OVERVIEW
The Chronology of Water follows Lidia Yuknavitch across a life marked by abuse, addiction, desire, and reinvention. Told in fragments rather than a straight line, the film moves like memory itself, circling wounds, reliving moments, and tracking the uneven path from self-destruction toward healing. It is a difficult film by design, one that aims to capture not just what happened to Lidia, but what it feels like to survive it.
BACKGROUND
The film premiered in Cannes in 2025, in an edition that curiously featured the first features of three A-list actors, and Kristen Stewart’s debut was easily the most intriguing. After becoming hugely popular through the often ridiculed Twilight saga, Stewart spent years taking on riskier, more left-field roles, working with auteurs like Olivier Assayas and Pablo Larraín and building an image as someone sharp, opinionated, and deeply engaged with cinema. The Chronology of Water had also been a long-gestating directing project for her. The actress spoke during Cannes about how difficult it was to get financed, with backers treating a first feature as a credibility issue despite her years in the industry.
EXECUTION
The film is unquestionably flawed, but it never once comes across like a vanity project. It feels personal, rough, and fully committed, as if Stewart is trying to put something difficult on screen, even if she does not always have full control over it. Even when it gets too much, it still feels like a film with a voice.
What I liked most was that the film never tried to make Lidia easier to like. Stewart and Imogen Poots let her be volatile, self-destructive, and sometimes cruel, even with people who care about her. That gives the movie a lot of honesty. Poots is really good, delivering a very intense performance, and Stewart is particularly effective in directing the more grounded scenes, such as those with Lidia’s mother and later with her mentor. Those moments are where the film feels most alive, and where the healing part really lands.
Where it loses me is when Stewart pushes the style too hard. The chapter structure mostly works, and some parts are genuinely powerful, but after a while, the close-ups, voiceovers, and repeated imagery start to feel like too much. Instead of adding emotion, they begin to get in the way of it. The dialogue has a similar issue, because the profanity is used so much that it stops hitting. The film is already intense, and the performances are already doing the work. It would have landed harder if it trusted that more and let some scenes breathe.
AFTERTASTE
I am glad The Chronology of Water exists, even with all its excess. It is messy, but feels alive. It does not feel calculated, and it does not feel like a first feature made to prove technical competence. It feels like a filmmaker wrestling difficult material into form, sometimes overreaching, sometimes losing control, but still putting something real on the screen.