Anna Kendrick’s 10 best and 10 worst movies, according to critics
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Not every role can get you an Oscar nomination. Here are Kendrick’s lowest-rated movies, according to critics’ scores.
Focus World
Kendrick stars as Martha, who becomes romantically involved with “Mr. Right,” played by Sam Rockwell, a former CIA agent who now poses as a hit-man … only to take out the people who hire him.
“Rockwell and Kendrick are great together, but the movie never quite marries the cute romance and the bloody killings. Most of the time the two leads appear to be on their own in a completely separate movie,” wrote the Toronto Sun’s Liz Braun.
20th Century Fox
When Mike and Dave, two brothers who constantly ruin family gatherings, put out an ad on Craigslist for wedding dates, Tatiana and Alice respond. The only issue? Tatiana and Alice aren’t the respectable young women they’re pretending to be; they’re just scamming Mike and Dave for a free vacation in Hawaii.
Elena Lazic of Little White Lies compared watching the movie to “watching an interesting hot person waste time on his embarrassingly mediocre, unfunny friends.”
Universal Pictures
The Barden Bellas reunite one final time for a USO tour since they’ve all graduated college and are hating their careers. Each faces their own struggles: Beca and her talent which could take her away from the Bellas, Fat Amy’s estranged relationship with her crime-lord father, and Chloe’s blossoming relationship with one of their guides on the tour, a soldier named Chicago.
“As a whole, ‘Pitch Perfect 3’ feels like an encore nobody asked for,” Richard Roeper summarized for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Summit Entertainment
Though Bella and Edward ended “Twilight” together, things quickly fall apart after Edward’s brother Jasper attacks Bella at her birthday party. When Edward dumps Bella, she enters an almost catatonic state, but her friendship with Jacob, played by a newly jacked Taylor Lautner, brings her back to life.
Kendrick appears as one of Bella’s friends, Jessica, who has the unpleasant task of trying to stop Bella from getting on a random man’s motorcycle, as she tries to conjure a ghost of Edward. Yeesh.
“Two hours and 10 minutes of rambling, pointless drivel, where nothing of any real interest happens,” wrote The Dispatch’s Matthew Lucas.
Fox Searchlight Pictures
Kendrick plays Eloise, a wedding guest who was recently dumped by the best man via text after two years of dating. When she shows up, she’s been moved to Table 19, a group of people who are only vaguely acquainted with the couple. The table bonds and hijinks ensue.
Time Out’s Cath Clarke wrote, “The gags ought to have been put out of their misery and there’s a deeply uncool unfeminist message.”
Summit Entertainment
The story of Bella and Edward continues as they get married in front of their friends and family (including Jessica). However, when Bella unexpectedly gets pregnant, Bella, Edward, and Jacob all disagree on how to handle the situation.
“So overall I found the whole experience to be fun because I love to be part of something, but the movie to be so-so … Finally, the movie seemed loooooooooooong. It lasted forever and ever. It was the longest two hour movie ever,” wrote Liz Rubin of AutoStraddle.
Lionsgate
After the rapture occurs and leaves behind all the “bad” people like Lindsey (Kendrick) and her boyfriend Ben (John Francis Daley), an evil politician called the Beast, played by Craig Robinson, takes over the world. Lindsey and Ben try to stop him.
“‘Rapture-Palooza’ is a prime example of a movie that has great concept, but that struggles to stretch said concept into a feature-length motion picture,” wrote The Last Thing I See’s Brian McKnight.
Lionsgate
The film, based on the ’80s pregnancy guide of the same name, follows five interconnected couples who are all dealing with the various experiences and struggles of getting and being pregnant. Kendrick plays Rosie, who gets unexpectedly pregnant after a one-night stand with a high school friend Marco, played by Chace Crawford.
“Someday Hollywood will think of women as more than fallopian tubes in heels; until then, we’re stuck with this kind of project,” wrote Mike McCahill of The Guardian.
Paramount Vantage
The film follows Marc Pease (Jason Schwartzman), a man in his mid-20s who is still traumatized by an incident of stage fright from high school, so he’s never progressed past it. He is dating a high school senior, Meg (Kendrick). Ben Stiller stars as a teacher also involved with Meg.
“It’s badly written and inertly directed, with actors who don’t have a clue what drives their characters,” wrote Roger Ebert for the Chicago Sun-Times.
Lionsgate Premiere
In “Get a Job,” Kendrick plays Jill, the girlfriend of the main character Will, played by Miles Teller. The film follows Will and his friends on their quests to get jobs after college graduation.
“Crass and painfully unfunny satirical comedy shot four years ago. It’s finally receiving a token theatrical release concurrent with being dumped into the video-on-demand sludge pile,” wrote Lou Lumenick of the New York Post.
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Kendrick has appeared in some cult classics.
Universal Pictures
The film is an adaptation of the beloved comic series of the same name. Michael Cera plays Scott Pilgrim, who develops feelings for a delivery person named Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), but in order to date her, he must defeat her seven evil exes. Kendrick plays Scott’s younger sister, Stacey.
“Full of fresh, sharp touches and nonchalantly brash performances, ‘Scott Pilgrim vs. the World’ consistently hits the sweet spot,” wrote Tom Charity for CNN.
Picturehouse; HBO Films
Ginny (Kendrick) recruits Hal (Reece Thompson), her fellow student, to join her as part of her debate pair; though Hal has a debilitating stutter. They bond, and Hal gains confidence as a result of his debate experience.
Debbie Lynn Elias of Behind the Lens wrote, “Humor, compassion, tenderness, forgiveness and friendship. The trials and tribulations of youth and of life told with heartfelt emotion and some well executed deadpan comedy. A little off-beat and a lot of fun.”
Magnolia Pictures
Kendrick, who teamed up with Johnson and Swanberg in “Digging for Fire,” and with Swanberg for “Happy Christmas,” plays Jill, the girlfriend of Johnson’s character Luke. Luke and his best friend/coworker Kate (Olivia Wilde) are best friends, and seem like they should be together, but they both have significant others.
Nicholas Bell of IONCINEMA wrote, “Its strengths are in what it’s not explicitly saying but quietly showing, something most films are unable to do.”
Lionsgate
Kendrick stars as the titular Alice in “Alice, Darling” as a young woman who is in an abusive relationship. When she goes on a weekend trip with her two best friends, it becomes harder to hide the true nature of her relationship from them.
“It’s a believable portrayal of the impact of gaslighting and brainwashing: Alice’s conviction that she’s at fault will resonate with many audiences,” wrote Time Out’s Anna Smith.
Lionsgate Movies
Darcy (Kendrick) is a young widow with a secret about her husband’s death, as well as her relationship with her brother. She befriends Emily (Blake Lively), a glamorous fellow mom at her son’s elementary school with secrets of her own. When Emily goes missing, Darcy throws herself into the search while blogging about her experiences.
“Kendrick and Lively have never been funnier, snapping one-liners at each other like elastic bands; the script is hyper-alert to the undercurrent of competitiveness between stay-at-home and working mums,” wrote The Guardian’s Cath Clarke.
Open Road Films
The film centers on the friendship between Brian Taylor (Jake Gyllenhaal) and Mike Zavala (Michael Peña), who are partners in the LAPD. It follows their interactions with a drug cartel, gangs, and corruption. Kendrick plays Janet, Brian’s girlfriend and eventual wife.
“[Director David] Ayer and his cast appear to have so convincingly nailed the way these characters talk and act that you might not even notice the film slipping from workaday grit into out-and-out myth,” wrote Bilge Ebiri of Vulture.
Focus Features
Norman is an 11-year-old boy living in the town of Blithe Hollow, Massachusetts. He discovers he has the ability to speak with the dead, though no one believes him, and he is ostracized from most of his classmates. When his eccentric uncle makes him promise to perform a ritual in order to keep the town safe, all hell breaks loose.
Kendrick plays Courtney, Norman’s older sister.
“Tweens, rather than children, will savor its snarky bite, although like the shambling on-screen cadavers, the story needed a bit more meat on its bones,” wrote The Daily Telegraph’s Robbie Collin.
Paramount Pictures
Danny, played by George Clooney, is a human-resources consultant who travels from company to company helping with “termination assistance.” He travels almost constantly; his main goal throughout the film is to earn 10 million frequent flyer miles.
Kendrick plays Natalie, who comes to the consulting firm to advocate for turning firing into a video conference call, instead of an in-person meeting. Danny convinces Natalie to travel with him as he performs his job to save the traveling aspect of his career, and the two bond.
To date, this is Kendrick’s lone Oscar nomination.
Micheal Compton of the Bowling Green Daily News wrote, “Jason Reitman raises the bar with a beautifully crafted film that is smart, topical, funny and just a little bittersweet. It’s a perfect mix for a film that proves to be the very best of 2009.”
Netflix
In addition to starring in “Woman of the Hour,” Kendrick also makes her directorial debut with the Netflix film. It tells the true story of the serial killer Rodney Alcala, who appeared on a 1978 episode of “The Dating Game” in the middle of his killing spree. Kendrick stars as Cheryl Bradshaw, a contestant on Alcala’s episode.
“This is an accomplished directorial debut, a movie made with smarts and vision,” wrote Robert Levin of Newsday.
Summit Entertainment
In “50/50,” Joseph Gordon Levitt and Seth Rogen co-star as best friends Adam and Kyle. Adam finds out he has a form of bone cancer that has a 50/50 rate of survival, and the story follows Adam’s journey through chemo, a support group, and therapy, which involves his therapist, Katherine (Kendrick).
“Director Jonathan Levine manages to treat cancer with the respect it deserves whilst also showing the remarkable ability of humans to find laughter in the most heinous of circumstances,” wrote The List’s Kaleem Aftab.
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