Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut is here

Kristen Stewart’s feature directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, debuted at Cannes earlier this year and is now making its way into theaters during the year-end Oscar rush. On the one hand, I’m glad her film is getting this kind of prestige push, on the other hand, December is WAY over-scheduled and The Chronology of Water is exactly the kind of small film that gets lost in the shuffle. It doesn’t even matter how big the names attached are, there are simply too many films jostling for position in the last weeks of the year, and many WILL fall through the cracks. 

Which is a shame, because the trailer looks great. I admit to being in the bag for this film—besides being a long-time fan of KStew, I am also a long-time fan of Imogen Poots, who stars in the film (see also: 2009 Irish drama Cracks for the origins of my Imogen Poots and Juno Temple girl crushes). But even still, Chronology looks like the kind of interesting, challenging film that makes for good cinema. Stewart not only directs but she also adapted the screenplay from Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir of the same name. It’s a lot to tackle for a first-time feature director, but Kristen Stewart has been talking about directing for a long time, and Chronology looks like the culmination of that effort.

Sometimes, actor-directors will, on their first time out, take on challenging material to prove themselves, and it’s only ever a problem if they can’t deliver something interesting, something with a unique enough voice to demonstrate why they’re a good filmmaker, not just an actor. This was my issue with Scarlett Johansson’s directorial debut, Eleanor the Great. It’s not that her direction is bad, it is, in fact, perfectly serviceable. But it’s just that—serviceable. There’s nothing in that film that shows me ScarJo has a unique voice as a storyteller. 

Actors are often good at directing other actors, because they know how to talk to actors, but that is actually not enough to be a good filmmaker. Being a good filmmaker is about being able to tell stories in visually compelling ways. That’s what I liked so much about the episode of The Studio “The Oner”. Co-directors Evan Goldberg & Seth Rogen built their narrative around the one-shot concept, which not only underpins the technical difficulty they’re setting up within the story, but also contributes to the stress, chaos, and tension of the narrative itself. Everything feels crowded and rushed because we’re moving with the characters in real time, it forces us to vicariously live their pace on both the fake set of the fake movie, and the real set of the series. It’s twice the anxiety!

Anyway, this look at The Chronology of Water is promising. I just wish December wasn’t so crowded, there are so many little gems that audiences will miss because there is just too much stuff. I’m not even super optimistic about the January wide-release expansion, because most of the movies rushing their Oscar-qualifying release in December are also expanding in January, that month will also be overcrowded. 

We are really reaching a point where distributors need to stop seeing each other as competition and start viewing their relationships as partnerships in preserving a healthy theatrical release environment. You can only cannibalize each other so long before there is nothing left to eat. 

Content warning for graphic miscarriage content.