Rachel McAdams 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 Rachel McAdams-whose latest project "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret." arrives in theaters on Thursday. 

Rachel McAdams' Filmography Ranked:

19.Aloha (D-)

18.The Hot Chick (D)

17.About Time (D)

16.The Notebook (C)

15.State of Play (C+)

14.Southpaw (B-)

13.Morning Glory (B-)

12.Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (B)

11.Red Eye (B)

10.Disobedience (B)

9.Mean Girls (B)

8.Wedding Crashers (B+)

7.Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows (B+)

6.Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (B+)

5.Midnight in Paris (B+)

4.Doctor Strange (B+)

3.Sherlock Holmes (B+)

2.Spotlight (A-)

1.Game Night (A)

Top Dog: Game Night (2018)

During this ongoing era that started around 2016/17 where major studio comedies have become a depressingly rare event, Game Night served as a reminder of how awesome it is when a towering home run is hit in the genre. Not only is Game Night consistently hilarious and full of lively performances from its great ensemble cast (McAdams, Jason Bateman, Kyle Chandler, Billy Magnussen, Jesse Plemons, Sharon Horgan, Lamorne Morris, Kylie Bunbury), it's a sharply written and exquisitely directed movie that expertly weaves together elements of crime, thriller and mystery movies without ever compromising its goofy dark comedy DNA.

Bottom Feeder: Aloha (2015)

Aloha is one of the more infamous misfires in recent Hollywood history for good reason. Cameron Crowe-whose track record prior to this was relatively spotless-lets his starry cast (Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, McAdams, John Krasinski, Danny McBride, Alec Baldwin, Bill Murray, Bill Camp) helplessly flop around for roughly 2 hours as he fails to ever decide on a consistent tone or tell a coherent, interconnected story-which results in something so gratuitously unfocused, dull and ill-conceived that it's legitimately hard to believe that Sony actually went through with widely releasing it into theaters. 

Most Underrated: Doctor Strange in Multiverse of Madness (2022)

We're approaching the 1-year anniversary of the time where Sam Raimi shocked an unsuspecting audience by hijacking an MCU movie. The veteran horror director put his creepy, campy fingerprints all over this movie and it made Doctor Strange's (Benedict Cumberbatch) multiverse-spanning quest to stop a possessed Wanda (Elizabeth Olsen) from destroying multiple timelines in search of her "children" far more entertaining, stylish and edgy (by MCU standards) than I ever could've hoped it to be. There are some notable issues with pacing (shoutout significant reshoots) that prevent it from being amazing, but some slow spots and awkward story transitions are completely forgivable when they're part of the rare MCU film that feels like the product of a specific director.

Most Overrated: About Time (2013)

Giving directors multiple chances to win you over as a viewer is a practice that I firmly believe in. However, there eventually comes a point where you have to put your foot down and say "Nope, this person's movies just aren't for me". About Time was the movie that got me to swear off Richard Curtis' films for the rest of my life. If it wasn't for McAdams' immense, effortless charm as the female lead, it would've easily joined Curtis' Love Actually in the top-tier trash movie compactor that lives in the bowels of my stupid film-obsessed mind. The predatory creepiness of the plot (Domhnall Gleeson plays a man capable of time travel who repeatedly uses his gift to court a woman he's smitten with-played by McAdams-until she finally falls in love with him) adds an extra unappealing layer to Curtis' signature sickeningly schmaltzy, over-the-top melodramatic storytelling and makes this riff on a "feel-good" love story uniquely hard to stomach.