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The Chronology of Water

The Chronology of Water

Drama · 2025

Plagued by an abusive childhood, a woman finds escape in competitive swimming, sexual experimentation, toxic relationships, and addiction before ultimately finding her voice through writing.

Movie details

The Chronology of Water

“It takes many miles to swim to a self.”

2025 Drama 2h 8m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.8 / 10

Community rating

Plagued by an abusive childhood, a woman finds escape in competitive swimming, sexual experimentation, toxic relationships, and addiction before ultimately finding her voice through writing.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over The Chronology of Water?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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I Smile Back

I Smile Back

Drama · 2015

Laney is an attractive, intelligent suburban wife and devoted mother of two adorable children. She has the perfect husband who plays basketball with the kids in the driveway, a pristine house, and a shiny SUV for carting the children to their next activity. However, just beneath the façade lie depression and disillusionment that send her careening into a secret world of reckless compulsion. Only very real danger will force her to face the painful root of her destructiveness and its crumbling effect on those she loves.

Ken Park

Ken Park

Drama · 2003

Teen skater Ken Park (nicknamed Krap Nek; his name spelled and pronounced backward) kills himself at a Visalia skate park; his death bookends the lives of four other young people who knew him: Shawn, the most conventional; Tate brims with psychotic rage; Claude is habitually harassed by his brutish father and coddled, rather uncomfortably, by his enormously pregnant mother; and Peaches looks after her devoutly religious father, but yearns for freedom. They're all rather tight, or so they claim.

The Boys of St. Vincent

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Midnight Express

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Drama · 1978

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Dolores Claiborne

Dolores Claiborne

Crime · 1995

Dolores Claiborne was accused of killing her abusive husband twenty years ago, but the court's findings were inconclusive and she was allowed to walk free. Now she has been accused of killing her employer, Vera Donovan, and this time there is a witness who can place her at the scene of the crime. Things look bad for Dolores when her daughter Selena, a successful Manhattan magazine writer, returns to cover the story.

Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Kristen Stewart

Written by

Kristen Stewart

Imogen Poots

Imogen Poots

Lidia Yuknavitch

Thora Birch

Thora Birch

Claudia

Jim Belushi

Jim Belushi

Ken Kesey

Tom Sturridge

Tom Sturridge

Devin

Earl Cave

Earl Cave

Philip

Michael Epp

Michael Epp

Mike

Charlie Carrick

Charlie Carrick

Andy Mingo

Court is in session

Put The Chronology of Water on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Ambition earns the room.”

The film reaches for consequence and scale, accepting the risk of seriousness instead of shrinking from it.

The prosecution The Popcorn Loyalist

“Importance has entered the chat.”

The production keeps announcing its significance, as though awards-season posture were proof of insight.