Jenny Slate 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 Jenny Slate-whose latest project "It Ends with Us" is in theaters now.

Jenny Slate's Filmography Ranked:

15.The Sunlit Night (D+)

14.This Means War (C)

13.The Secret Life of Pets (C)

12.Joshy (C)

11.Zootopia (C)

10.My Blind Brother (B-)

9.I Want You Back (B)

8.Landline (B)

7.Venom (B)

6.The Lego Batman Movie (B)

5.Hotel Artemis (B)

4.Gifted (B)

3.Ordinary Child (B+)

2.Marcel the Shell with Shoes On (B+)

1.Everything Everywhere All at Once (B+)

Top Dog: Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022)

The goofy weirdos behind Swiss Army Man pulled off the most impressive feat of their burgeoning career thus far by making a multiverse movie that somehow manages to seamlessly combine absurdist comedy, earnest family drama and stylized martial arts. A rewatch is definitely in order to see if a second viewing further unlocks this wildly creative, unique movie. 

Bottom Feeder: The Sunlit Night (2020)

This little seen indie dramedy about a New York painter (Slate) who is inspired to take a residency with an artist (Fridtjov Sahiem) in rural Norway following a string of abruptly developing crises in her personal life got crucified at Sundance in 2019, shaved 25 minutes off its runtime as a response to the poor reviews and eventually got picked up by tiny label Quiver and dumped onto VOD in July 2020 is as bad as its troubled history indicates. While Slate is charming in the lead role, the film has zero narrative focus (the number of subplots and characters that show up in this shit is mind-boggling) or idea what tone it's going for-resulting in a bizarre mess of a movie that tries to do far too much over its (reworked) brief runtime.    

Most Underrated: Ordinary Child (2014)

Slate's transition from comedian that was questionably fired from Saturday Night Live after 1 season to proper film actor who was long for Hollywood came in this great film that has unjustly managed to get lost in the shuffle of A24's widely celebrated library a decade after its release. Slate gives an achingly authentic performance as a stand-up comedian who elects to get an abortion after getting pregnant following a one night stand with a businessman (Jake Lacy-in what proved to be the first of his multiple great turns as a likable love interest) she met following her set at a comedy club she frequents and writer/director Gillain Robespierre does an excellent job of balancing comedy, drama and honest character work while treating its subject matter with the utmost sensitivity. Somebody should really get Robespierre off the TV mercenary circuit and greenlight another movie from her ASAP. 

Most Overrated: Zootopia (2016)

Outside of the delightful Big Hero 6, I've just never understood the love that the biggest Walt Disney Studios movies from the 2010's (Frozen, Moana, Wreck-It Ralph, Zootopia) received. In the case of Zootopia specifically, I found its racism metaphors to be heavy-handed to the point where they lose most of their intended potency, the comedy to be uneven and the characters to be kind of dull despite the solid work from its voice cast (Ginnifer Goodwin, Jason Bateman, Idris Elba, Slate, Bonnie Hunt, J.K. Simmons, Nate Torrance).