Amy Adams’ Latest 10 Movies vs. Greatest 10 Movies

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Latest vs. Greatest looks at directors, actors, actresses, screenwriters and composers to assess the state of their career as it stands.  We’ll look back at the latest 10 movies the artist has done, rate them and then average them out to see where they stand today.  We’ll also rank their 10 greatest movies and give them the same treatment to compare what they have been doing to their very best work.  (A quick side-note: if an artist is/has been a regular on a TV show we’ll also grade the seasons individually; artists need 10 projects to qualify).

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Amy Adams is the fifth person involved with Catch Me If You Can that we’ve profiled so far (Tom Hanks, Steven Spielberg, John Williams, Leonardo DiCaprio), though you may not recall her as she had braces and was the youngest and most innocent of Frank Abagnale’s con victims in that film.  So to open, what I’m saying is, go rent Catch Me If You Can.

large%20junebug%20blu-ray3xAmy Adams has fallen into what we’ll call the Kate Winslet Dilemma.  She’s now had so many Oscar nominations that she’s due, but for some perverse reason that makes the voters think she needs to earn it even more.  At 39, she’s already established herself as one of the best character actresses in Hollywood; outstanding and an asset to any film in a supporting role, but equally capable of dominating a film as the lead.  Since 1995’s Junebug, which earned her first nomination, she’s been delighting audiences with her surprising range and genuine likability (though this sometimes typecasts her).enchanted-amy-adamsThe role that made Amy Adams an A-list star was 2006’s Enchanted.  I liken Enchanted to Big in that it shouldn’t work.  On paper it seems like a horrible idea.  What it needed was just the right person who could sell being a living Disney princess in the real world and Adams got to do that and show-off her singing ability.  I find this move completely charming and it was what put Adams on my permanent radar.007CWW_Amy_Adams_005Speaking of Tom Hanks, Adams would team with him the next year in the criminally-underrated and prophetic Charlie Wilson’s War, serving as assistant to possibly the most outrageous Congressman in United States history (and that is saying A LOT).Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams, DoubtAdams should have been nominated for Enchanted, but the first time she was nominated and should have won was for 2008’s Doubt.  While Hoffman and Streep got the meaty roles, it’s Adams’ character who most struggles with the titular problem as she and the other nuns question whether or not their priest is abusing their students.  It’s a nuanced performance and it should have been rewarded.Amy Adams, Julie & JuliaAdams would team again with Streep again the next year in Julie & Julia, a quasi-biography of chef Julia Childs (Streep) and a blogger who decides to teach herself French cooking by working through Childs’ book in a year.  Streep is fantastic as Childs and, as is often the case in Adams career, she supports that performance with a standout of her own and gets overshadowed.Amy-in-The-Fighter-amy-adams-18473690-1200-797Perhaps because she felt that she needed to break her “good girl” image, or perhaps because she was chasing an Oscar but the only time I’ve ever seen Amy Adams out-of-place and miscast is in David O. Russell’s The Fighter.  I didn’t buy her in the role and I was a little embarrassed that she was forcing herself into “hard-bitten” mode just to get an Oscar (which she got her third nomination for, but lost).????????????????????????????After hanging out with the Muppets in 2011 and reteaming with Phillip Seymour Hoffman in 2012’s The Master (I….am…..not a Paul Thomas Anderson fan and that’s all we’ll say about that film), Adams was in two of the highest-profile films of last year: Man of Steel and American Hustle.

I don’t know what to make of Adams’ Lois Lane.  I certainly thought she was better than Kate Bosworth, but I don’t think Lois Lane says the word “tinkle”.  Unfortunately, since Man of Steel 2 has become Justice League: The Prelude, I don’t know how much time she’s going to get to develop her take on the reporter.Amy Adams, American HustleAmy Adams in American Hustle blew my mind.  I think it’s her best performance and should’ve been her second Oscar win (instead of just her fifth nomination).  Her character, con woman Sydney Prosser, waltzes through roles and characters; accents and affectations like a samurai cutting through toilet paper.  She’ll change personalities completely in mid-sentence and was just as good as Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence as they gave a clinic on acting in this film.  She was absolutely robbed this time and, after five times at the dance, is seriously due (which means she’ll get her Oscar for a film she doesn’t deserve it for like everyone else does).


Which brings us to Adams’ 10 latest films:
ADAMS’ LATEST TEN:
1. American Hustle (2013)………………8.50
2. Her (2013)……………………………………..8.50
3. Man of Steel (2013)………………………8.00
4. Trouble with the Curve (2012)…..7.00
5. The Master (2012)……………………….3.50
6. The Muppets (2011)……………………7.75
7. The Fighter (2010)……………………….7.50
8. Leap Year (2010)…………………………..4.00
9. Julie & Julia (2009)………………………8.75
10. Night at the Museum 2 (2008)…5.00
ADAMS’ CURRENT AVERAGE: 6.850

Adams’ projects are not always the best and her “other” franchise (Night at the Museum) is just….awful.  My hatred of The Master and Leap Year notwithstanding, she still has pulled in nearly a 7 in her last ten times out.Amy-Adams-in-The-Muppets-2011-Movie-Image

ADAMS’ GREATEST TEN
1. Charlie Wilson’s War (2007)………….9.75
2. Doubt (2008)……………………………………..9.50
3. Enchanted (2007)……………………………..9.50
4. Catch Me If You Can (2002)……………9.25
5. Julie & Julia (2009) ……………………………8.75
6. American Hustle (2013)……………………8.50
7. Her (2013)…………………………………………..8.50
8. Junebug (2005)…………………………………..8.00
9. Man of Steel (2013)……………………………8.00
10. The Muppets (2011)……………………….7.75
ADAMS’ GREATEST AVERAGE: 8.750
NEW HIGHEST LATEST AND GREATEST FOR ACTRESSES

We haven’t examined a lot of actresses, unfortunately, but Adams breaks the record for best current and career scores.  I expect that to go nowhere but up as she continues to develop.  She’s a consummate character actor and I think will be the rare actress who doesn’t get caught in Hollywood’s ageism trap post-40.  She’s probably my favorite actress working today and I look forward to seeing her later this year in Tim Burton’s Big Eyes.  Then it’s on to Batman v. Superman and Story of Your Life with director Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners)700_hq

 

5 thoughts on “Amy Adams’ Latest 10 Movies vs. Greatest 10 Movies”

  1. The fact that Adams is in Big Eyes makes me want to see it even more. She is REALLY good, and I’m glad you profiled her.
    I’ve always thought that being a highly attractive actress must have a serious downside even if you’re talented, because you’re kind of doomed to play vapid, underwritten love-interest parts. But Adams continues to get interesting roles that require serious acting chops.

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    1. She’s never really picked roles that play up wher looks unless it’s something like Enchanted or on the other end of the spectrum American Hustle where those looks are an integral part of a complex character. I was originally going to profile Cate Blanchett but she’s in How to Train Your Dragon 2 which is just about out so I figured wait a cycle or two and she’ll be up to bat.


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      1. I wonder how much damage Crystal Skull will do to Blanchett’s score? Also, in addition to Helena Bonham Carter, who I have mentioned before. you should seriously do a LvG on Tilda Swinton.

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      2. Swinton does so much indie stuff that tracking her down is tough. Carter is in the next batch, but after Depp and Burton I needed a break from that crowd. CS may drop off her last 10 with How to Train Your Dragon 2. It’s not a 3 or something. It’s more like a 5. Poor Brad Pitt is going to have The Counselor’s 1.75 dragging his current score down for a decade. lol


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