Films starring Gugu Mbatha-Raw that I've seen:
Larry Crowne
Beyond the Lights
Jupiter Ascending
Concussion
Free State of Jones
Miss Sloane
The Cloverfield Paradox
Best Performance: Beyond the Lights (2014)
After a forgettable big screen debut in Tom Hanks' wildly average romantic comedy Larry Crowne, Mbatha-Raw bounced back big time with a starmaking performance in Beyond the Lights. Her poignant turn as a rising pop star trying to get her life back on track after a suicide attempt brings some welcome depth to an otherwise pretty conventional drama.
After a forgettable big screen debut in Tom Hanks' wildly average romantic comedy Larry Crowne, Mbatha-Raw bounced back big time with a starmaking performance in Beyond the Lights. Her poignant turn as a rising pop star trying to get her life back on track after a suicide attempt brings some welcome depth to an otherwise pretty conventional drama.
Worst Performance: Miss Sloane (2016)
Mbatha-Raw is such a vibrant, emotionally-transparent presence on screen that it took the work of some incredibly shoddy writing to make her unpleasant. There's a contrived, moronic major plot development that occurs around the halfway mark of the misguided political thriller Miss Sloane that turns her relatively anonymous character into an absolutely insufferable one for the latter half of the film.
Mbatha-Raw is such a vibrant, emotionally-transparent presence on screen that it took the work of some incredibly shoddy writing to make her unpleasant. There's a contrived, moronic major plot development that occurs around the halfway mark of the misguided political thriller Miss Sloane that turns her relatively anonymous character into an absolutely insufferable one for the latter half of the film.
Best Film: Concussion (2015)
Concussion is a very important film that I find to be wildly underrated. The story about the thankless, professionally-damaging fight Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born pathologist that discovered the existence of CTE after performing autopsies on several deceased NFL players, embarked on to get the NFL to acknowledge the irreparable damage their collision-based sport has had on the mental health of its former players is a smart, riveting drama that hammers home its points with blunt force trauma. As youth football participation continues to go down as a result of CTE and other head injuries, it'll be interesting to see if Concussion's reputation improves in the coming years.
Concussion is a very important film that I find to be wildly underrated. The story about the thankless, professionally-damaging fight Dr. Bennet Omalu, a Nigerian-born pathologist that discovered the existence of CTE after performing autopsies on several deceased NFL players, embarked on to get the NFL to acknowledge the irreparable damage their collision-based sport has had on the mental health of its former players is a smart, riveting drama that hammers home its points with blunt force trauma. As youth football participation continues to go down as a result of CTE and other head injuries, it'll be interesting to see if Concussion's reputation improves in the coming years.
Worst Film: Jupiter Ascending (2015)
I'm pretty forgiving towards blockbusters. These films are almost always made for the sole purpose of entertaining, so if you throw some elaborate special effects and big explosions on the screen I'm usually at least moderately satisfied (this is exemplified by my relative enjoyment of universally-despised films such as Gods of Egypt, R.I.P.D. and Tom Cruise's The Mummy). Naturally, every once in a while something will fail to clear this bar and nothing in recent memory has failed as spectacularly as Jupiter Ascending . If you toss out the excellent visuals, Jupiter Ascending is a monumental failure that completely soiled whatever (already fleeting) goodwill the Wachowskis had left after The Matrix. The story is a nonsensical bore, the dialogue is consistently cringeworthy, every action sequence looks like a Z-grade Star Wars battle got filtered through a Lite-Brite and the acting ranges from wooden (Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum) to nutso overacting that will live in Nicolas Cage-esque infamy on YouTube for the rest of time (Eddie Redmayne). Easily the biggest piece of shit I've been subjected to over the past few years.
Thank you for reading this week's installment of "The Best and Worst of". The next victim of my praise and ire will be "Love, Simon" star Jennifer Garner.
I'm pretty forgiving towards blockbusters. These films are almost always made for the sole purpose of entertaining, so if you throw some elaborate special effects and big explosions on the screen I'm usually at least moderately satisfied (this is exemplified by my relative enjoyment of universally-despised films such as Gods of Egypt, R.I.P.D. and Tom Cruise's The Mummy). Naturally, every once in a while something will fail to clear this bar and nothing in recent memory has failed as spectacularly as Jupiter Ascending . If you toss out the excellent visuals, Jupiter Ascending is a monumental failure that completely soiled whatever (already fleeting) goodwill the Wachowskis had left after The Matrix. The story is a nonsensical bore, the dialogue is consistently cringeworthy, every action sequence looks like a Z-grade Star Wars battle got filtered through a Lite-Brite and the acting ranges from wooden (Mila Kunis, Channing Tatum) to nutso overacting that will live in Nicolas Cage-esque infamy on YouTube for the rest of time (Eddie Redmayne). Easily the biggest piece of shit I've been subjected to over the past few years.
Thank you for reading this week's installment of "The Best and Worst of". The next victim of my praise and ire will be "Love, Simon" star Jennifer Garner.
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