Mahershala Ali 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 Mahershala Ali-whose latest project "Jurassic World Rebirth" releases in theaters on Wednesday. 

Mahershala Ali's Filmography Ranked:

14.Supremacy (C-)

13.Roxanne Roxanne (C)

12.Hidden Figures (C)

11.Alita: Battle Angel (C+)

10.Free State of Jones (B-)

9.The Place Beyond the Pines (B)

8.The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 2 (B)

7.The Hunger Games: Mockingjay-Part 1 (B)

6.Predators (B)

5.Leave the World Behind (B+)

4.Green Book (B+)

3.Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (B+)

2.Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (A-)

1.Moonlight (A)

Top Dog: Moonlight (2016)

8 years after calling it vastly overrated and unworthy of winning Best Picture, I watched Moonlight again and it floored me. Barry Jenkins authored such a beautiful, tragic and thoughtfully rendered portrait of a man named Chiron (played by Alex Hibbert, Ashton Sanders and Trevante Rhodes as a child, teenager and adult respectively) wrestling with his identity as he comes of his age in the crime-ridden, impoverished Liberty City neighborhood of Miami during the 80's/90's. The performances from not only the 3 actors who play Chiron, but Naomie Harris as Chiron's abusive, crack-addicted mother and Ali as the kind, soft-spoken crack dealer Juan who serves as a father figure for Chiron as a kid are all deeply powerful, James Laxton's serene cinematography is some of the best of any film in recent memory and the ending packs a serious emotional punch that also serves as the purest, rawest distillation of the film's themes. This movie really is a masterpiece and I'm retroactively thrilled that it was able to knock off La La Land to win Best Picture.             

Bottom Feeder: Supremacy (2015)

With the exception of 2019's Black and Blue, Deon Taylor has consistently run into trouble when he tries to attach social commentary to a trashy thriller concept. Supremacy is a particularly egregious case of concocting a misguided attempt to saying something poignant about a very real problem in the world (in this case, white nationalism and racism) as the moments where it attempts to be profound feel very forced and jarring when everything else about the movie feels like a cheap direct-to-VOD home invasion thriller where the invaders (Joe Anderson, Dawn Oliveri) just happen to be proud bigots hiding out from the cops after the man-who was released from prison after doing a 15-year bid that very same day- killed a cop (Ali) during a traffic stop gone awry. Taylor's talent for generating suspense at key moments prevents it from falling completely on its face, but it's a still pretty poor effort on the whole.    

Most Underrated: Predators (2010)

Is Predators the best Predator sequel? No, Prey earned that title nearly three years ago. Is Predators the most underrated and unfairly shat upon Predator sequel? Absolutely. The joys this movie provides are vast and (mostly) completely unique within this long-running franchise. Laurence Fishburne shows for up 15 minutes in the second act and goes absolutely berserk before dying in spectacular fashion! A predator creates a bobby trap that involves replicating the voice of a guy they just killed off-camera! The Yakuza guy (Louis Ozawa Changchien) fights a predator with a sword! There's a shocking, strange twist involving a main character at the end of the movie for no real reason at all! Adrien Brody is doing a Sylvester Stallone impression the whole movie and it kind of rules! Movies that are full of cool shit and not much else are cool!   

Most Overrated: Alita: Battle Angel (2019)

Every time Alita: Battle Angel looks like it's going to be able to find its groove via its kinetic action sequences or the strength of Rosa Salazar's excellent performance as the title character that beautifully captures the juxtaposition of child-like curiosity and the unbreakable spirit of a battle-hardened solider, James Cameron's awful script steps in and mucks shit up by introducing another crap subplot that makes the film cornier and more incoherent than it was previously until it naturally reaches its wet fart of an ending. It's really a blessing that Cameron is too focused on making Avatar movies to shit out anything else these days.