The Best and Worst of Amy Adams

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 "Arrival" star Amy Adams.

Films starring Amy Adams that I've seen:
Catch Me If You Can
Junebug
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
Charlie Wilson's War
Sunshine Cleaning  
Doubt
The Fighter
The Muppets
Trouble with the Curve
Man of Steel 
Her
American Hustle
Big Eyes
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice

Best Performance: American Hustle (2013)
Adams' ascension to Hollywood's A-list has come on the back of a number of fantastic performances in a wide variety of films (Doubt, The Fighter, Big Eyes) over the past decade, which made picking a standout performance for her one of the more difficult tasks this series has presented me in quite some time. Upon deep reflection of her strong resume, I have to give her work in American Hustle a slight edge over the rest of the pack. Adams uses her vast emotional depth and supreme confidence to make Sydney Prosser the most charismatic yet sleazy individual in a film full of reprehensible characters.  

Worst Performance: Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)
As flawed as Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice was, the acting was generally pretty good overall. That competent level of acting makes Adams', who is one of the most consistently strong actors in Hollywood, horrendous performance that much more shocking. You'd never guess that you were watching a five-time Academy Award nominee perform as she stumbles through her lines with a Mark Wahlberg-esque look of blank confusion for two and a half hours.

Best Film: The Fighter (2010)
The story of Massachusetts-bred boxing champion "Irish" Micky Ward isn't just great a sports dramas, it's one of the best films of this decade so far. Director David O. Russell subverts the traditional sports biopic formula by making Ward's unwavering loyalty to his selfish family a huge part of the story of his unlikely rise to the top of the boxing world and the acting from the primary cast (Mark Wahlberg, Christian Bale, Adams, Melissa Leo) is nothing short of incredible.

Worst Film: Man of Steel (2013)
There was no reason that Man of Steel shouldn't have been successful. It had an accomplished action director in Zach Snyder (300, Watchmen), a cast that featured the likes of Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon and Adams, and a set of trailers that were reminiscent of Christopher Nolan's brilliant Dark Knight trilogy. Unfortunately, it ended up being one of the biggest disasters the superhero genre has ever dropped upon the world. The action scenes looked like they were shot from a blimp, the acting ranged from mediocre (Adams, Crowe) to flat-out awful (Shannon, Henry Cavill) and worst of all, it was about as engrossing as an awkward game of Chinese Checkers with an estranged elderly relative. Snyder and co. were able to fix some of Man of Steel's cornucopia of problems (action scenes, acting, quality villain) with Batman v. Superman, but they still have a long way to go if they want to make a film that truly standouts in the oversaturated superhero genre.     

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 "Manchester by the Sea" star Casey Affleck.