped at a party, the girl becomes speechless due to emotional shock.

Her former friends boycott her and bully her at every opportunity. Even parents do not care about the psychological state of their daughter. And only a school teacher, Mr. Freeman, helps Melinda overcome depression through self-expression through creativity.

Kristen Stewart was faced with a difficult professional task - to convey to the audience the feelings of the heroine only through facial expressions and internal monologues. The actress did an excellent job, and moreover, she turned the expression of hidden pain on her face into her trademark recognizable technique.

3. Into the wild

• USA, 2007.
• Drama, road movie.
• Duration: 148 minutes.
• IMDb: 8, 1.

The film is based on real events from the life of the traveler Chris McCandless. The main character was born into a wealthy family and entered a prestigious university. But instead of living an unremarkable, prosperous life, Chris gets rid of all his savings and sets off on a journey as far away from civilization as possible.

Kristen Stewart plays here a young girl named Tracy Tatro, who falls in love with the main character. He, in turn, treats her with tenderness, but does not take her seriously.

This small role gave the actress the opportunity to show her good vocal and musical abilities on the screen: in the film, Kristen sings and plays the guitar and even performs a song of her own composition.

In 2008, the actress landed the role of Bella Swan in the adaptation of Stephenie Meyer's bestselling book about the love of a schoolgirl and a vampire. Director Catherine Hardwicke, who previously directed mostly independent dramas about growing up (Thirteen, Kings of Dogtown), created the first part of the saga in her characteristic chamber style.

Not without amusing author finds: maybe it is not customary to advertise the love for vampire baseball to the song Supermassive Black Hole, but the shameful pleasure from this scene can hardly be overestimated.

Gradually "Twilight" turned into a real cultural phenomenon. However, new films in the franchise, directed by other directors, were rapidly lowering the bar for quality. Therefore, it was increasingly difficult for the mass viewer to discern the real acting potential of both Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart.

4. Park of culture and rest

• USA, 2009.
• Comedy, melodrama.
• Duration: 107 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 8.

Young graduate James Brennan (Jesse Eisenberg) has just graduated from high school and is dreaming of a summer trip to Europe. But these plans are not destined to come true: his parents cannot afford to pay for the trip.

To cover the cost of his upcoming university studies, James is forced to take a summer job at an amusement park. There, he falls in love with his witty and sweet colleague named Emily Levin (Kristen Stewart), who, in turn, likes a grown-up married man.

This film was the first collaboration between Kristen Stewart and Jesse Eisenberg. They will subsequently also star together in Nima Nurizade's Ultra American and Woody Allen's High Society.

5. Runaways

• USA, 2010.
• Musical film, drama, biography.
• Duration: 106 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 6.

The biographical drama of director and screenwriter Floria Sigismondi tells about the rock girl group The Runaways and the relationship of vocalist Sheri Carrie (Dakota Fanning) with another member of the group - Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart).

In this tape, Kristen's musical talent again came in handy - the actress herself sang all the songs in the film. And she coped so well that the real Joan Jett could not even distinguish Stewart's performance from her own.

By the way, Jett constantly participated in the filming process and became very close to Kristen, whom she praised for simply perfectly portraying her on the screen.

6. On the road

• France, UK, USA, Brazil, Canada, 2012.
• Drama, adventure film.
• Duration: 124 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 1.

The plot of the film was based on the pseudo-biographical novel of the same name by Jack Kerouac. Young writer Sal Paradise (Sam Riley), along with his new friend Dean (Garrett Hedlund) and his wife Marylou (Kristen Stewart) travels across the United States in search of freedom and himself.

The actress didn't even have to audition for the role of Marylou. The fact is that her performance in the film Into the Wild made such a strong impression on director Walter Salles that it was decided in advance to invite Kristen Stewart.

Around the same time, Stewart makes attempts to enter the territory of blockbusters - for example, starring in a good adventure tale directed by Rupert Sanders "Snow White and the Huntsman" (2012).

7. Sils-Maria

• France, Germany, Switzerland, 2014.
• Drama.
• Duration: 124 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 7.

At the height of her career, renowned actress Maria Enders (Juliette Binoche) is set to rejoin the play with which she successfully debuted 20 years ago. Then she played the charming young girl Sigrid, who brings her boss Helena to suicide.

Now she has to embody the image of Helena, and Sigrid will be played by Jo-Ann Ellis (Chloe Moretz), a young Hollywood starlet with a scandalous reputation. Together with her assistant Valentina (Kristen Stewart), Maria goes to rehearse in the Swiss village of Sils Maria.

Her participation in the drama directed by Olivier Assayas earned Kristen Stewart the prestigious French César Award for Best Supporting Actor. And this was the first time in the history of the award, when the victory went to an American actress.

8. Still Alice

• USA, 2014.
• Drama.
• Duration: 101 minutes.
• IMDb: 7, 5.

Renowned linguistics professor Alice Howland (Julianne Moore) is happily married to her husband (Alec Baldwin). The couple have three adult children. But Alice's life changes dramatically after she is diagnosed with early stages of Alzheimer's disease. Each family member experiences the mother's ill health in their own way, but the situation is most reflected in the youngest daughter Lydia (Kristen Stewart).

In the drama Still Alice, the actress co-stars with Julianne Moore, who won an Oscar for her role. The character Kristen Stewart is the only person who does not fit into the ideal picture of the existence of his family, but is not afraid to state it. However, even a difficult conflict with her mother does not prevent Lydia from supporting her and surrounding her with love.

In the same year, Kristen Stewart appeared in the independent film Camp X-Ray at the Sundance Film Festival, The New York Times '9 Kisses short video performance (where the actress kisses Chadwick Boseman succulently) and Jenny Lewis' music video for the song Just One Of The Guys.

9. Ultra-Americans

• USA, Switzerland, 2015.
• Action, comedy.
• Duration: 95 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 1.

A completely ordinary guy named Mike Howell (Jesse Eisenberg) loves to smoke marijuana and draws comics about a superhero monkey in his spare time. The only good thing in Mike's life is his girlfriend Phoebe (Kristen Stewart).

The protagonist has no idea that he is actually part of a failed CIA experiment, a well-trained "sleeping" agent with an erased memory. And when Mike's executives decide to eliminate him, he has to use his new-found fighting skills to save himself and his girlfriend.

Funny and clever "Ultra-Americans" by Iranian-British director Nima Nurizadeh is one of the films that are definitely worth watching to see not only Bella Swan in Kristen Stewart, but also a smart girl who is ready to stand up "for herself and for that guy."

During this period, the actress also starred in the science fiction film Equals (2015) and Ang Lee's war drama Billy Lynn's Long Walk at Half-Time Football Match (2016).

10. Social life

• USA, 2016.
• Comedy, melodrama.
• Duration: 96 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 6.

The main character of the picture is Bobby Dorfman (Jesse Eisenberg), a shy young man from a Jewish family. He comes from New York to Hollywood to get a job in filmmaking, with the help of his uncle Phil (Steve Carell), a renowned producer.

Phil puts his nephew in charge of his pretty secretary Vonnie (Kristen Stewart). Bobby immediately falls in love with a pretty girl, but she, according to her, already has a boyfriend. True, a little later it turns out that this is none other than Uncle Phil.

Surprisingly, Woody Allen didn't watch Twilight. He chose Kristen Stewart primarily because he was captivated by her role in the Park of Culture and Leisure. And it was the only film he saw with the actress.

11. Personal shopper

• France, 2016.
• Drama, thriller, fantastic film.
• Duration: 105 minutes.
• IMDb: 6, 2.

Uncommunicative Maureen Cartwright (Kristen Stewart) works as a personal shopping assistant for a busy socialite. And she is also very upset by the death of her brother Lewis and hopes that he will give her a sign from the other world. At some point, Maureen begins to receive frightening SMS messages, the sender of which she considers her dead brother.

Olivier Assayas' original plans did not include another film with Kristen Stewart. However, when the project, on which Assayas worked after "Sils-Maria", fell apart, the director spontaneously invented and shot "Personal Shopper".

The film won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival, but critics were divided. Some spoke about the film with enthusiasm, others - with misunderstanding. "Personal shopper" will definitely appeal to those who love ambiguous stories, presented with half-hints. And here you may have to think out something on your own.

For viewers who turn away rather than attracted by such films, the Rolling Stones' video for the song Ride ‘Em On Down, released in the same year, in which Kristen Stewart drives around Los Angeles in a vintage Ford Mustang, can be recommended.