Why are Natalie Portman's movies so hit-and-miss?

[filmfanatic Joined: Mar 29th, 2020 Topics: 14 Posts: 13 View Predictions]

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So of course she’s had great films like Black Swan, Jackie, Closer, Annihilation, Leon, and V for Vendetta. But what is it with most of her other movies? It’s so odd to me. Lately she’s had Lucy in the Sky, Planetarium, Vox Lux, Song to Song, The Death and Life of John F. Donovan, all of which bombed critically and commercially, and in the past she’s had many mediocre to okay films like Star Wars. Can anyone explain this or conjecture?

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[loudtoilet Joined: Feb 19th, 2020 Topics: 0 Posts: 1708 View Predictions]

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Annihilation is garbage. It’s aSy Fy movie of the week quality with a twist that you could see from the start. No wonder it flopped. Also, Poo Dumberon was God-awful in it. Phoned in paycheck colleting performance.

her ratio of good/bad is pretty good. All actors are hit and miss. Her resume is far from worst because those bad movies just turned out bad, they weren’t trash to begin with. Honorable failures. It isn’t like she signed up for Norbit, any of Adam sandler paycheckers, other lowest common denominator.

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[filmfanatic Joined: Mar 29th, 2020 Topics: 14 Posts: 13 View Predictions]

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But why is her filmography hit-and-miss? That’s my question.

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[FairWeatherAffair Joined: May 11th, 2018 Topics: 4 Posts: 489 View Predictions]

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Almost every project she picks is interesting; sometimes audiences and critics don’t like interesting, though. Death and Life is not good, but it’s also challenging; Planetarium and Vox Lux are actually solid flicks; and Song to Song and the Star Wars prequels are all masterpieces.

As for general consensus, what can you say? Some people don’t enjoy out-of-the-box fare.

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[Faux architect Joined: Mar 29th, 2017 Topics: 1 Posts: 182 View Predictions]

#1203483082

She makes bold choices because she wants to work with auteurs. Kidman had some periods like that too.

Pantheon of acting: Uta / Elizabeth / Richard / Sandy (Virginia Woolf), Bibi / Liv (Persona), Sandrine (La Ceremonie), Brie (Short Term 12), Jodie (Silence of the Lambs), Jodie (Killing Eve), Nicole (The Others), Eva (Penny Dreadful), Timothée (CMBYN), Lupita (Us)

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[Joined: Jan 1st, 1970 Topics: 23 Posts: 1813 View Predictions]

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This post was found to be inappropriate by the moderators and has been removed.

[BICTH Joined: Nov 3rd, 2016 Topics: 0 Posts: 704 View Predictions]

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it’s not her fault that her taste in projects is more challenging than the average audience and critics can handle

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[Carlos Joined: Oct 8th, 2011 Topics: 2 Posts: 165 View Predictions]

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I like her in Vox Lux, Planetarium, Annihilation even Lucy in the Sky for wich she received great reviews for those performances unlike annihilation the orhers flopped She’s someone who likes to take risks she thinks outside of the box and the projects she choose to work on reflect just that wich I like that about her she challenges herself…

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[loudtoilet Joined: Feb 19th, 2020 Topics: 0 Posts: 1708 View Predictions]

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FairWeatherAffair wrote:

   the Star Wars prequels are all masterpieces.

Preach!

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[Dan Backslide Joined: Apr 24th, 2016 Topics: 45 Posts: 3250 View Predictions]

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FairWeatherAffair wrote:

Star Wars prequels are all masterpieces.

Shitty memes don’t make films masterpieces.

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[M: The Original Joined: Aug 5th, 2014 Topics: 8 Posts: 1025 View Predictions]

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filmfanatic wrote:

But why is her filmography hit-and-miss? That’s my question.

Tackling provocative and challenging material will have more misses than hits. See Nicole Kidman as another example of someone taking the road with the steepest drops in critical acclaim and audience approval for the sake of art.

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[FairWeatherAffair Joined: May 11th, 2018 Topics: 4 Posts: 489 View Predictions]

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Dan Backslide wrote:

Shitty memes don’t make films masterpieces.

Oh ok. Opinion changed.

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[Dan Backslide Joined: Apr 24th, 2016 Topics: 45 Posts: 3250 View Predictions]

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FairWeatherAffair wrote:

Oh ok. Opinion changed.

Whatever. If you can explain how films containing excessive cgi, boring politics, Jar Jar Binks, and one of the worst written cinematic love stories are masterpieces, I’d love to hear your reasoning behind why those elements are apparently so great. I’m not even a big prequel hater, but they are, at the very least, extremely flawed.

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[vinny Joined: May 20th, 2011 Topics: 21 Posts: 20065 View Predictions]

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I kinda love how she does so many different kinds of roles since you never can guess what’s next.

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[Faux architect Joined: Mar 29th, 2017 Topics: 1 Posts: 182 View Predictions]

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Dan Backslide wrote:

Whatever. If you can explain how films containing excessive cgi, boring politics, Jar Jar Binks, and one of the worst written cinematic love stories are masterpieces, I’d love to hear your reasoning behind why those elements are apparently so great. I’m not even a big prequel hater, but they are, at the very least, extremely flawed.

The prequels sounded extremely good on paper. If someone had read to me a summary of the script, I’d have jumped right in. I mean, it sounds like a critically acclaimed space opera with political themes. It’s just that the result was what it was.

Pantheon of acting: Uta / Elizabeth / Richard / Sandy (Virginia Woolf), Bibi / Liv (Persona), Sandrine (La Ceremonie), Brie (Short Term 12), Jodie (Silence of the Lambs), Jodie (Killing Eve), Nicole (The Others), Eva (Penny Dreadful), Timothée (CMBYN), Lupita (Us)

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