PROFILE: Jennifer Lawrence

BY: Nadia Carmon

Since 2006, Kentucky-born Academy Award and Golden Globe winner Jennifer Lawrence has mesmerized us with commanding performances in niche indie films and mainstream blockbusters,
portraying a challenging range of emotionally-driven characters.

 

Since then, Lawrence’s work has cemented her as a pop culture icon and talented force to be reckoned with.

From memorable roles including a rebel teen girl who stands up to a totalitarian regime in a dystopian society to the wife of a con artist whose complicated relationship gives her the opportunity to double cross him, we’re celebrating her stellar body of work by ranking our top 5 Jennifer Lawrence films of all time.

To this end, we’ve taken all of her work into consideration, including later roles which would define her career, as well as earlier ones that would put her on the map.

Here are our top picks for the best Jennifer Lawrence movies of all time.

 

5. The Poker House

Directed by Lori Petty, who is perhaps best known for her role as the title character in the 1995 sci fi comedy Tank Girl, The Poker House (2008) is an autobiographical drama of her life growing up in the 1970s.

Jennifer Lawrence plays the role of her younger self, a 14-year old girl named Agnes who must look out for her two sisters (Chloe-Grace Moretz, Sophi Bairley) after her mother Sarah (Selma Blair) turns their family home into a brothel.

But unfortunately, the Young Agnes ends up falling in love with her mother’s abusive pimp Duval (Bokeem Woodbine) and is introduced to their risque life.

Lawrence narrates the young girl’s life with a poetry that feels both mature yet vulnerable, and full of love and regret. Her on-screen presence is magnetic.

Her performance won her an award for Outstanding Performance at the Los Angeles Film Festival.

 

4. Hunger Games: Catching Fire

The 2013 sequel to the Hunger Games sees the victors of the 74th Hunger Games inspire a rebellion in the lower districts.

Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson) return home and quickly learn to play the game as a newlywed couple who have been spared in the games, thanks to the benevolence of the Capitol and its leader, President Snow (Donald Sutherland).

But when the threat of a revolt can no longer be contained, the two must decide where they stand for the future of their people and all of the lower districts of Panem.

Improving upon what the first installment did so well, Hunger Games: Catching Fire works its magic with a captivating blend of gladiator games meets reality tv culture; Beckoning us to a future where we see real life violence as entertainment, in one of the best depictions of capitalism and class warfare the genre has to offer.

Lawrence’s Katniss is strong and courageous, and an ever-enduring symbol of the modern dystopian hero.

Of its 68 nominations, the film won 22 awards.

Jennifer Lawrence won a Best Actress award from the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Films, USA and a Female Icon of the Year and a Kick Ass Award for Best Female Action Star award from the Aliance of Women Female Journalists.

 

 

3. Winter’s Bone

Set in the small town of Ozark, MO, Winter’s Bone (2010) is the story of a young girl who is forced to take care of her siblings after her father’s disappearance.

Widely considered the breakthrough role that would put her on the map, Lawrence, who was 20 years old at the time, plays Ree, a teenage girl looking for the truth about what happened to her drug-dealing father; even tight knit secrets of the community seem to pile up one after the other.

Written and directed by Debra Granik (“Leave No Trace”, “Stray Dog”), and produced in conjunction with Anonymous Content and Winter’s Bone Productions, the film is based on a novel by Daniel Woodrell.

Winter’s Bone won Best Picture and Best Screenplay at the Sundance Film Festival.

 

2.  Silver Linings Playbook

Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence star in the quirky, off-beat rom com Silver Linings Playbook (2012) as two people whose worlds collide shortly after the former’s return home from a mental institution.

In addition to the star-studded cast, which includes Robert De Niro, Jacki Weaver, Chris Tucker, Julia Stiles and more, Lawrence shines in her role as Tiffany, a complicated young woman who is dealing with her own unique issues and connects with Cooper’s Pat Solitano in a most serendipitous way.

The film would garner an Academy Award win for Jennifer Lawrence for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role.

 

 

1.  American Hustle

Jennifer Lawrence’s best performance by far is her role as Rosalyn Rosenfeld in the 2013 Annapurna Pictures-produced, David O. Russell-directed crime/drama American Hustle.

Though it’s hard to stand out amongst such a stellar cast which also includes Christian Bale, Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, and Jeremy Renner, Lawrence captivates as the wife of a con artist who struggles to earn his affection.

Though her character is a hot mess in some regard, Lawrence’s interpretation gives depths to her layers and allows the complex web of drama and humor that defines Rosalyn to shine through.

American Hustle was nominated for 227 awards and won 69 of them.

For her performance, Jennifer Lawrence won an Academy Award for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role, a BAFTA for Best Supporting Actress and a Screen Actors Guild (SAG) award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role.