The Best and Worst of Naomi Watts

The "Best and Worst" series profiles the best and worst work of an actor starring in one of the week's new theatrical releases. This week I take a look at the filmography of "The Book of Henry" star Naomi Watts.

Films starring Naomi Watts that I've seen:
Mullholland Drive
The Ring
I Heart Huckabees
King Kong
Eastern Promises
Funny Games
The International
Dream House
Movie 43
Birdman
St. Vincent
The Divergent Series: Insurgent
The Divergent Series: Allegiant Part I
Demolition

Best Performance: St. Vincent (2014)
I'll fully admit that I'm not a huge fan of Watts as an actress. In a vast majority of the movies I've seen her in over the years, she's either grated or left no lasting impression on me. So when I saw St. Vincent in the fall of 2014, I was honestly shocked that Watts ended up being my favorite part of the movie. With her ace comedic timing and immense warmth, Watts turns a character (a pregnant Russian prostitute who befriends the miserable title character played by Bill Murray) that could've easily gone down as exploitative eye candy into the film's moral center. 

Worst Performance: King Kong (2005)
In a film that featured Jack effn' Black as a sleazy film director that's desperate for a hit, Watts somehow managed to top the list of head-scratching casting choices. Watts' robotic acting turns her character into a stereotypical one-dimensional "damsel in distress" and more importantly, makes the empathy her character is supposed to feel for Kong-which is crucial to making the story work-hilariously ineffective. 

Best Film: Birdman (2014)
Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's Best Picture-winning dark comedy about a washed-up actor (Michael Keaton) that's trying to get his career back on track with a high-profile Broadway play is a masterclass in moviemaking. While the script is a bit of an unfocused mess that tries to tackle too many subjects in its 2-hour runtime, the acting, cinematography and direction is so consistently impressive that Birdman still ends up being an excellent film that is damn near impossible to forget.

Worst Film: Funny Games (2008)
Watts has starred in a lot of truly wretched pieces of shit (King Kong, The Ring, Movie 43) during her 16 years as a widely-known actress, but nothing tops the infuriating ineptitude of Funny Games. This pretentious, lazy pile of shit masquerading as a condemnation of the entertainment industry's use of violence is one of the most nauseating films I've ever sat through. Writer/director Michael Haneke's shot-for-shot remake of his 1997 Austrian film has the subtlety of a pimp's tuxedo as it tries embarrassingly hard to argue against on-screen violence for 111 minutes without any traces of clever dark humor or legitimate insight on the subject matter. Barring some kind of sudden influx in unholy awful movies, I don't think Funny Games will ever escape the 7th circle of my personal cinematic hell.             

Thank you for reading this week's installment of "The Best and Worst of". Next week, I'll take a look at the best and worst work of "Transformers: The Last Knight" star Anthony Hopkins.