A glossy, melodramatic supernatural romance with a strong emotional hook for fans of yearning, angst, and love-triangle drama. It’s uneven and often unintentionally funny, but the atmosphere, soundtrack, and heightened feelings make it a memorable watch if you enjoy teen fantasy with a moody edge.
The Twilight Saga: New Moon
Where to watch: Buy
Movie · Adventure · Fantasy
Wed · 2h 11m
Director: Chris Weitz
Starring: Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Overview
Forks, Washington resident Bella Swan is reeling from the departure of her vampire love, Edward Cullen, and finds comfort in her friendship with Jacob Black, a werewolf. But before she knows it, she's thrust into a centuries-old conflict, and her desire to be with Edward at any cost leads her to take greater and greater risks.
Director
Chris Weitz
Cast
Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Taylor Lautner
Curator Review
Verdict
A glossy, melodramatic supernatural romance with a strong emotional hook for fans of yearning, angst, and love-triangle drama. It’s uneven and often unintentionally funny, but the atmosphere, soundtrack, and heightened feelings make it a memorable watch if you enjoy teen fantasy with a moody edge.
Best for
fans of brooding romance and love triangles
viewers who like earnest teen melodrama
people who enjoy atmospheric supernatural world-building
audiences open to campy, memeable franchise cinema
Skip if
you want tight plotting or fast pacing
you dislike passive protagonists or self-serious angst
you prefer romance with clear emotional logic
you are not in the mood for teen fantasy melodrama
Overview
New Moon is the franchise at its most emotionally naked: breakup grief, obsession, and longing are pushed so far that the movie becomes a trance of sadness. Bella’s emptiness after Edward leaves gives the film a stronger dramatic spine than its predecessor, and the shift toward Jacob adds warmth and physicality to the story. The result is less a conventional fantasy adventure than a mood piece about absence and dependency.
Worth noting
It’s also a very uneven movie. The pacing can feel glacial, the dialogue is often blunt to the point of parody, and the love triangle is built more on vibes than chemistry. But that same excess is part of its appeal; the film has a sincere, overcooked intensity that makes it easy to watch with either genuine investment or ironic delight.
Bottom line
What lingers most is the atmosphere: rainy woods, empty rooms, muted colors, and a soundtrack that does a lot of the emotional heavy lifting. If you’re receptive to teen gothic romance and the strange sincerity of blockbuster melodrama, it has a distinctive pull. If you need narrative precision or romantic plausibility, it will probably test your patience.
Top Letterboxd reviews
margherita ❤️🔥 (2.5★) · 26789 likes
no one can read bella’s mind because she doesn’t think
owen (2★) · 16544 likes
why was bella so torn between edward and jacob when alice was LITERALLY RIGHT THERE
Emmy (3★) · 16494 likes
tag yourself, i'm edward telling bella how much he wishes he could kill himself in the middle of english class
sree (1★) · 11727 likes
charlie didn't deserve any of this
sindhu (2★) · 10887 likes
the scene where bella gets her wound stitched up by carlisle is rife with more sexual tension and chemistry than she has with jacob and edward combined there i FUCKING SAID IT.
Themes
grief, obsession, love triangle, teen romance, supernatural conflict, loneliness, self-destructive desire, coming-of-age angst
Topics
teen fantasy, gothic romance, melodrama, brooding atmosphere, love triangle, supernatural, angsty, coming-of-age, 2000s, camp