There is a moment halfway through Kristen Stewart’s directorial debut, The Chronology of Water, wherein the protagonist, Lidia (Imogen Poots), is joking around with her writing mentor, Ken Kesey (an inspired bit of casting to have Jim Belushi play the One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest author). He bestows a precious rock to her, which she drops, and when he tells her to throw it and land in his cup, she misses and says, “There was a lot riding on that rock landing in the cup.” Ken dismisses it as he says, “Fuck metaphors. It’s just a rock that fell.” This one moment of rationality in a film that could benefit from so much more of it signifies a piece of advice that Stewart could’ve stood to take from herself. Not everything needs whispering platitudes or metaphorical observations. There is power in showing the truth plainly as it is.
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