What are Kristen Stewart's Five Good Films?
Thursday, November 4, 2021 at 8:08AM 
In the past decade, Kristen Stewart has come a long way. While her career started early and with great promise – while she was still a teenager – the actress' participation in Twilight movies soured the world's perception of her talent. It's unfair but, as of the writing of this piece, it seems to be over. With Pablo Larraín's Spencer, even the biggest Stewart skeptics have quieted, and she's on her way to a likely Oscar nomination if prognosticators are to be believed. All that and she also just got engaged to girlfriend Dylan Meyer, making this a time of great personal fulfillment as well as professional and artistic. Still, when looking back at her own filmography, it seems that the actress herself isn't as enamored with it as some fans might be…
In an interview about Spencer for The Sunday Times, Stewart said:
I've probably made five really good films out of 45 or 50 films. Ones that I go, 'Wow, that person made a top-to-bottom beautiful piece of work!
Reading this, I couldn't help but wonder what cinematic quintet she holds dear to her heart...
One would assume Spencer is in the group, likely joined by Stewart's two collaborations with Olivier Assayas, Clouds of Sils Maria and Personal Shopper. Still, artists are seldom the best critics of their work. More interesting than pondering what Stewart's favorite movies from her curriculum are, is to reflect on what one considers to be her five best films. Or if, indeed, there are five good movies to be selected. While the actress is often great, she's sometimes the best thing in subpar projects, interesting endeavors whose end results don't always reach Stewart's excellence. Films like J.T. LeRoy and Seberg would do well to be more like their leading lady.
With this in mind, I decided to reflect on Kristen Stewart's filmography and highlight five which deserve all the love in the world, be they widely acclaimed or not at all. They are, in chronological order of release:
PANIC ROOM (2002), David Fincher
The pairing of Stewart and Foster is inspired, but David Fincher's camera wizardry is just as impressive. There's a beguiling tightness to Panic Room's first act, a formalistic playfulness that percolates during the later passages, fermenting into a bubbling mass of anxiety ready to consume the viewer. Intense and weirdly big for such a diminutive home invasion concept, Panic Room's a lot of fun, even if far from perfect, and the mother-daughter duo at its center is flawless.
ADVENTURELAND (2009), Greg Mottola
While the Fincher movie would have succeeded without Stewart, her presence is key to Adventureland's excellence. Indeed, while Mottola offers little surprise behind the cameras, his direction of actors is exquisite. We experience a crystallization of disillusionment through the performers, a vulnerable portrait of that terror that walks hand-in-hand with encroaching adulthood. Refusing to sand off the sharp edges of its emotional storytelling, the movie is a sad little gem, and Stewart's perfect in it.
THE RUNAWAYS (2010), Floria Sigismondi
Casting Stewart as a young Joan Jett was a stroke of genius that dramatically benefits the movie. The combination of star and role brings mysterious inchoate energies to her scenes, complicating what could have been a forgettable by-the-numbers music biopic. Along with Stewart, Dakota Fanning is a beguiling ruin as The Runaway's lead vocalist Cherrie Currie. Moreover, it's a beautifully designed film with great cinematography and a killer soundtrack.
CERTAIN WOMEN (2016), Kelly Reichardt
It's wonderful seeing actors respond to Reichardt's quiet cinema, especially when the thespians in question are as formidable as Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Lily Gladstone, and Kristen Stewart. Those last two star in the film's best tale, a sublimation of yearning for connection in a lonely world. Years after seeing it for the first time, Certain Women lingers, its melancholy wrapped around the viewer's heart in a vice grip that refuses to let go. Not for all audiences, but a patient viewer may find something truly beautiful hidden within the Montana tableaux.
PERSONAL SHOPPER (2016), Olivier Assayas
A horror movie? A ghost story? A fashion drama? An excoriation of identity? Yes, and no, all of the time. This multifaceted creature sometimes feels like Assayas doing Antonioni, especially when paths are revisited with emptiness where a person once was. Stewart's at the center of it, a shining revelation of tentative naturalism that embodies the movie's great mysteries while also feeling grounded, impossibly human, and even tender. Her last scene persists in the memory as maybe the actress' most outstanding work, Assayas depurating his cinematic expression to the careful observation of Stewart's face, her microscopic reactions, a presence as beguilingly uncategorizable as Personal Shopper itself.
Other favorite Kristen Stewart films include Camp X-Ray, Still Alice, and Speak. They're not masterpieces but deserve praise nonetheless. Please know I haven’t seen Spencer yet. Hopefully, it'll get a place in this quintet after I catch it in theaters. What about you, though? What are your five favorite Kristen Stewart films?
Reader Comments (20)
My five favorite are:
Clouds of Sils Maria
Certain Women
Equals
Personal Shopper
Spencer
I saw a couple of the Twilight films. I didn't think they were all that bad (I have no intention, though, of watching them all). From what I've seen:
Clouds of Sils Maria (with a performance by Juliette Binoche for the ages)
The Runaways
Adventureland
Personal Shopper
Certain Women - not for the film overall, but her performance is sensational - the best thing in it
Certain Women
Café Society
Clouds of Sils Maria
Personal Shopper
Big drop
Snow White and the Huntsmen (sue me; it’s an almost completely successful popcorn film)
But I haven’t seen a few that might well have made the list, like Panic Room and Adventureland.
Two films that are underdiscussed. I'm a big fan:
1. Personal Shopper
2. Certain Women
3. Panic Room - One of the few Fincher films that is underrated.
4. Still Alice - I've never rewatched it, but the first thing I remember about it is Stewart and Moore's affecting chemistry.
5. Camp X-Ray - Stewart is surprisingly good as a soldier.
Honorable Mention: Breaking Dawn - Part 2, which is campy and fun in its stupidity.
Into the Wild?
1. Into the Wild - It was my favorite film of 2007 and proved that given a role that doesn't limit her security. Stewart can shine.
2. Personal Shopper
3. The Runaways
4. Certain Women
5. Zathura
Also like Adventureland and Still Alice
I've gotta go with
1. panic room
2. clouds of sils maria
3. personal shopper
4. the runaways
5. snow white and the huntsman (even though i dont even like her as snow white so this is the one example on my list where I don't think she was as good as her film)
honorable mention: cafe society
p.s. i have seen spencer and HOT TAKE i dont like it.
Adventureland
Spencer
Clouds of Sils Maria
On the Road
Panic Room
and I've never a Twilight.
Nathaniel: Oh no! (re SPENCER) Did you at least like KStew?
Haven't seen it yet, but was looking forward to it - still am, actually - though mainly to see what she does with the role.
I've never been as high on her performance in SILS-MARIA as some (for me, she was outshone by Binoche), but I did like PERSONAL SHOPPER and THE RUNAWAYS, and i thought she was pretty good in INTO THE WILD and PANIC ROOM, too. I still need to see ADVENTURELAND. Have not seen and don't care to see any of the Twilight movies.
If we're talking what my favorite Kristen Stewart performance is, that would be Clouds of Sils Maria. She displays a confidence in that performance that I don't see in many of her other performances. Nonetheless, I don't love the film as a whole, and I think it suffers greatly when Kristen Stewart is not on screen.
As for my favorite films she was in, I would say Into the Wild, Personal Shopper, Still Alice... maybe Café Society and her Totino's SNL sketch (that may be a cheat, but have a look, it's brilliant: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A4kpVO56OBU).
Sorry to hear that Nat did not love Spencer, though I'm still looking forward to it (I really liked what Pablo Larraín dud with Jackie).
Not the best filmography, but I do like some of them. Clouds of Sils Maria is an all time fave, and it was nice to remember Adventureland, undervalued as it is. I didn't understand what others saw in Personal Shopper (please explain?), as I couldn't make sense of it and not in an interesting way.
I do like Into the Wild though, a recent rewatch proved the film is not as cringey as its current reputation might suggest, and Stewarts brief appearance in it is good. She's always interesting to watch.
Do we think she's definitely winning the Oscar? It doesn't look like she has much competition.
In 2014's weak Best Actress year I thought she may break through for Camp X ray but as usual they only saw 5 - 6 performances.
Adventureland
Clouds of Sils Maria
Still Alice
Certain Women
Personal Shopper
(* have not seen Spencer)
Forgot Into the Wild! Great as well
Totally forgot about ON THE ROAD but tbh I can't remember a thing about her performance or the film (besides Garrett Hedlund and Tom Sturridge making out)
Also very curious about Nat's reactions to SPENCER! I'm seeing it tonight
Wow... so far...
1. Personal Shopper
2. Clouds of Sils Maria
3. Certain Women
4. Camp X-Ray
5. Panic Room
I would make mention of the following: The Safety of Objects, Speak, Into the Wild, Zathura, Snow White and the Huntsman, and Charlie's Angels.
The last of which I think is just brainless fun as it looked like she was having a ball during that film. I really want to see Spencer.
Personal Shopper and Clouds of Sils Maria are the two locks on that quintet. I'd assume Spencer was filmed after she said that... the other three... well, your guess is as good as mine
I’m gonna add on - she was unexpectedly a lot of fun in the Charlie’s Angels reboot a few years back.
We'll see what Berry, Bullock, and Gaga have up their sleeves but if their films fail to catch on the race will be between Stewart and Chastain.