The estimable journal Film Comment offered its “best films of the decade” lists in its January-February edition. We read the issue with great interest, as we invariably do, but were not much moved by the exercise. Possibly because of our legendary skepticism of the notion of such lists (even as we participate in the practice); possibly because the 2010s were not a great decade for film; very likely because it is too soon to tell. For what it’s worth, here are ten films from the decade that were among our favorites—and suspect we will still be revisiting in twenty years:
-Certified Copy (Kiarostami)
-Clouds of Sils Maria (Assayas)
-The Descendants (Payne)
-First Reformed (Schrader)
-Hannah Arendt (von Trotta)
-Ismael’s Ghosts (Desplechin)
-Let the Sunshine In (Denis)
-Lover for a Day (Garrel)
-The Past (Farhadi)
-Winter Sleep (Ceylan)
We offer this list tentatively, in the spirit of the game. But it is with great confidence that we unveil our “breakout actor of the decade,” which for us, easily, is Kristen Stewart.
The 2010s coincided almost exactly with Stewart’s twenties—what the economist Joseph Schumpeter called “that precious third decade of life.” What did she do with those critical years? First of all, she made twenty-one feature films, a reminder that, as the saying goes, “an actor acts.” It is also important to note that at the start of the decade she was already a colossal movie star. In 2012, for example, she starred in Snow White and the Huntsman (budget $170 million, global box office $400 Million) and one of those Twilight movies (budget $120 million, global box office $800 million).
That’s a lot to put on the shoulders of a twenty-two year old. So what did Stewart do with fame and fortune? Well, here’s what Neil Young said about becoming a superstar: “‘Heart of Gold’ put me in the middle of the road. Traveling there soon became a bore so I headed for the ditch. A rougher ride, but I saw more interesting people there.” That’s not quite what Stewart did (movies are so expensive to make that even the most powerful Hollywood artists have to do things now and then to keep the suits happy—Clint Eastwood perfected the “one for me, one for them” model). But she did choose, predominantly, ambitious projects that were of relatively modest commercial promise. And in those performances she revealed an actor who has emerged as one of the great on-screen performers of our time. We’re not going to go the full David Thomson/Nicole Kidman here, but we haven’t felt this way about a young actor since Philip Seymour Hoffman, the tragedy of whose loss remains powerfully resonant to this day.
Of Stewart’s twenty-one movies, we have seen eight—and there is not a weak performance in the set. In The Runaways (2010) she was a flawless Joan Jett, and very fine again in On the Road (2012), a small road picture/ode to the beat generation. Still Alice (2014) took things up a notch, opposite the great Julienne Moore (our notes from the time read “In a movie characterized by incredible performances, Kristen Stewart shows she can really act with the heavyweights.”) She gave a fine performance in Woody Allen’s Café Society (2016), back when actors were still falling over themselves and dropping their fees for the chance to appear in a Woody. Earlier that same year Stewart took a small role in Kelly Reichardt’s Certain Women; Justin Chang of the Los Angeles Times characterized her scenes this way: “What passes between these two women is as pure and extraordinary as it is impossible to classify. Stewart, the rare Hollywood supernova who can vanish completely into Reichardt’s nondescript world, seems to peer downward into herself, as though afraid to meet the camera’s gaze.”
Our current case for Stewart rests on three films: Clouds of Sils Maria (2014), Personal Shopper (2016), and Seberg (2019). In Olivier Assayas’ Sils Maria, Stewart goes toe to toe with Juliette Binoche—and more than holds her own. That is pretty high praise – it is not an accident that Binoche stars in three of our top ten 2010s – but the then twenty-four year old Stewart has the quieter performance, and it is a revelation. Keith Richards once said you should judge a guitarist by how they play acoustic, not electric music, and Stewart’s carefully modulated performance in Clouds – she never raises her voice – illustrates the wisdom of that principle. And she had to fight for the role, as the French auteur originally envisioned her for the “young-superstar-actor-chased-by-the-paparazzi” part, which Stewart rejected as too obvious. How was the experience for actor and director? Assayas cast her as the lead his next film, the riveting Personal Shopper (our notes: “once again, Kristin Stewart is extremely impressive, here carrying the movie.”)
In 2019 Stewart appeared in two films: the would-be franchise blockbuster Charlie’s Angels, and Seberg. We haven’t seen Angels – maybe she was playing the Eastwood card (whilst walking away with a huge paycheck), maybe it was something she wanted to do – either way, fine by us. But we have seen Seberg (budget $8 million). It was a daring choice, and a brave, bravura performance. We very much look forward to seeing what she does with her thirties.
Clouds of Sils Maria
With Juliette Binoche in Clouds
On the train in Olivier Assayas’ Personal Shopper
Personal Shopper