The Best and Worst of Dakota Johnson

“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 Peanut Butter Falcon” star Dakota Johnson.

Films starring Dakota Johnson that I've seen:
The Social Network
Beastly
21 Jump Street
The Five-Year Engagement
Need for Speed
Fifty Shades of Grey
Black Mass
How to Be Single
Fifty Shades Darker 
Fifty Shades Freed
Bad Times at the El Royale
Suspiria 

Best Performance: Black Mass (2015)
Like seemingly everyone else whose breakout role came in an adaptation of a critically frowned upon novel (Kristen Stewart, Robert Pattinson, Kaya Scodelario), Johnson has developed a reputation as a bad actor. I strongly disagree with that take. While the sample size is pretty small as a result of her only getting tiny roles pre-Fifty Shades, she's been pretty damn great whenever she's gotten enough screen time in a competent project to showcase her skills. Her powerful turn as Lindsey Cyr, Whitey Bulger's common law wife/mother of his child, in Black Mass was particularly impressive. In roughly 20 minutes of screen time, Johnson makes a strong impression as a woman who is deeply distraught and enraged by the monster the man she loves has turned into since gaining more power in the organized crime world.  

Worst Performance: Fifty Shades Freed (2018)
I've praised Johnson on several occasions for her noble albeit not overly successful attempts to add some depth to the utter ridiculousness that sits at the core of the Fifty Shades movies. By the time this "erotic" romance trilogy reached the final installment, she had finally thrown in the towel and succumbed to the comical indifference everyone else involved in the production had displayed from the start. Bringing a series of blank stares, half-hearted smiles and not even remotely pained tears to every scene, it's easy to tell that she couldn't have been more eager to finish this shit up and move on with her promising career.  

Best Film: 21 Jump Street (2012)
I've recently been kicking around the idea of doing a best comedies of the decade list once 2019 wraps up. If I do end up moving forward with that list, 21 Jump Street will have a prime spot. This clever, self-aware sendup of buddy movies, cop shows and remakes in general has no shortage of great gags, one-liners and performances (Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Ice Cube, Dave Franco, Rob Riggle) from its top-flight comedic cast.  

Worst Film: Beastly (2011)
I honestly have no recollection of Johnson appearing in this movie. However, that could be because I've tried to repress as much information about Beastly as I possibly can. This modern update of Beauty and the Beast without any singing household objects was an unholy disaster from top to bottom that features some of the weakest writing, amateurish acting and embarrassingly forced melodrama of any theatrically-released movie I've ever seen.  

Thank you for reading this week's edition of “The Best and Worst of”. The next victim of my praise and ire will be “Where'd You Go Bernadette” star Billy Crudup.