The Best and Worst of Demian Bichir

“The Best and Worst of” series chronicles the career highlights and lowlights of an actor starring in one of the week's new theatrical releases. This week, I take a look at the filmography of “The Nun” star Demian Bichir.

Films starring Demian Bichir that I've seen:
A Better Life
Savages
The Heat
Machete Kills
Dom Hemingway
The Hateful Eight
Good Kids
Lowriders
Alien: Covenant

Best Performance: A Better Life (2011)
Like most American moviegoers who don't watch a ton of foreign language films, my first exposure to Bichir came in this drama about an undocumented Mexican immigrant working as a gardener in Los Angeles. Safe to say, he left quite an impression. His Oscar-nominated performance is a moving portrayal of a single father putting his own wellbeing on the line everyday to give his teenage son (Jose Julian, also great) a chance of having the ideal upbringing he wasn't afforded.  

Worst Performance: Good Kids (2016)
Bichir's unconvincing and thoroughly unfunny turn as a macho, womanizing tennis club manager was easily the lowlight of this passable teen sex comedy that's been floating around the bowels of Netflix for the last 18 months or so.

Best Film: The Hateful Eight (2015)
I can't believe I'm saying this about a movie that is directed by Quentin Tarantino, but I think that the The Hateful Eight is relatively underrrated. While it may be pretty far from the top of my list of favorite Tarantino movies, it's still an excellent claustrophobic western full of terrific performances, sharp dialogue and glorious over-the-top shootouts.

Worst Film: Alien: Covenant (2017)
Ridley Scott really needs to step away from this franchise. Alien: Covenant was a stupid, soulless and stunningly boring dud that made me wish the previously ambiguous Xenomorph mythology was never expanded upon.  

Thank you for reading this week's edition of “The Best and Worst of”. The next victim of my praise and ire will be “The Predator” star Olivia Munn.