In a year that hasn’t been known for being the cheeriest, there’s no denying that a film like Happiest Season (2020) stands out all the more. There is a need to fill our lives with some form of cheer, recognizing the power of human connection that usually comes with the holidays. Even if it ends up being a lighthearted romp, it will be one of the most refreshing pieces of escapism that this year has released, giving us a break from the self-pitying heavy dramas like Hillbilly Elegy (2020). The question from there is if it will be a new holiday staple, having us return to it year after year. Based on early reviews, it seems a bit likely.
Though the only debate that will range longer than whether Happiest Season is a masterpiece in disguise is whether its star, Kristen Stewart, is a good actress. For over a decade now, she has been perceived as flat, the butt of jokes thanks to Twilight (2008), with few willing to give her a chance. In their defense, her run of big-budgeted studio films has been among her weakest, though that’s also because of flaws from a whole production standpoint. I’m one of those that argue she’s one of the best actresses currently going. Don’t believe me? You’re watching the wrong movies then.
To understand what she’s best at, you need to go to the indie dramas, working with auteurs who have more personal stories to share. It’s here where she begins to flourish, reflecting the interior struggles of characters reluctant to be open, hiding something inside. Maybe it’s pain or a secret. Maybe it’s a tight-lip so that she can be strong for somebody else. She conveys so much without having to draw attention to herself. If nothing else, she has been one of those noble voices who has used her clout to elevate projects to a bigger audience, and that is deeply admirable.
Will Happiest Season be breaking into this list very soon? I personally am unsure (I’m not big on holiday movies), but I definitely know that Stewart serves as a stamp of endorsement for me to at least be curious – especially starring opposite Mackenzie Davis and a promising cast. While what follows is a list of the films that personally connected with me, I’m aware that she’s been great before – The Cake Eaters (2007) – and I imagine she has a lot of great roles ahead. Feel free to leave your favorites in the comments and prepare to have the Happiest Season next week.
1. Aventureland (2009)
When asking the question of what draws us to certain movies there are few things as irrefutable as the personal. For many, a time or place shapes how much we love certain media, turning to it for some form of solace. For me, Adventureland is one of those that takes me back to my middle school days, where I would spend the weekends setting up carnivals at local schools. I was surrounded by the pageantry, the flashing lights, and cheap prizes. My father painted the wheels and I tested out all of the games in the warehouse when I was bored. While I can’t say that my experience is entirely similar, it’s enough to make the atmosphere timeless.
I have an affection for the world that Adventureland builds with its own ecosystem that most of its attendees will never notice. Even if Jessie Eisenberg is more beloved for The Social Network (2010), I have trouble not admiring what he does here, finding ways to build formative experiences during a summer where it feels like nothing happens. The entire time you’re rubbing your eyes, trying to get to the end of a workday so that you can get high in the parking lot, pass out by a friend’s pool, or fall in love with Em (Stewart): the misunderstood girl who makes life worth living.
Before the recent renaissance, this was my first exposure to the idea that Stewart had so much more to offer. Even within the conventional broken home narrative, she brought something complex, finding her attempting to be strong amid personal doubt. Even within the teenage canon, there was something greater for Stewart as an actress, able to be the cool outsider that had much more going on than we’d ever see. It’s an endearing performance made better by her fun chemistry with Eisenberg and one that perfectly captures the power of a summer job and the mystique that hearing Falco’s “Rock Me Amadeus” on a loop can have in our memories. It’s not so much what you do but who you do it with.
2. Personal Shopper (2017)
In some ways, this remains the benchmark for what a great Stewart performance can be. When thinking about what makes her compelling, it always comes back to something insular, to convey deep emotions that aren’t always cinematic. Leave it to director Olivier Assayas with their second collaboration to find that essence with a ghost story aching with loneliness and longing. The story follows Stewart as she navigates the world following her brother’s death. The question regarding if there is an afterlife fuel the entire story, finding Stewart holding text message conversations that suggest that something is out there.
While more drama than horror, the story explores the loneliness that comes with the grieving process. As a personal shopper, Stewart is constantly diving into the psychology of other people’s lives, finding herself able to escape from her own turmoil as she wanders the streets. When left with her own thoughts, it’s when the film becomes haunting, recognizing the absence in the frame. What is there to do when a part of your life is permanently gone, unable to cope in the ways that became old hat? Her journey throughout the film is phenomenal, finding a study of loneliness and the fear it entails perfectly conveyed in every stare, the quietness speaking volumes about her changing state.
If you need to understand the potential of Stewart in one performance, start here. What it lacks in direct horror it more than makes up for with something more personal, reflective of the terror that lies in our hearts as we realize that the world moves on. With clever direction from Assayas, it manages to become a philosophical story about grieving that is unique and gets to the core of the feeling better than most contemporary titles. If this is where Stewart’s career is going, then cinema will be in safe hands for the near future.
3. Still Alice (2015)
To be completely honest, this is Julianne Moore’s film and everyone else just exists in it. With her powerhouse performance, she creates a character who doesn’t grow with the story but deteriorates before our eyes. It’s an impeccable performance about a young Alzheimer’s patient that finds the grasp of reality fading gradually, creating this painful depth. You want to hold onto her, fixing whatever problems exist in her psychology. But you can’t. You just have to pray that a miracle happens while reading Tony Kushner plays and try to revive a relationship to what it used to be.
I’ve long considered this story to be about a fate worse than death. From Moore’s perspective, the role is tragic unto itself. However, the way that it’s directed perfectly conveys what’s lost from all parties. Moore is almost too convincing in small ways, and the tragedy of witnessing her final moments of cognizant conversation never gets any easier. Meanwhile, her family deals with the desperation that everyone else feels, wanting to shake her shoulders, trying to reboot Moore to who she used to be.
Again, Stewart is an observant figure who is hiding so much underneath. This is a role where you sense every minute that she’s crying inside, fearing that her mother is fading away, being closer to a burden than someone who will comfort her with childhood memories. The strength in her quiet focus is an excellent decision that only becomes more striking when the moment clicks. When the lights go out in Moore’s eyes, how does Stewart react? It’s not a pronounced decision, but one that makes it one of the most eviscerating, soul-crushing performances of the year. It’s easy to overlook Stewart in this context, but her concern is what makes everything else work.
4. The Runaways (2010)
Nothing will disappoint me more than the fact that director Floria Sigismondi didn’t have a bigger career after this – her only other movie is The Turning (2020). With all clarity, The Runaways is one of the best music biopics of the modern era. In a time where everyone gets caught up in tropes, needing to remind you that the soundtrack is available for purchase in the lobby, Sigismondi chose instead to focus on something more compelling in the female friendship between Dakota Fanning’s Cherie Curie (one of her best) and Joan Jett (Stewart), using the symbols of womanhood to reflect a maturity that this young band would face on the road ahead.
That’s what the story needed. In between some of the most dazzling concert recreations is this story of two vulnerable women, acting beyond their years in large part because they have to. They’re pushed to by a sleazy manager (Michael Shannon in another great performance) and a world that only seeks to fetishize their rambunctiousness. It’s what makes their “us against the world” mentality work so well, finding Jett play a more maternal role to Curie as she undergoes alcoholism and other personal conflicts.
What makes The Runaways more exceptional is that it’s not just about the music, but that it conveys what the best biopics do: universal themes. At the end of the day, this is a nuclear family story full of memorable performances and finds love even inside the occasional bout of hopelessness. The Runaways were an important band in music history and it’s to Fanning and Stewart’s credit that they find something more human inside of it. They were more than the bad girls. They were wayward travelers looking for peace in their lives, finding it with each other in the most perfect ways imaginable.
5. Certain Women (2016)
To be totally honest, this was the first movie I watched following The 2016 American Presidential Election. Full of disappointment, I needed a story that conveyed a country that I recognized as being hopeful and understanding of each other. It’s an idea that comes naturally to directors like Kelly Reichardt, and here uses a loose connection to combine several stories together, reflecting a struggle to follow their own paths in a world that maybe didn’t understand them.
I personally believe that the timing of this viewing made the film resonate better, finding a need to listen and understand their personal struggles. With phenomenal performances from Stewart, Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, and Lily Gladstone, it created a vision of what life could be. What it lacks in clear thesis it more than makes up for in its meditative touch, letting us into struggles of the Northwest that range from relationships to economic and educational struggles. By the end, we’re better for having spent time with them, illuminating a world that feels organic and real, showing the backbone of a country that maybe doesn’t always respect them. Still, there’s hope to carry on, to continue trying to make a difference in this strange world.
What are your favorite Kristen Stewart movies?
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