Top 5 Jennifer Lawrence Movies You Should Watch

Since bursting onto the scene with 2010’s Winter’s Bone, Academy Award winner Jennifer Lawrence has proved to be an actress of unparalleled talent. From a sultry spy to a down-on-her luck waitress, her movie portfolio showcases her range and talent as an actor.

The film that first made everyone take notice of her acting chops, Silver Linings Playbook is one of Lawrence’s finest roles. She delivers a performance that is both believable and inspiring.

1. Winter’s Bone

In this gripping drama, Jennifer Lawrence gives a remarkable performance as Ree Dolly, a poverty-stricken teenager living in the Ozark woods of Missouri. When she learns her drug-dealing father put the family home up as collateral and then disappeared, Ree is left to care for her catatonic mother and two younger siblings. Her only hope is to track down her father and save the family from eviction. But she must challenge her outlaw kin’s code of silence to do so.

Directed by Debra Granik (Down to the Bone), Winter’s Bone takes us into the dark underbelly of small-town life in the US Midwest. But despite its gritty material and run-down setting, the movie never wallows in poverty or despair. Instead, it’s a powerful tale of survival and resiliency that’s driven by Jennifer Lawrence’s unflinching performance as Ree.

2. Silver Linings Playbook

Adapted from Matthew Quick’s novel, Silver Linings Playbook is a one-of-a-kind comedy about love and second chances. Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence both give Academy Award-caliber performances in this heartwarming film.

In the movie, Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) is suffering from bipolar disorder and recently returned home from a psychiatric hospital after eight months. His life has hit rock bottom — he lost his house and his wife, and now lives with his parents (Jacki Weaver and Robert De Niro) and their over-zealous support for the Philadelphia Eagles. But he tries to stay positive and remain optimistic, even if that means deluding himself into thinking his separated wife will come back to him someday.

3. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire

Almost exactly one year after the events of The Hunger Games, President Snow invites Katniss Everdeen and Peeta Mellark to partake in the 75th anniversary celebration of the Games. He has a surprise in store: instead of choosing new contestants for the annual event, he will resurrect Peeta and Katniss for another round of deadly competition.

While the premise feels very similar to The Hunger Games, there’s more than enough here to give this installment its own identity. Director Francis Lawrence brings an increased sense of urgency to the proceedings, and his reliance on claustrophobic set-pieces like a harrowing sequence featuring vicious, mutated monkeys is particularly effective.

4. Mother!

Taking on this demanding and intense film was a risky move for Lawrence, but it paid off with a career-defining performance. The film centers on Ree, a young woman who is forced to care for her mentally-ill mother and two young siblings while attempting to keep her meth-cooking father off the streets. Lawrence carries the film with power, intensity and vulnerability, bringing to life a deeply moving story that is as heartbreaking as it is empowering.

While not the most high-brow film on this list, it’s a fascinating movie that explores how women are still viewed by society, and how they often get trampled over by men. Lawrence delivers a powerful performance as the titular character, a poet who lives in an incredible house with her husband (Javier Bardem). When uninvited guests begin to arrive at their home, things quickly start spiraling out of control.

5. No Hard Feelings

After a long hiatus, Jennifer Lawrence returned to the big screen in Darren Aronofsky’s mother!, which divided critics and audiences alike. The ibomma film was one of the rare ones to earn an F CinemaScore, and it certainly wasn’t pleasant viewing for anyone in attendance, but Lawrence gave a performance that made it worth sitting through the brutality. She was able to express as much in her silences as she did with her screams, and she showed that she can make you feel just as emotionally hurt by her words as you would be by the bloodshed onscreen.

It’s been a while since we’ve seen Lawrence in a studio comedy, but that changed with the release of No Hard Feelings. The R-rated movie was directed and co-written by Good Boys director Gene Stupnitsky, who also wrote the script for Bad Teacher. Lawrence stars as Maddie, a commitment-phobic screwup who answers an ad from wealthy helicopter parents looking for someone to date their introverted 19-year-old son before he heads off to college.