Emma Stone Ranked

Welcome to the latest edition of "Ranked"-where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out related accolades. This week, I'm profiling the work of Emma Stone. 

Emma Stone's Filmography Ranked:

20.Aloha (D-)

19.Movie 43 (D)

18.Irrational Man (C)

17.The Amazing Spider-Man (C)

16.The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (C+)

15.The Croods (C+)

14.Friends with Benefits (B-)

13.La La Land (B-)

12.Magic in the Moonlight (B)

11.Battle of the Sexes (B)

10.The Rocker (B)

9.The Help (B)

8.Gangster Squad (B+)

7.The Favourite (B+)

6.Crazy, Stupid, Love (B+)

5.Easy A (B+)

4.Birdman or (the Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (B+) 

3.Zombieland: Double Tap (A)

2.Zombieland (A)

1.Superbad (A+)

Top Dog: Superbad (2007)

Not too many actors get to say their first movie role was in a beloved cultural touchstone that will be immortalized in the film history books. Superbad is a truly timeless piece of work that uses its likable characters, easygoing atmosphere and naturalistic writing to create a brilliant absurd comedy that delivers an unrelenting blitz of laughs that has only been rivaled by a handful of other titles.         

Lowlight: Aloha (2015)

From casting Stone as a character that was written to be Chinese/Hawaiian to its prominent subplot about the military employee protagonists (Bradley Cooper, Stone) teaming up to stop a shady billionaire's (Bill Murray) efforts to launch a satellite containing a nuclear payload into orbit that just happens to be jammed in the middle of an otherwise whimsical romantic comedy, Aloha is a baffling mess of a film from the talented Cameron Crowe (Almost Famous, Jerry Maguire) that shouldn't have ever been greenlit.

Most Underrated: Gangster Squad (2013)

Gangster Squad is a very good movie that suffered from receiving unwarranted comparisons to serious crime classics including Goodfellas, The Untouchables and LA Confidential.  It's merely a fun, campy gangster noir flick that features solid acting from its loaded ensemble cast (Josh Brolin, Ryan Gosling, Stone, Michael Pena, Anthony Mackie, Nick Nolte, Giovani Ribisi, Sean Penn), pretty impressive shootouts/car chases and dazzling visuals that captures the glamour of its 1949 LA setting. 

Most Overrated: The Help (2011)

I kind of hesitate to call The Help overrated since it's a very well-acted and generally competent cutesy "feel good" melodrama that's become fashionable to hate on recently because of its sanitized portrayal of the Segregation-era South. That being said, it's often considered to be an all-time great due to its overwhelmingly positive audience reception (it's one of the 90 films in Cinemascore's 41-year history of doing theatrical exit polling to get an A+ rating and is ranked the 243rd best movie of all time by IMDb users as of today) and I just don't think its anywhere near that level of excellence overall. 

Most Unfairly Criticized Awards Contender: La La Land (2016)

La La Land was such a popular target of online hate in the midst of its buzzy awards run that there was audible celebration when it won-then-lost Best Picture courtesy of the now infamous envelope snafu that Warren Beatty made on Oscar night. While I agreed that it shouldn't have won Best Picture, I wasn't onboard with the La La Land bashing. Musicals are a genre that I actively hate (save for Cats of course) and the fact that I didn't have a completely miserable time watching La La Land speaks to how well-made it is. The cinematography beautifully captures the scenic landscapes of Los Angeles that are often forgotten about, the bittersweet ending is very effective and despite Ryan Gosling's somewhat shaky vocals, the songs succeed at being unapologetically larger-than-life in traditional musical fashion without being insufferably theatrical.    

Best Long-in-the Making Sequel That Matched The Quality of the Original: Zombieland: Double Tap (2019)

Producing a sequel after a long layoff between installments isn't usually a recipe for success in the world of movies. The half-assed, paycheck-driven revivals (Dumb or Dumber To, Independence Day: Resurgence) tend to outnumber the successful continuations (both Jumanji's, Bad Boys for Life) that feel like the franchise never went away when studios go back to the well in search of properties to revive. Zombieland: Double Tap, which arrived 10 years after its predecessor, is firmly in the latter category. With the entire original creative team from the lead actors (Woody Harrelson, Jesse Eisenberg, Stone, Abigail Breslin) to the director (Ruben Fleischer) to the writers (Rheet Reese, Paul Wernick) all eager to return to this world, Zombieland: Double Tap effortlessly taps back into its goofy, gory wheelhouse while having enough new wrinkles (mutated zombies, more heartfelt moments, terrific new supporting characters headlined by the scene-stealing Zoey Deutch as the ditsy Madison) to make it not feel like a complete retread.

Top Performance That I Pretend She Won Her Oscar for Instead of La La Land: Sam Thomson, Birdman (2014)

For clarity's sake: I'm not saying her performance in La La Land isn't good, I just don't feel it was strong enough to be deserving of an Oscar-particularly in a year that featured remarkable performances from Natalie Portman (Jackie), Amy Adams (Arrival) and Emily Blunt (The Girl on the Train). This take is why I've jokingly said for years that I'm always going to pretend she won her Oscar for Birdman-which remains my favorite performance of hers to-date (although her turn in The Favourite is very close). 

What makes Stone's work in Birdman so great is that she gives this insane surrealist entertainment industry satire a human element. Her character is a ruthlessly honest, caring and complex individual that sees through her father's egomaniacal efforts to be taken seriously as an actor after rising to fame in a financially successful yet artistically frowned upon superhero franchise while simultaneously rooting for him to succeed because she knows it will bring him happiness after years of internal suffering. That fleeting bit of humanity was a key cog in making Birdman work and despite receiving a ton of nominations for this performance, I don't think Stone gets enough credit for how crucial she was to the movie's success.