The Best and Worst of Jessica Chastain

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 Huntsman: Winter's War" star Jessica Chastain.

Films starring Jessica Chastain that I've seen:
The Tree of Life
The Help
The Debt
Lawless
Zero Dark Thirty
Interstellar
A Most Violent Year
The Martian
Crimson Peak

Best Performance: Crimson Peak (2015)
Chastain became one of the most well-respected actresses in Hollywood courtesy of her Oscar-nominated performances in 2011's The Help and 2012's Zero Dark Thirty and heavily-acclaimed turns in indie films such as 2011's Take Shelter and 2014's A Most Violent Year, but it was her turn in Guillermo Del Toro's Gothic horror/romance film Crimson Peak that left the biggest lasting impression on me. As the mysterious sister of a young entrepreneur (Tom Hiddleston) who falls in love with a wealthy young American writer (Mia Wasikowska), Chastain is an eerie and imposing presence that perfectly fits the film's consistently unsettling tone.     

Worst Performance: The Tree of Life (2011)
The poor quality of this performance really isn't on Chastain. Writer/director Terrence Malick handed her a thankless role that consists of nothing but crying, getting screamed at for no reason by short-tempered husband (Brad Pitt) and looking confused for two and a half hours and there was nothing she could do to salvage it.

Best Film: Lawless (2012)
The tale of the Virginia-based bootlegging bandits The Bondurants is one of the most underrated crime drams of this decade so far. The story is remarkably engrossing, the ensemble cast anchored by Shia LaBeouf, Tom Hardy and Guy Pearce is superb and the action sequences are appropriately brutal and satisfying. I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if this was hailed as a seminal film in the genre five or 10 years from now.  

Worst Film: The Tree of Life (2011)
I've spent so much time ripping this film on this blog since I saw it in early 2012 that I've pretty much run out of original ways to criticize it. All that I'll say now is that The Tree of Life is a pretentious, hollow pile of shit that fills me with an immeasurable amount of rage every time I hear it mentioned. 

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 "Mother's Day" star Jennifer Aniston.