Brie Larsonwas a kid actress, but for most audiences, she was first noticed when she was playing the quirky daughter inUnited States of Tara.Since then, she started taking roles as supporting characters and leads in films, until she became an Academy Award winner. Here are her 10 best films, according toRotten Tomatoesscore.
10Captain Marvel (2019) - 79%
Captain Marvelwas the origin story of one of the most powerful characters in the MCU, played by Larson, as she discovers her past on Earth, and who she was before getting her powers. With great supporting roles from Samuel L. Jackson, Ben Mendelsohn, Jude Law, and Clark Gregg, this film showed us the first time aliens fought on Earth.
Larson’s character spends most of the film as a cipher, but once she learns she is Carol Danvers, a military pilot, with Maria Rambeau (Lashana Lynch) as her best friend, she starts to show a more sarcastic, and genuine side. The actress is able to sell this transformation while also being a badass in her fighting scenes, making for a character whose still important in the MCU, and whose next adventure will happen soon, inThe Marvels.
9Don Jon (2113) - 80%
Don Jonwas Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s directorial debut and tells the story of Jon, a man who goes to the gym every chance he gets, loves his family, and goes to church, but who is also addicted to porn, and is failing to find intimacy with his new girlfriend, Barbara (Scarlett Johansson). Larson plays Jon’s sister, Monica, and spends most of her scenes at family dinners, reacting and looking at her phone.
About her character, who only gets to speak one line,Larson told Elle: “I got to be the true observer the entire time. I worked onDon Jonfor two weeks, but except for that one scene, I didn’t say anything! The best part of my job is getting to listen. I love that. I love getting to fall into what other people are saying and just react. In a way my character is like the audience: She’s in on the joke. When the audience is going, ‘You gotta be kidding me,’ she’s making the same face.”
8Scott Pilgrim vs. the World (2010) - 82%
Scott Pilgrim vs. the Worldis a unique film about love and dating, as Scott (Michael Cera) starts dating Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), and has to fight her seven evil exes to do so. Directed by Edgar Wright, who mixes video games, music videos, fighting genres, and styles with ease, this movie is like no other.
The cast is stacked, from Chris Evans to Aubrey Plaza, Ana Kendrick, Jason Schwartzman, and Larson, whoplays one of the best villains in the film, Envy. She’s Pilgrim’s ex-girlfriend, who has become a pop star, and Larson delights herself in playing a villain with some great quotes, who spits venom and hate in everything she says.
7Trainwreck (2015) - 84%
Judd Apatow has always had a great eye for finding comedians and helping them write and star in a personal movie. It happened with Seth Rogen, Jason Segel, Kumail Nanjiani, and Amy Schumer, who wrote and starred inTrainwreck. The film tells the story of Amy, a one-night-stand, no-commitment-at-all kind of woman, who, after meeting Aaron (Bill Hader), those ideas start to change. Larson plays Amy’s younger sister, the one who looks as if she has everything figured out, as she already has a family, and they spend most of the film angry with each other, because of their different beliefs about their father’s care.
6Just Mercy (2019) - 85%
Adapted from a book of the same name,Just Mercyis a legal drama about a lawyer named Bryan Stevenson (Michael B. Jordan), who moves to the South to help people who can’t afford a good lawyer, where he teams with Eva Ansley (Larson). Their biggest case is Walter “Johnny D.” McMillian (Jamie Foxx), who’s been on death row since he was convicted of murdering an 18-year-old white girl.
This was the third collaboration of the actress with director Destin Daniel Cretton, and although this is Jordan’s movie through and through, Larson gives a great performance as a supporting character who is always there for him. She helps him start this organization, even though her character isn’t a lawyer, and being his sounding board for every idea and discovery he has, while also being tough and morally incorruptible in her own way.
521 Jump Street (2012) - 85%
21 Jump Streetis the remake of the ’80s show where two cops, Jenko (Channing Tatum) and Schmidt (Jonah Hill), go undercover at a high school to stop a drug trafficking ring. The film is one of the funniest Larson has ever been in, as she plays Molly, the high schooler who becomes a romantic interest for Schmidt, as they act together in a play. This isone of Jonah Hill’s best comedies, and the actress proves she can hang out comedically with him and make some great jokes of her own, showing a new talent of hers.
Related:These Are the Best Movies Made From TV Shows
4The Spectacular Now (2013) - 91%
The Spectacular Nowtells a teenage love story between Sutter (Miles Teller), a senior who always has a beer in his hand, and Aimee (Shailene Woodley), the “girl next door” who has much more to offer. The movie shows a love story for the ages, as each member of the couple helps the other one leave some of their worst tendencies and become better, and happier.
Larson plays Cassidy, the girl who starts the film as Sutter’s popular girlfriend before she breaks up with him, and spends the rest of the film in a secondary role that shows they’re still friends. All the acting in the film is very naturalistic, and Larson knows how to work in that environment, so she makes her character much more real and believable than what’s on the page.
Related:Best Brie Larson Movies, Ranked
3Room (2015) - 93%
Roomis a very dark film, that would only work with a great actress as the lead, and Larson’s performance is so good that it earned her her first, and, for now, only Academy Award for Best Actress. The movie hassome of the most intense scenes in movie history, as Ma (Larson) and her son Jack (Jacob Tremblay) live captive in a closed room, one her son has never been outside of.
Larson’s character has to be a great mom while also hiding her kid from the harsh reality in which they find themselves, and the actress conveys perfectly the duality of the love and care she has for Jack, and how desperate and sad she is about their current situation, breaking the audience’s hearts with every gesture, look, and thing she says.
2Avengers: Endgame (2019) - 94%
Avengers: Endgameis the film that closes the first three phases of the MCU, 15 years of films, where the characters have to kill Thanos and bring back all the people he killed five years before. The film has all the Marvel actors in it, and Larson couldn’t miss it, as she’s the one and only Captain Marvel (with a new haircut).
This movie was an incredible feat, even ifsome fans got angry at how the original Avengers ended, and will probably never be repeated. Larson’s Captain Marvel only appears at the start and in the final battle, but she is who changes the battle’s dynamics, and gives the characters hope.
1Short Term 12 (2013) - 98%
Short Term 12tells the story of a couple of supervising staff members in a group home for troubled teenagers. Larson plays one of those supervisors, Grace, who is also dating the other supervising staff member, Mason (Jason Gallagher Jr.). At the center, she bonds with a new arrival, Jayden (Kaitlyn Dever), who reminds her of herself.
Larson is incredible in this movie, as she slowly shows the many layers of Grace, why she works at this center, her closed-off emotional relationship with Mason, and the many things she suffered in her past that still haunt her, even if she’s trying to move past them. The character has a lot of meat on the bone, and Larson showed she was an actor to be reckoned with, in what was her first lead film role.
About the film,Larson told The Guardian: “It was the best script I ever read. Most people think at least half of it is improvised or documentary. They don’t realize that every word is exactly as it’s written.”
