Welcome to "Ranked": a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of Jennifer Lawrence-whose latest project "Causeway" is in select theaters now and premieres on Apple TV+ tomorrow.
Jennifer Lawrence's Filmography Ranked:
18.Like Crazy (F)
17.Passengers (C)
16.The Beaver (C)
15.mother! (C)
14.The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 (B)
13.The Hunger Games (B)
12.The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1 (B)
11.Dark Phoenix (B+)
10.Joy (B+)
9.X-Men: Apocalypse (B+)
8.Winter's Bone (B+)
7.Don't Look Up (B+)
6.Red Sparrow (B+)
5.X-Men: First Class (A-)
4.The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (A)
3.X-Men: Days of Future Past (A)
2.American Hustle (A)
1.Silver Linings Playbook (A)
Top Dog: Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Realizing that the 10-year anniversary of the release of Silver Linings Playbook is imminent is crazy. It feels like it wasn't all that long ago that I sat down in a theater and was treated to a film that expertly blended warmth with serious drama, affirmed Bradley Cooper and Lawrence as special acting talents that will be stars until the day they die and confirmed that Chris Tucker wasn't being kept in a cryogenic chamber that he could only leave when they were making or promoting a new Rush Hour movie. While I'm not completely confident Silver Linings Playbook will hold up well, I'll never forget how delightful of a watch it was when it was first released.
Bottom Feeder: Like Crazy (2011)
Some really gifted actors (Felicity Jones, Anton Yelchin, Lawrence) get dragged down by the uniquely grating vision of Drake Doremus-who combines indie naval gazing with full-on soap opera melodrama to make an impressive mashup of suck that bores and nauseates with equal precision.
Most Underrated: Red Sparrow (2018)
No amount of shaky Russian accents could ruin this unique, uncompromisingly bleak take on the spy genre. Red Sparrow is a character-driven film that explores how the defining principles of espionage (constantly lying, the constant threat of inflicting or being on the receiving end violence, having zero allegiances to anyone outside of yourself) leads to the people involved living lives driven by fear, brutality and isolation-often in the name of a government that doesn't care whether they live or die. Bonus points go to Lawrence for delivering a great performance as a smart, resilient former ballerina who is recruited by her own uncle to be a "Sparrow"-which are a group of Russian spies that specialize in using seduction to obtain information and/or murder their targets-that is easily the most unsung of her career thus far.
Most Overrated: Passengers (2016)
It needs to be mentioned that Passengers earned overrated status on account of its positive audience reception, not its critical reviews-which were predominantly average. Passengers remains one of the more puzzling misfires of the past 10-15 years and even Lawrence herself recently admitted in an interview with the New York Times that she regrets taking the role. A pair of charismatic stars (Lawrence, Chris Pratt) that couldn't have possibly had more buzz surrounding them at this point in time teaming up with Morten Tyldum for his follow-up to the terrific The Imitation Game should've been an easy bullseye hit, but somehow the result ended up being an innocuous sci-fi romance that harmlessly chugs along for 2 hours without providing any sincere entertainment value or unintentional comedy that it could've made it a cult classic.
No comments:
Post a Comment