Robert Pattinson & Kristen Stewart's 10 Best Movies After Twilight

Summary

• It’s tough for actors to shake off franchise roles, but Pattinson & Stewart are thriving in diverse genres post-Twilight.
• Pattinson’s Batman & Stewart’s Oscar nomination show their range & talent beyond Twilight.
• Movies like The Lighthouse & Love Lies Bleeding highlight Pattinson & Stewart’s growth as actors since breaking onto the scene in the supernatural teen movies.

Robert Pattinson and Kristen Stewart both shot to fame for their roles in the Twilight movies, but they have gone on to have successful careers since the franchise came to an end in 2012. It can be difficult for young actors to break free from the restraints of a big franchise. Audiences often associate them so closely with one particular character that they aren’t given the opportunity to prove themselves in other roles.

Pattinson and Stewart are still associated with the Twilight saga, but they are now developing more diverse careers in a wider variety of genres. Pattinson has worked with Christopher Nolan, Robert Eggers and the Safdie brothers, and he has recently joined the illustrious list of Hollywood leading men who have played Batman. Stewart’s successes have been a little less high-profile, but she has earned an Oscar nomination, which has helped banish the notion that she is anything less than a superb actor.

10 The King (2019)

Robert Pattinson Plays The Dauphin Of France

Robert Pattinson offers a strange performance in The King as the Dauphin of France. His accent and some of his eccentric mannerisms are at odds with the movie’s gritty tone, but this makes him all the more compelling. The Dauphin is a snobby villain who antagonizes and taunts the young King Henry at every opportunity, goading him into an all-out war with France.

The King
doesn’t quite hit the heights it seems capable of, but it does deliver some of the most intense medieval battle scenes ever filmed.

The King tells a true story, but it borrows most of its structure and its characterizations from William Shakespeare’s historical plays. The romance and iambic pentameter are ditched in favor of brutal, crushing reality. The King doesn’t quite hit the heights it seems capable of, but it does deliver some of the most intense medieval battle scenes ever filmed. The Battle of Agincourt is tactile enough to feel dangerous, and the Dauphin’s darkly comedic death is the perfect ending. Even royalty are dragged down into the mud.

9 Camp X-Ray (2014)

Kristen Stewart Plays Amy Cole

Camp X-Ray opens with footage of the September 11 attacks, and the rest of the movie examines America’s response, not just politically, but also mentally and emotionally. Kristen Stewart plays a guard at Guantánamo Bay who witnesses the dehumanization of the detainees. She also sees how the callous indifference of the men in power extends to their objectification of her. She is both seen through an exclusively sexual lens and encouraged to shed her more “feminine” traits of compassion and empathy.

Camp X-Ray
opens with footage of the September 11 attacks, and the rest of the movie examines America’s response, not just politically, but also mentally and emotionally.

Stewart’s refined emotionality carries Camp X-Ray. The only time Cole lets her hair down, both literally and metaphorically, is when she calls her mother. For the rest of her time at Guantánamo Bay, she is guarded, with a tight bun, and she is framed to appear boyish from certain angles. Stewart nevertheless manages to convey crashing torrents of emotion and moral conflict with the smallest of movements.

8 Tenet (2020)

Robert Pattinson Plays Neil

For many people, Tenet was the movie that welcomed them back to theaters after the first wave of pandemic lockdowns forced their closure. While a cerebral sci-fi blockbuster from Christopher Nolan seemed like the perfect way to return to theaters, Tenet‘s complex narrative left plenty of people scratching their heads. Tenet‘s ambitious time-travel plot might require multiple viewings to fully understand, but its breathtaking visual set pieces need no explanation.

While the inverted action scenes are remarkably engaging, the intricacies of the espionage plot are difficult to grasp.

Robert Pattinson and John David Washington star as two members of a mysterious organization that exists to maintain peace in a world where criminals aim to misuse the concept of inverted entropy. Tenet isn’t as accessible as some of Christopher Nolan’s other movies. While the inverted action scenes are remarkably engaging, the intricacies of the espionage plot are difficult to grasp.

7 Spencer (2021)

Kristen Stewart Plays Priness Diana

Kristen Stewart has received a lot of undue criticism throughout her career for some of her performances, especially in the Twilight saga. Spencer is her emphatic response to the critics, and it landed her an Oscar nomination for Best Actress. She is perfectly measured as Princess Diana, a role which requires her to revitalize a public icon while theorizing on her most private moments.

There are some stylistic quirks that make
Spencer
more of a psychological drama, but it still honors the fascinating story of Princess Diana’s life.

It’s apt that the biopic is titled Spencer, since this is the part of Diana’s identity that she was forced to abandon when she became a part of the British royal family. Spencer follows the people’s princess during the winter of 1991, when she considers the ramifications of divorcing Charles and reclaiming her individuality and autonomy. There are some stylistic quirks that make Spencer more of a psychological drama, but it still honors the fascinating story of Princess Diana’s life.

6 Good Time (2017)

Robert Pattinson Plays Connie

Good Time has been overshadowed by Uncut Gems somewhat. Both Safdie brother movies are tense roller-coaster rides through New York City, but Uncut Gems benefitted from a bigger budget, wider distribution, and the intriguing casting of Billy Madison himself, Adam Sandler. While Uncut Gems deserves its flowers, Good Time has never reached the same kind of audience.

Good Time
has been overshadowed by
Uncut Gems
somewhat. Both Safdie brother movies are tense roller-coaster rides through New York City.

Robert Pattinson plays a bank robber who must get cash as soon as possible in any way possible to release his brother from police custody. This is a fairly standard set-up for a crime thriller, but the Safdie brothers’ direction is anything but conventional. Over the course of one dizzying night, Good Time shows Connie’s attempts to help his brother develop into a frantic and claustrophobic nightmare.

5 Still Alice (2014)

Kristen Stewart Plays Lydia Howland

Still Alice is a great showcase for Julianne Moore’s talents, but Kristen Stewart is also on top form. Moore plays a linguistics professor who develops early-onset Alzheimer’s disease, and Stewart plays one of her three children. In a movie that could so easily stray into melodrama and manipulation, Moore’s performance keeps the story feeling relatable. Her dynamic with Stewart feels authentic.

Still Alice
is a great showcase for Julianne Moore’s talents, but Kristen Stewart is also on top form.

Still Alice doesn’t do much to probe the boundaries of its niche subgenre, but its execution is precise and meaningful. There’s a feeling of slow, crushing inevitability throughout the story, with the characters knowing just as well as the audience how everything will end in tragedy. This pervasive sense of dread allows Still Alice to hold back at times when it could deliver more shattering emotional blows. There would be no value in simply watching Alice slowly lose herself to her illness. Still Alice understands this, and instead paints a detailed picture of how her diagnosis affects her and her entire family.

4 Love Lies Bleeding (2024)

Kristen Stewart Plays Lou Langston

Love Lies Bleeding stars Kristen Stewart as a gym manager who starts a relationship with a bodybuilder while she tries to outrun her family’s history of organized crime. In a movie filled to the brim with strange characters and stylish 1980s touches, Stewart’s performance stands out for its subtlety. Much like her character, she appears to be a relatively normal woman trying to go about her business while everyone around her refuses to let her be.

In a movie filled to the brim with strange characters and stylish 1980s touches, Stewart’s performance stands out for its subtlety.

Love Lies Bleeding is endlessly entertaining. It delivers all the violence and sex required of a fast-paced crime drama, but it also has an intelligent narrative and a deceptively deft approach to characterization. Lou and Jackie’s volatile sapphic affair brings the worst out of them both, but they are committed to one another in a way that nobody else is. Love Lies Bleeding eschews most of the clichés about lesbian romances on screen.

3 The Boy & The Heron (2023)

Robert Pattinson Plays The Grey Heron

Hayao Miyazaki has cried wolf before when claiming that his next movie will be his last, and The Boy and the Heron looks like another beautiful swansong that may turn out to be just another chapter. Miyazaki summons every ounce of his inimitable magic for The Boy and the Heron. It’s his best movie in years, and also one of Studio Ghibli’s best for a very long time.

Robert Pattinson’s voice is barely discernible in the English-language cast of The Boy and the Heron, which also includes Mark Hamill, Florence Pugh and Christian Bale.

The Boy and the Heron
is another dream-like fable from Miyazaki, featuring a rich world teeming with strange characters.

The Boy and the Heron is another dream-like fable from Miyazaki, featuring a rich world teeming with strange characters. There is magic and menace in equal measure, but, for all its fantastical weirdness, The Boy and the Heron is a touching and all-too-real story of grief and trauma. Only a director as skilled as Miyazaki can make an animated world with talking birds feel so relatable.

2 The Batman (2022)

Robert Pattinson Plays Bruce Wayne/ Batman

Ever since the bright, campy fun of Adam West’s Batman TV show, screen portrayals of the Caped Crusader have been trending toward darkness. The Batman is the latest step on this journey, but Matt Reeves’ moody, twisted thriller stays true to the character. Robert Pattinson seemed an unlikely choice for the leading role, but he is superb as the tortured protector of Gotham.

There are still scenes of frenetic action to please fans of superhero movies, but
The Batman
is, first and foremost, a murder mystery about corruption and deceit.

The Batman works so well because of its clear vision. Although it may initially seem beholden to Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, this Batman story has more in common with seedy film noir stories. There are still scenes of frenetic action to please fans of superhero movies, but The Batman is, first and foremost, a murder mystery about corruption and deceit. Pattinson will return for The Batman – Part II in 2026.

1 The Lighthouse (2019)

Robert Pattinson Plays Ephraim Wilson/ Thomas Howard

Robert Eggers has been building a reputation as an exciting new voice in the horror genre, but The Lighthouse defies such simplistic classifications. Part psychological thriller and part character study, The Lighthouse takes inspiration from a true story and twists it into a dark and unsettling mystery. Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe both deliver outstanding performances as two lighthouse keepers marooned together on a remote island.

Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe both deliver outstanding performances as two lighthouse keepers marooned together on a remote island.

The Lighthouse‘s bold chiaroscuro photography sets the scene for a dramatic tale of obsession and myth. In many ways, the two lighthouse keepers are consumed by one another, but they vacillate between moments of intimacy and bursts of shocking violence. There is a mystery about how much time passes on the island, as if the two men turn their backs on the outside world.