comment #1

Sabina E says ...

Well, what about Jodie Foster? She's carved out a pretty good career for herself and she was a Disney contract star in the late 1970s.

comment #2

Sabina E says ...

... although Foster was never a part of a movie franchise back then.

comment #3

115thDreamer says ...

If playing a 16-17 year old Joan Jett doesn't invigorate her and get the juices flowing, I think we'll be able to give up on her at that point. But yes, she definitely has the spark.

comment #4

poseidon72 says ...

She was good in "In the Land of Women".

comment #5

Eloi Manning says ...

She'll be fine. The financial rewards and the increased star power she reaps from Twilight will allow her to star in far more interesting films than the average teen starlet.

comment #6

Colin says ...

She was fantastic in Adventureland, and Into the Wild.

comment #7

Sabina E says ...

I hated her performance in ADVENTURELAND. She kept doing the annoying hair flip thing with her hands and I wanted to reach out and strangle her.

But I liked her in INTO THE WILD.

comment #8

reno rambler says ...

She was really good in Speak based on a very well-written young adult novel. Too bad she's making it big on a poorly written young adult series.

comment #9

Postavant says ...

poseidon72's dead on. She was fantastic in In the Land of Women, and even though it's already a forgotten film, it was the spark that has made her rise to this level as Wells describes her. It's really her breakout, as I see it.

comment #10

Phreaker says ...

Waiting on Lex-G.

Twilight is the best thing that ever happened to her.

comment #11

George Prager says ...

I didn't know that FOXES and TAXI DRIVER were Disney movies. The things I don't know!

Anyway. This is why young actors are fucked. They have to waste their time making shitty vampire movies and Superhero movies. (Not that Tobey Maguire had a career, but still...).

comment #12

lipranzer says ...

They released the trailer for THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF, which looks promising, and she looks good in it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ovc-xjBIt4

comment #13

George Prager says ...

Yellow Handkerchief looks like a lot of hugging and learning. I'll pass.

comment #14

jbf81 says ...

I know people want to dismiss Twilight, and YES, it is a crap franchise, but all the fame, media exposure and coverage that she is getting it WILL HELP her in the future.

Look at Carey Mulligan, one of the most promising young actresses right now, gave a phenomenal performance in one of the best reviewed films of the year. Yet An Education is barely a blip on the radar. If she had a Pirates franchise like Keira or a Twilight one like Kristen she would be in a much better position right now.

I know we all want to make great films, but times are really difficult for independent films, the exposure that big films give to actors is a blessing no matter how much we hate those films.

comment #15

Ulysses says ...

THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF looks a bit like an "Afterschool Special" to me. Thirty years ago, Moosie Drier would have played the callow youth, with Jodie Foster playing the Kristen part.

That said, I will definitely be seeing THE YELLOW HANDKERCHIEF.

comment #16

Dzayson says ...

Maybe Wells is seeing something in her I'm not, but a Brando/Dean/Clift comparison seems to be a stretch, at best, and quite possibly blasphemous. She was okay in Into the Wild, sure, but nothing in any of her performances seems to be touched with the stuff of greatness. She may have a spark, but so do many other actors. She's got a lot to prove before she starts qualifying for the Hall of Fame.

comment #17

katcalls says ...

She annoyed me in Adventureland, I was expecting much more from her. Seemed like lazy acting to me, morphing into easy Bella mannerisms and hair flipping as previously mentioned.

I concur that she was great in Into the Wild though.

comment #18

BurmaShave says ...

I'm glad you've caught a spark of something "tough and resilient" from the largely unproven Stewart to put her in this class, and yet you deny Joseph Gordon Levitt, who has given some of the more impressive performances of this decade, for being too "Japanese looking".

comment #19

Jeffrey Wells says ...

Stewart will happen big-time in her own way and at her own pace. Right now she has a zero b.s./cut-through-the-crap thing going on that will almost certainly manifest into something profound down the road. People were no doubt saying that Clift was overrated after seeing him in Red River and the Fred Zinneman Berlin movie and The Heiress and so on, and only came around after A Place in the Sun and From Here to Eternity. Those who never saw Brando in the B'way Streetcar may have said "no biggie" and "where's the hoo-hah?" after seeing him in The Men.

comment #20

Jeffrey Wells says ...

Joseph Gordon-Levitt will always find ways to irk and/or annoy me. He's a natural in that regard. He is so self-regarding, so aware of how the camera is seeing him and what he should do to increase the JGL effect. He's totally calculating, totally looking into the proverbial mirror every second he's on-screen, making dead sure he's doing that dweeby, off-center, hooded-eyelids thing. I've never seen him not "act."

comment #21

sumo-pop says ...

I'm with you Jeff, I think she rules.

comment #22

Rickblaine says ...

Nah, just can't see anything special about the girl. She's got the whole sulkiness, pouting thing going on but it all smacks of affectation. Every time I see her on screen there's a word that starts to blink in my mind like a faulty neon outside a cheap motel - vapid, vapid, vapid . . .

comment #23

LexG says ...

Gee, it's almost as if I've been saying this exact thing for years now. Down to the Brando/Dean comparison. But great minds think alike.

Her performance in SPEAK heralded the anointing of the best young actor -- male or female -- in years. There's not a false moment in any K-Stew performance.

She's also the most stunning woman alive; Anyone else see her on Fallon the other? SEXIEST any woman has ever looked, EVER.

I'd go into the usual tirade but hopefully you've read it by now, and I'd just be repeating myself. I like the Twilight movies and wouldn't sweat it taking away from her incredibility, magnetism, or charm.

I'm surprised/annoyed that everyone's just talking TWILIGHT, INTO THE WILD and ADVENTURELAND. She's been a pro for years, utterly compelling in:

Speak, Undertow, What Just Happened, In the Land of Women (she's BRILLIANT), Zathura, and The Cake Eaters, among many, many others.

She's like Marlon Brandon or 1975 Al Pacino in the body of Scarlett Johansson's edgier sister.

BOW TO HER. BOW. I have never been as entranced and smitten with any actress, ever.

She is the most beautiful woman alive.

comment #24

fitz-hume says ...

Agree with Jeff, LexG and the others. She's brilliant and great in just about anything she does. Superb in Mary Stuart Masterson's directioal debut 'The Cake Eaters'. Check the DVD extras of that movie to see Bruce Dern (and other cast members) praising her.

http://www.apple.com/trailers/independent/thecakeeaters

comment #25

bfm says ...

I wonder how much money she and the others have made from the Twilight series. Presumably they were locked into series contracts from the outset when the budget was low.

comment #26

JBM... says ...

Jeff,

Did you see JGL in "The Lookout"? Pretty goddamn good work IMO...

comment #27

JBM... says ...

And Lex...

...Massive Attack is more triphop than electronica but I see your point (I refuse to tweet)

comment #28

Uncle Milty says ...

Stewart has been good in one of the three films I remember seeing her in. That would be Into The Wild. She was horrendous in both Twilight and Adventureland. She needs to be stopped from her disaffected youth thing. She sucks at it.

comment #29

Steven Kar says ...

I thought she was awful in TWILIGHT. I'm sorry, but I had to say it.

comment #30

Matt S says ...

Count me in on hating her in Adventureland. She over does the moody teen angst stuff. Even in interviews and talks shows she's terrible, giving zero personality or charisma. However, she is leaps and bounds better than the two guy actors in Twilight.

comment #31

LexG says ...

SHE IS THE ULTIMATE OBJECT OF LUST AND AFFECTION in Adventureland. I cannot understand anyone who did not FALL IN LOVE with her or her character in it.

THE MOST BEAUTIFUL WOMAN ALIVE and two dorks were just on Kimmel and K-STEW was STUNNING, SEXY, AND CHARRRRRMING as always.

Love her.

comment #32

liz says ...

Waitwas it her or another cast member who said that they were planning to quit acting altogether before twilight came along as they werent getting any work? I think that more or less sums up the whole situation for ypunger actors who are trying to get one foot through the door.

comment #33

fitz-hume says ...

LIZ: "Wait was it her or another cast member who said that they were planning to quit acting altogether before twilight came along as they werent getting any work? I think that more or less sums up the whole situation for ypunger actors who are trying to get one foot through the door."

I really do not think it was Kristen. She's been working steadily ever since she played the daughter of Jodie Foster's character in David Fincher's Panic Room.

comment #34

Clear says ...

Jeff,

Your summation of Levitt also perfectly captures Stewart, I guess he doesn't have the female thing to throw you off and inspire wild hyperbole.

comment #35

Dzayson says ...

Settle down there, Lex!

comment #36

Deathtongue_Groupie says ...

LexG - I lost track, does that make her the 14th or 15th "ultimate" object of your myopic lust and desire?

I will admit, that for someone who started out as Jodie Foster's androgynous child in PANIC ROOM, Stewart is growing in her body and face rather nicely.

comment #37

Gordon27 says ...

"Presumably they were locked into series contracts from the outset when the budget was low."

Yeah, but those contracts get renegotiated all the time. I doubt she'll ever get gross points on the series, but she's in a good position to get a bigger salary.

comment #38

mccool says ...

So by Jeff's definition of the word, Stewart is the "penultimate" actress of her generation.

What a reach. Brando, et al, were innovators....and they could ACT. Stewart may have the under-stated, angstsy, inner-turmoil thing going on, but she can't convincingly deliver a line or emote facially on a regular basis. Sh's got no range whatsoever. That makes her not only unqualified to be considered in the same league (at any age) as those mentioned, but a sub-par actress.

If you've got the hots for, I can't fault you ... but try to maintain some objectivity and professionalism when accessing her abilities.