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The Projectionist

Is Kristen Stewart the Queen of Sundance This Year?

She stars in two of the festival’s most discussed films so far: “Love Me,” opposite Steven Yeun, and “Love Lies Bleeding,” with Katy O’Brian.

Against a lavender backdrop with part of the word "Sundance" visible, a woman in a white muscle tank is posed, off-kilter, from the shoulders up.
Kristen Stewart is in her go-for-broke, just-have-fun-with-it era.Credit...Courtesy of Sundance Institute

Ever since Parker Posey was dubbed the queen of Sundance in the late ’90s, festival-watchers have been eager to pass that title on each year to whichever actress proves most ubiquitous.

This year, the tiara goes to Kristen Stewart, who I expect would wear it with Chanel and Converse. The 33-year-old actress stars in two of the fest’s most discussed movies: “Love Me,” a postapocalyptic story about a buoy that falls in love with a satellite, and “Love Lies Bleeding,” an ultraviolent thriller that casts her as a gym employee engaged in a dangerous affair with an ambitious bodybuilder (Katy O’Brian).

Aside from the fact that these two love stories feature Stewart in her go-for-broke, just-have-fun-with-it era, “Love Me” and “Love Lies Bleeding” couldn’t have less in common, which makes them a delightfully whiplash-inducing demonstration of what Stewart is capable of. Here are some of the things I’ve watched her do over the last few days, whether onscreen or off:

  • inject a love interest’s rear end with steroids, as foreplay

  • cheerily extol the virtues of Blue Apron quesadillas

  • dispose of corpses (multiple times)

  • sing the theme song to “Friends” (multiple times)

  • catfish Steven Yeun

  • sink to the bottom of the ocean for fear of being rejected

  • page through the book “Macho Sluts”

  • choose her Sim avatar

  • digressively describe “Love Me” at a post-premiere Q. and A. as “such a cool way into all of our stories. Like, it could be a relationship movie but also self-love, but not in the way that word … just make new words for that. When you’re like ‘no’ or you’re like, ‘hey, I identified a thing and I think I enjoy that,’ but then, like, seconds later it’s a different thing and you don’t have to feel bad about that or feel like, ‘Ooh, I didn’t know myself, maybe I’m different.’ Like, no. It’s like” — she snapped twice — “yeah. And now I’m, like, trying to be with a person? Yeah. It’s like this is the most honest relationship movie slash people movie.”

  • realize she has just served an endearing amount of word salad and then mutter, “Wow. Wow. That was really … thank God I’m here!”

Kyle Buchanan is a pop culture reporter and serves as The Projectionist, the awards season columnist for The Times. He is the author of “Blood, Sweat & Chrome: The Wild and True Story of Mad Max: Fury Road.” More about Kyle Buchanan

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