KStew - the Official Post

KStew: love her or hate her, you probably have an opinion about her. Personally, I think she's a phenomenal actress who was horribly miscast as Bella, or, at least, the victim of terrible direction for that role which, for the sake of continuity, she is stuck with throughout all five films, even though the director in question is long gone. A little perusal through her IMDB profile shows that she's been in 23 movies so far (she has several in the works, but 23 have been released), and, of those, I have seen 12. More than half (just barely). Here is what I thought of the non-Twilight movies.

As I said, I think she's a fantastic actress, when she's not playing Bella. I first saw her in Panic Room, playing Jodi Foster's daughter. I thought it was a great movie, and I thought she was great in it. Child actors don't often get a lot of credit, but she had a ton to carry off in that movie, and she brought her A-game.

I didn't even realize she was in Into the Wild until I started watching it. Then she picked up an acoustic guitar and sang a beautiful and haunting song, and I was like, "Damn. Maybe she will be okay as Bella." Her role isn't large, but she rocks it. The movie is fucking harrowing, but so, so good.

I rented a few to check out her other work - Speak, a movie Twired Jen posted about last week, is about a girl traumatized by rape and shunned by her classmates, and it was a really moving performance by the Stew.

The Cake Eaters is about a girl with Friedreich's Ataxia, a genetic disease that causes progressive damage to the nervous system. The physical commitment that Kristen brought to the role of Georgia, the afflicted, was absolutely amazing. Anyone who doubts she can inhabit a character completely should see this movie. Such a powerful performance. It's about living life to its fullest, and I found it really affecting.

In the Land of Women is about a shiftless 20-something taking care of his grandmother. KStew and Meg Ryan and their family live across the street from Grandma (who is awesomely portrayed by a grouchy Olympia Dukakis). This was a strange movie - Adam Brody (who plays the shiftless guy) scowls through most of the film. Kristen's role is pretty much "angsty teenager," but she has a lovely moment with Meg Ryan in a hospital scene. The girl can act, I kid you not.

I recently watched The Safety of Objects, which was actually made before Panic Room, so it's shrimpStew and she gets mistaken for a boy partway through. I spent a lot of this movie thinking much worse things were going to happen to the characters (who have all been affected by a shared traumatic loss) than ever actually ended up happening, so it was a stressful movie for me! But great performances all around.

Two movies I don't recommend checking out, despite their KStew-containment: What Just Happened (she plays Robert DeNiro's daughter, and she's good, but the movie is all over the place), and Jumper (really weird and lame "sci-fi" movie about a douchebag - a.k.a grown-up Anakin - who can jump from one exotic locale to another for no good reason. TH calls it "Dumper").

"You didn't like Jumper?"

Adventureland was awesome and made me super jealous of Kristen and all the hot guys she gets to make out with - Ryan Reynolds, in this case. Yum. Of course, Adventureland fits nicely into my high-school-years fetish (as described in Saturday's FF post), so I was predisposed to liking it. I still recommend it if you haven't seen it. Another angsty teen role for her, but I guess when you're an angsty teen, those are the parts you're gonna get.

I still need to see The Yellow Handkerchief, Welcome to the Rileys, and, of course, The Runaways. I look forward to renting them. But now, you tell me, what do you think of our Ms. Stewart's acting abilities? Have you seen any of these movies (or others of hers)? What do you think?