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This previously-published list has been updated to include Jennifer Lawrences most recent film,No Hard Feelings.
(She won forSilver Linings Playbook.)
But box office and awards only partly explain her appeal.
Her best movies seem to vibrate on the same unpredictable, immediate wavelength that she likes to operate on.
Thank heavens she never has to do one of these again.
Is there a universe in which Jennifer Lawrence grows up and turns into Charlize Theron?
There is in this movie.
Tired of being lonely, he awakens her, claiming that her pod malfunctioned like his did.
The two fall in love without Aurora knowing about the monstrous thing hes done to her.
BeforePassengers, Lawrences ascension from indie discovery to blockbuster star had been amazingly smooth.
This movie was when many started worrying.
But after three films, we confess that were still not quite sure what Lawrence brings to this franchise.
Its not that Mystique isnt important.
(Shes Charles Xaviers adoptive sister who has feelings for Magneto, his soon-to-be rival.)
Whatever the reason, we wouldnt shed any tears if she never dons the blue makeup again.
11.Joy(2015)
Lawrences thirdcollaboration with director David O. Russellis easily her weakest.
The actress draws on her earthiness to make Joy an underdog whos very easy to love.
But it has legitimate passion behind it, and Lawrence is terrific in an incredibly challenging role.
That mystery is the highlight of this film, which coasts on her daring turn.
Lawrence strips away as much movie-star gloss as she can to play Lynsey.
By the time the series ended, she was almost too big for theHunger Gamesmoviesto contain her.
She made these movies better than they probably should have been, but never stopped committing to them.
This is a fully realized performance over the span of four years.
And for what its worth: Shes a better action star than most of the Avengers.
A metaphor for the Garden of Eden?
A commentary on the polluting of the Earth?
A treatise on the struggles of a spouse who has to share her artist husband with the world?
Lawrence delivers, stunningly.
Just a few years later,Lawrenceauditioned for the role.
I was comfortable in the dialect.
(Her mother has mental-health issues, and her father has gone missing.)
Shes the most powerful force in the room, always, whoever else is in the room.
