The Facial Expression Problem

Never once have I sat through one of those maudlin teen vampire films—the ones where werewolves sprint through dark forests and brooding undead get tangled up with brunette high schoolers, or maybe it’s the brunette high schoolers doing the tangling. I genuinely couldn’t tell you. What I have absorbed through years of ambient celebrity culture is that Kristen Stewart operates with exactly one facial expression: vaguely inconvenienced, possibly contemplating an exit.

So it’s either a masterstroke or a provocation to put her in front of Inez van Lamsweerde and Vinoodh Matadin for V Magazine—a duo who can pull genuine texture out of faces that actually do things. The shoot runs alongside an interview where Stewart talks about her Converse, about loving people in the abstract, about theater. She’s clearly making an effort. The photos suggest more range than the films ever demanded. I’m still only half-convinced there’s much happening behind those eyes—but I looked at the pictures twice.