David Oyelowo Ranked

Welcome to "Ranked", a weekly series where I rank a franchise or filmography from worst to best and hand out assorted related superlatives. This week, I'm profiling the work of David Oyelowo-whose latest project "See How They Run" releases in theaters on Thursday.

David Oyelowo's Filmography Ranked:

14.A Sound of Thunder (F)

13.Chaos Walking (D)

12.Interstellar (D+)

11.Jack Reacher (C-)

10.The Butler (C)

9.The Paperboy (C)

8.The Cloverfield Paradox (C+)

7.Gringo (C+) 

6.Red Tails (B-)

5.A Most Violent Year (B)

4.The Last King of Scotland (B)

3.The Help (B)

2.Rise of the Planet of the Apes (B+)

1.Selma (A-)

Top Dog: Selma (2014)

Sharply constructed by Ava DuVernay, Selma is a terrific, surprisingly raw biopic that uses the process of organizing and participating in the Selma to Montgomery Marches to highlight the bravery and resolve of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.-who Oyelowo fully embodies with his towering performance- while also acknowledging the private doubts the prominent civil rights leader had about his ability to bring meaningful change to a world where racism has such a deep-rooted stranglehold nearly every aspect of everyday life. 

Bottom Feeder: A Sound of Thunder (2005)

Something I did relatively often growing up was picking random movies to rent at Blockbuster based on the cover art of the VHS or DVD. Sometime in 2006, this ritual led me to rent A Sound of Thunder. While I can't fully confirm this, A Sound of Thunder may've caused the demise of this practice. This woefully inept adaptation of a Ray Bradbury short story is among the dullest, silliest and horribly-acted films I've ever seen and it's no wonder that Warner Brothers dumped into theaters with zero promotion despite sinking $80 million into the production (which is also shocking since the CGI is super cheap-looking and the cast doesn't feature any actors that commanded massive salaries at the time it was shot). 

Most Underrated: N/A

Arguing that any of the top 5 films above are undervalued by the masses would be pretty absurd. Selma is among the most celebrated biopics of the past 15 years. Rise of the Planet of the Apes is part of a trilogy that has only become beloved since it concluded in 2017. The Last King of Scotland being a pretty good film that features an incredible turn from Forest Whittaker as brutal Ugandan dictator Idi Umin is a popular opinion that I back fully. The Help may be a watered-down civil rights drama, but the performances from Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Emma Stone, Jessica Chastain and Bryce Dallas Howard are so good that it largely offsets its safe structure/messaging. A Most Violent Year is a slick, contained crime drama driven by unsurprisingly stellar work from heavyweight thespians Oscar Isaac and Chastain. It would be similarly silly to make a case for any of the other 9 films since they all happen to be varying degrees of decent to average (Gringo, Red Tails, The Cloverfield Paradox), completely worthless (A Sound of Thunder, Chaos Walking) or sitting on the exact opposite end of the spectrum (Jack Reacher, The Butler, another film that won the "Most Overrated" honor). 

Most Overrated: Interstellar (2014)

Christopher Nolan's post-Dark Knight trilogy funk kicked off in particularly grand fashion with the soul-sucking stinker that is Interstellar. Through its sluggish pacing and thin, cheesy script that shines a light on just how bad Nolan's character work can be it when it's not accompanied by spectacular action setpieces or compelling psychological mind games, Interstellar cements itself as a dull, silly sc-fi tale with no real emotional weight or entertainment value to speak of.