This year, I’m focusing on different actors every month, all are my favorites. And of course I had to start my year with Mr Robert Pattinson. So it seems only fitting that on February I shall choose one of my favorite actresses to feature. I’m going to write about J-Law and link to my movie reviews on Letterboxd. Check out all my actor’s profiles here.
Jen and I go way back, over ten years now. The very first movie I saw by her was ‘Winter’s Bone‘. It was around that time that I started to really get into watching Oscar-nominated movies, a habit I’ve kept until this day. Not that I always agree with who the Academy chose as winners or even the nominees but I still like to watch the movies. I was blown away by this brutal little movie, with a very young actress as lead whom I’ve never seen before but looked like she was a veteran. She acted like she was a veteran. Acting is the wrong word, because she wasn’t acting, she was that person for the duration of the movie. The camera loved her, and I fell in love with her.
Before and after ‘Winter’s Bone’, Jen had just done some small roles like in the aggressively mediocre ‘The Burning Plain‘, the heart-breaking and beautiful ‘Like Crazy‘ and the quirky yet heartfelt ‘The Beaver‘. Even in the fantastic ‘X-Men: First Class’ as Raven, she was the supporting actor. She did a great job in all of them but none of them used even half of her potential.
Then came the one movie and suddenly the whole world was watching – The Hunger Games. I was initially conflicted whether I wanted to even watch it or read the books, cos I’m a huge fan of ‘Battle Royale’ and at least the premise of the of The Hunger Games are way too similar to be a coincidence. But finding out that Jen was going to be Katniss, I knew I had to give the trilogy a go. And I ended up really really enjoying the conclusion of the story. Jen as Katniss was steady and excellent, despite not all the movies were that well done. At times, she was the one carrying the whole thing forward. I’m glad that this is Jen big franchise experience.
And in between and after being Katniss, she kept herself busy another X-Men movie (Days of the Future Past), a shitty horror movie ‘House at the End of the Street‘, and a disastrously messy ‘Serena‘ completely ruined in post-production. She also did three David O. Russell movies, David obviously found a temporary muse in Jen and he did bring out this slightly unhinged side of Jen that I did enjoy watching at the time: ‘Silver Lining’s Playbook‘, ‘American Hustle‘ and ‘Joy‘. Jen was energetic and magnetic in all of those three and definitely elevated all three movies with her delightful presence.
And by this time, she had already won an Oscar for best actress and nominated thrice. But I feel like she was still looking for herself, looking to find roles that would showcase her talents and use all her potential and also be more than mediocre movies at the same time. Movies such as ‘Passengers‘ and ‘Red Sparrow‘ didn’t really manage to do those things other than show that Jen was willing to go for edgier roles. But this one movie did fulfill of that.
The last Jen film that I watched for February is actually perfect – ‘mother!‘. It quickly became one of my favorite movies because it was batshit crazy but at the same time made me think so much. After a week of seeing it, I was still thinking about it and I know I have to see it again. And again. Jen was luminous in it. She shreds the melancholy young girl and the loud, slightly unhinged woman we got to see so much previously and she showed us yet another type of acting of hers – subtle, gentle and warm with such depth and hidden frustration and finally rage. She went through so much in ‘mother!’ and she had this certain air of maturity now to her acting that I actually like a lot. And funny enough, in ‘mother!’ she reminds me of her role in ‘Winter’s Bone’, subtle yet highly effective in conveying different emotions.
I feel like Jen really went through a journey in finding herself and I can’t wait for her to come back and give us more excellent performances. I believed in her from the beginning, and it feels really special to me. I’m proud of myself for finding her from the start, and I’m proud of her of being her, and I’m grateful that she allowed her fans to watch her grow as a performer. I really feel like that she is our generation’s Meryl Streep.
Slap Ass For Motivation 