JLaw's back!
Friday, March 6, 2020 at 9:00AM 
Jennifer Lawrence's career is a fascinating thing, starting in humbleness followed by a meteoric rise, promises of eternal success and a swerve into the land of flops and unexpected irrelevance. It all started in her teenage years when she was a working actress with credits on film and TV. It was a humble indie film that changed everything. In Debra Granik's Winter's Bone, Lawrence gave a career-best performance, painting a portrait of desperation and lived-in roughness as an Ozark Mountain girl in search of her missing father. She got an Oscar nomination for her troubles and a new star was born…
;)
Two years after her first nomination, the double-whammy of The Hunger Games and Silver Linings Playbook gave Lawrence her signature role and an auteur that saw her as his muse. While the quality of her work is debatable, the actress enjoyed the sort of instant success Hollywood loves to bestow upon its shiniest it-girls. By the end of that Awards Season, Jennifer Lawrence was an Oscar winner. More importantly, she stole Jude Law's nickname, becoming the one and only JLaw.
What followed was a couple of years of increasing popularity and prestige. Her work as Katniss Everdeen earned her millions of fans, the X-Men franchise practically bent itself backward to make Lawrence's Mystique its main heroine and the collaborations with David O. Russell transformed her into a mainstay of the awards season. Lest we forget, Lawrence came close to a second Oscar in 2013 for American Hustle. Thankfully, Lupita Nyong'o managed to win the statuette instead and even Jennifer Lawrence seemed relieved by the result. Perhaps she knew it isn't good to get too much too soon.
2014 saw the first signs of an impending fall in popularity when the much-delayed Serena finally opened to tepid reviews and even worse box-office. Then came 2015 and her last Oscar nomination for a David O. Russell film. The production was Joy and the role was one of the most complex the actress had ever tried. For what it's worth, her weird mix of movie star conviction and messy character detail make for an enticing performance but, perhaps for the first time, a lot of people started talking about Lawrence as an overrewarded starlet, more popular than talented.
After that, it all went wrong. X-Men: Apocalypse was a dispiriting disappointment, Passengers was lambasted by critics and brought with it a press tour full of problematic soundbites. While Mother! is an admirable balls-to-the-wall bout of madness from director Darren Aronofsky, it was a bit of a disaster, both with audiences and some critics. Moreover, the crazy project highlighted both the best parts of Lawrence's acting style as well as her weaknesses.
Then came the disappointing box office of Red Sparrow and the flotsam disaster that was X-Men: Dark Phoenix. From Hollywood's most beloved star, Jennifer Lawrence became an elusive presence, appearing in fewer films as the years went by and being mostly forgettable in the ones she was in. Whether or not you like the actress, it's a bit sad that her most daring projects, Joy and Mother!, functioned as the harbingers of celebrity doom while some of her most boring projects were endlessly celebrated. In any case, it seems that, after two years of dwindling, JLaw's ready to return.
For 2020, the actress has three projects in stages of production. First, we have a Lila Neugebauer directed drama about a traumatized soldier adjusting to life back home after returning from Afganistan. There's also Mob Girl, the latest project of Paolo Sorrentino about a New Yorker who becomes a mafia informant for the FBI. Finally, she's set to star in Adam McKay's next film, a Netflix original called Don't Look Up about two astronomers trying to warn Earth's population about a catastrophic meteorite that threatens the planet.
;)
These three projects sound interesting, offering Lawrence a chance to regain her popularity among critics and the general audience. That said, there's another film set to make Jennifer Lawrence a powerhouse in the Oscar conversation. While it doesn't have any release date yet, Bad Blood has already been announced with Adam McKay in the director's chair and Jennifer Lawrence in the lead role of Elizabeth Holmes. Is a bit of celebrity impersonation just what JLaw needs to get herself a fifth Oscar nomination?
In summation, Jennifer Lawrence, the movie star, is (almost) back! Are you happy about these developments?
Reader Comments (39)
A second lead Oscar really does seem inevitable for her. She's one of Hollywood's brightest starts, even if she's a limited actress.
Honestly, I really don't buy she's exactly back. That fourth nomination happening over, in order of likelihood, Poehler for Inside Out, Tomlin for Grandma or Mara getting bumped up to Lead for Carol might have killed her future Oscar prospects. And...yeah, here's hoping. Of those three projects, though? That soldier coming home to...based on that title, Red, White and Water, I'd assume Flint, MI...sounds like maybe the most interesting.
Eh... I think she's a consistently talented actor, but her off-screen persona is what really annoys me. We'll see if she has learned from her past gaffes.
It's crazy how she basically went through what Anne Hathaway went through back when she and Anne were constantly being pitted against each other as Cool/Not Cool. The public grew tired of her just as they did Anne, for the exact reasons they considered JLaw Cool in the first place. It's also very clear that her outlook on celebrity culture really changed when her private pictures were hacked into, understandably so.
I'm happy she's back though. Do I think she deserved that Oscar? Hell no. Her limitations are also now more clear to everyone. But when she is on and fully engaged, she is magnetic to watch.
I guess I just don't see what others see. I think she's a fantastic actress in a 60s/70s throwback style - Natalie Wood, Katherine Ross, Ali McGraw are comparisons that come to mind.
Inspired casting for Elizabeth Holmes,.
I agree with Starlit..."magnetic" is the word.
She's really special and it's always thrilling to watch her. Excited she's headed back in such interesting projects.
I hope she nails the shit out of that Elizabeth Holmes role and get another Oscar nom.
Good for her for taking a break. I am very excited!
Meh
At her best in Winter's Bone. Very engaging and likeable in that first X-Men film and the Hunger Games series. Horrendously miscast and over nominated for all of the overrated David O'Russell pictures (apart from maybe Joy where she kind of worked even if the film didn't). Excellent again in mother!
Word on the grapevine is alcohol, drugs and a good time took her out of the spotlight so I am glad to see her back and hopefully pushing herself again.
I haven't missed Jennifer Lawrence at all. She's an actress with clear limitations and no technique who seems to believe every word of praise she has ever received. Her vocabulary consists primarily of four letter words and she doesn't seem at all grateful for her massive (and in my opinion, unearned) success.
And I'm just going to go ahead and say it: if an actress of color bragged about rubbing her ass against sacred Hawaiian rocks, used words like "dyke-y" in interviews, and referred to another woman as the c-word on Watch What Happens Live, there is no way the media would sweep it all under the rug the way they have for J.Law.
Her stardom is the result of the strain of anti-intellectualism that allowed for the rise of Donald Trump.
I think I'm still tired of her for those JLaw madness years. I thought she was interesting until that Oscar win. Don't get me wrong: I supported her Oscar win and I still do (she's magnetic as Tiffany in that movie), but then she became too focused on being an arrogant star than an actress and I think that intoxicated her on-screen aura. Those AMERICAN HUSTLE and JOY noms were already undeserving for me... Right now, she's a "No" to me, but ask me again next year.
Eh, she hardly needs me to like her since she seems to like herself well enough. ;-)
I don't really see the magic/magnetic thing that everyone else does. I find myself getting bored during her movies if I'm honest.
She’s a good actress (I especially like her in Joy and mother!) but her filmography is kind of terrible.
Although the film is a mess and she's miscast she's totally on fire in Joy and deserved the nomination,look forward to her return.
While I despise her win for Silver Linings Playbook - I hate that whole movie - she would have been my #2 pick to win for Winter's Bone (Annette Bening should have won) ... and for the most part, I have always enjoyed her performances. I can't fault her personally for being over rewarded or over praised. I am often surprised by just how many people not only don't like her, but actively despise her. I'm always the only one who says "I kinda like her?", though hesitantly, cause I know I'm about to be hit with a barrage of "HOW?" "WHY!" GROSS" which always perplexes me. I for one am quite happy to see her back and am excited to see what the next chapter of her career has in store, particularly the Adam McKay film.
@Troy I think people on both sides do too much about her. I’ve always been in the “she’s good, not great and the “I don’t love her but I don’t hate her” camp.
I feel like her most recent choices; Red Sparrow, Mother, Joy, have been her most interesting, shame they haven’t always worked, because now I feel like she’ll shy away from that and play it much safer, which would be a shame. When she’s on form she’s electric. But I agree her persona grates.
I liked "Red Sparrow"
Remember, she was very young when she won her Oscar and starred in The Hunger Games. She became famous very quickly and it can't be easy, no matter how much money and how many Oscar nominations you get.
I like her. She's got charisma and she can act and I thought she was spot on in Silver Linings Playbook and very sympathetic in mother! As for her offscreen persona...She always seems like she wants to have fun and she doesn't seem malicious or destructive. Good on her.
First time I saw her onscreen was in Granik's Winter's Bone. I love that film and her in it and she was also in another tiny film Like Crazy which I love because of that film's emotional parallel to my life back then.
Not sure she deserved her Oscar win over Emmanuelle Riva but that's just me. I actually like her in Joy too where she is, well, a joy to watch. I like mother! and thought her acting can be showcased in Horror Actressing.
Not sure "excited" is the word I'll use as a response to her return, but I will most likely watch those films she has on the pipeline anyway.
I do like her as an actress though some of her off-screen antics are a turn-off as well as her fondness for.... ugh.... the Kartrashians.
I know one shouldn't get personal, bur I sincerely do believe that in JLaw's case , her friendship with Amy Schumer has also been responsible for her offscreen behaviour and subsequent lack of prestige. The kind of antics that help Schumer precisely help only the likes of Schumer whose narrative as a performer is tied in to such behaviour. With Lawrence, it becomes a contrast that sticks out and makes one doubt or reconsider her critical approximation and the Oscar glory.
Isn't Jason Bateman directing Bad Blood now?
I love her, and I love her specially in American Hustle. She's so arresting and magnetic that we forget she's miscast. I love her old school star wattage. She's the last movie STAR.
Passengers and Red Sparrow did just fine at the box office. They just poor opening week headlines. X-Men disaster wasn’t her faul. And Mother is just plain odd.
Exited for her to be back in any case. Not that she hasn’t been working at all but less so. Hopefully she gets Oscar nom this year so Saoirse doesn’t take her in records.
I really loved her on Winter's bone but winning for Silver Linnings Playbook when Emmanuelle Riva was just there? Hell no. I enjoyed the movie but it was completely overrated. I would have prefered her winning for American Hustle, that way it would have been a better narrative for Lupita to be nominated and probably win for Us and a second oscar for Lawrence would be more likeable. I hardly think she'll get another oscar for best actress, at least not in the next 20 years
"the land of flops and unexpected irrelevance"
Not sure I agree with that (PASSENGERS only got to $100mil in the US because of her - and $300m worldwide). Nor should performers be judged on whether audiences go and see movies like MOTHER. And she has made it widely known that she doesn't wish to be in these X-MEN movies one bit. Why do we keep falling into the same narrative traps for actresses like we've done for decades and decades?
winter's bone was released in 2010, so her breakthrough, ascension, superstardom, fall from the dizzying heights and [very brief] hiatus has all been crammed into a single decade
and she's not even thirty
[i've wasted my life]
I like her. Her best performance is mother! (though I haven't seen Winter's Bone). Thought she was terrific in Silver Linings. Carried the Hunger Game films well even if the films themselves are uneven and should have just been a trilogy. Her off screen persona is fun to me in general though that SAG press room debacle in which she was so rude to the reporters really was unacceptable. I couldn't get into Red Sparrow at all. She was wasted in Xmen, though those films in general are a snooze. I can barely remember Joy except thinking she was good. Anyway I am curious to see what she does next. It was good to have some space as she was overexposed.
cal roth: I'm pretty sure she won't be the last movie star. We have to hope there'll be another!
Glenn: I mean, okay, but when more conventional stuff like Passengers and Red Sparrow is ALSO barely breaking even? And I'm not even saying that JLaw actually being a star (she's magnetic enough to be one, but hasn't sold a movie without brand recognition or Oscar Hype) would turn those into monster hits. Passengers? JLaw as Star: $400 million. Actual Reality: $300 million. mother!? JLaw as Star: $80-90 million. Actual reality: $44 million. Red Sparrow? JLaw as Star: $200 million. Actual reality: $151 million. Just mother! could be dismissed as a fluke. All three of those attempts, back to back to back? Yeah, I almost think her career would be in a healthier place if they all failed HARDER. Trying to figure out how to bounce back from being box office poison could put fire in an actor's belly. Trying to figure how to bounce back from being box office NyQuil is...how do you fix that?
I love her, and I love her specially in American Hustle. She's so arresting and magnetic that we forget she's miscast. I love her old school star wattage. She's the last movie STAR.
Julia Roberts is. Argue with your mama if you don't like that fact. The media machinery of now doesn't hold the weight of no social media and old Hollywood giving cosigns. Jack Nicholson will always be generous to fresh face starlets. But K Hepburn liked Julia when she despised Streep.
She is fab in Winter’s Bone and in The Burning Plan and I like her in Hunger Games. Her Oscar win was, mmm, generous but she brought a good energy in David O Russell’s films, it’s a pity her encounters with Bier and Aronofsky didn’t work at various levels. Her public persona hasn’t always been lovable but if some movies didn’t work it wasn’t strictly her fault. Her new projects got potential but it’s a pity there are no news about Burial Rites, to which at one point was attached Mastro Guadagnino,
Bad Blood is a fascinating book and I look forward to seeing what she does with the role.
Her best performance was in mother!
Despite her undeserved Oscar win for SLP I really think she deserved her nod for American Hustle and was deserving one for Mother! Jennifer Lawrence reminds me of Hollywood's 90's movie stars like Julia Roberts or Sharon Stone, Lawrence can sparkle and grab the audience like Roberts and Stone have done, when she's on fire she burns bright ( American Hustle, Mother!) and she can be the, well, silver lining of mediocre films (Joy, Passangers); I am glad she's back.
I like Jennifer, and I think that she is one of the best actresses. To my mind, all her roles are awesome and interesting, but Katniss Everdeen is in my heart. Actually, I'm a fan of the Hunger Games, both books and movies. I've even written my college project with the help of https://phdessay.com/free-essays-on/hunger-games/ resource about this story. There is no doubt that this character has pushed her career and make her A category celebrity.
I appreciate her talent very much. Hope she will join this famous geometry dash online project.