The 10 Funniest Female Performances From the Past 5 Years
With Bridesmaids out now and Bad Teacher set to premiere later this summer, the conventional wisdom goes like this: We're living in a time when comic actresses are finally appreciated, honed, and challenged. They're not resigned to wifely roles or pally Judy Greer-types; they're hilarious as full-fledged protagonists who deservedly wield top-billing. This is why conventional wisdom is often a problem.
For all the funny women in film who've made their mark in the past five years, it's fair to say that women starred in better (read: funnier) films in the '60s, '70s, and '80s. There's no contemporary parallel for Barbra Streisand, Madeline Kahn, Cloris Leachman, Diane Keaton, or even Goldie Hawn (if you consider the critical respect still paid to much of her work). Bridesmaids may signal a comeback, but I hope it makes theatergoers consider that beyond the ten hilarious female performances of the past five years that are listed below, women still need more of a big-screen comic presence. That said, these ten are damn funny.
10. Emily Blunt as Emily Charlton in The Devil Wears Prada
Whether she's playing Queen Victoria or a ballet dancer in The Adjustment Bureau, Blunt exhibits a steely cool that often gives way to immense vulnerability. In The Devil Wears Prada, her steely steel gives way only to more steel, before we watch her crumble after a car accident. She may not eat, but Emily Charlton has spunk -- which is edifying enough. (Skip to 7:58 for some Blunt Prada goodness.)
9. Amy Poehler as Angie Ostrowski in Baby Mama
The Upright Citizens Brigade alum has been funnier -- Regina George's velour-festooned mother in Mean Girls, anyone? -- but Amy Poehler's no-frills performance as a trashy, sink-peeing surrogate makes you happy that women still "go there" for comedy. It's what SNL matriarch Gilda Radner ordained!
8. Frances McDormand as Linda Litzke in Burn After Reading
Sporting a blonde haircut inspired by Linda Tripp's post-Lewinsky makeover, Frances McDormand plays a woman who decides, "I've gotten about as far as this body can take me," and undergoes plastic surgery treatments on nearly every square-inch of her body. She's always been a whiz with earnestly audacious roles, bu McDormand is possibly the funniest, most poignant character actress of her generation.
7. Kristen Wiig as Jill in Knocked Up
In just a couple of quick scenes, Kristen Wiig undermines Katherine Heigl's budding E! anchor character to the point of disbelief. Her weight-loss instructions for Heigl -- "We would just like it if you go home and step on the scale, and write down how much you weigh, and subtract it by like, 20. And then weigh that much" -- comprise the funniest single line of dialogue in the past five years.
6. Anna Faris as Shelley Darlington in The House Bunny
She may be one of Hef's ingenues, but Shelley Darlington is a candid, sometimes-Exorcist-voiced loon with optimism aplenty. If Anna Faris could pull off "funny" in the Scary Movie franchise -- which, I'm still shocked to say, she could -- then a bawdy, ridiculous role like The House Bunny should be comparably effortless for her. It certainly seemed that way to me.
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Comments
Great list! Honorable mention- Ari Graynor in "Nick and Nora."
YES to Faris in Smiley Face. She's unbelievably good in that. I could only hope she got better projects.
Also loved Mila Kunis's five minutes in "Date Night."
YES!
Far more deserving than Leslie Mann in Funny People.
I'm telling you that Ari Graynor was NEXT on my list. But come now, Winch! Leslie Mann!
Faris was also perfect in Just Friends, an underrated comedy (I dare say).
Mann is a wonderful actress, and that's a great SCENE in Funny People, but it comes at, like, the two hour ten minute mark in the movie after a series of very unfunny choices her character has made at that point.
Though not in the article's time frame, her 5 minutes in 40 Year Old Virgin are far funnier.
None of that was very funny.
what about penelope cruz in Vicky Christina? also alison pill totally steals her scenes in Scott Pilgrim.
Mann was too "I'm Judd's awesome wife with awesome kids" in Funny People while Graynor was too broad for Nick and Nora.
I still think Baby Mama has the most irritating poster ever (behind The Brothers Solomon). Sorry Tina and Amy.
lol
The only one I agree with is Emily Blunt in TDWP.
Couldn't agree more with the #1. Also:
Tilda Swinton in "Burn After Reading"
Meryl Streep in "Julie & Julia" and "A Prairie Home Companion"
Anna Kendrick in "Up in the Air"
Helena Bonham Carter in "The King's Speech"
Anjelica Huston in "The Darjeeling Limited"
. Amy Poehler in anything, and Jane Lynch. what about Tina Fey ...
yes it is good to see the female comics getting recognised
As The Winchester pointed out, 40 Year Old Virgin is not within the past 5 years, but I thought Elizabeth Banks was hilarious in that movie. She's pretty much hilarious in everything (when it's called for).
Leslie Mann’s turn in Funny People — where she tries on every accent from Jamaican to British to cockney and does them all shockingly badly. I'm not even sure she's trying to do a bunch oof different accents there. More like she's trying to do one accent and it keeps going horribly wrong in different ways.
Leslie Mann? Really?
THANK YOU.
She grates. I'm more than a little tired of Judd floating her career.
Really Ellen Page in Juno? God, that has to be one of the most overrated movies of all time. I honestly have no idea what people saw in that movie and Ellen Page.
These b!tches fail in comparison to Betty White.
Kristen Bell in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall."
Juno in higher spot than olive?? what`s wrong with you, Juno was a spoiled stuck up hipster little brat. Everytime she appeared on screen and talked i could feel my ears bleeding. She wasn`t funny, she was a pretentious bitch so full of herself that you couldn`t imagine a realistic scenario where you could have a conversation with someone like her without it ending with you slapping her accross the face. Olive was a loveable character, and a hilarious one for that matter, and yeah she was a smartass too, but she didn`t took herself as serious as the pertentious Juno did, she was goofie and awesome.
Amen to that, the single most anooying character ever. That movie was just hipster pretentiousness
What is really interesting about that list is that of all the performances you chose, NONE OF THEM are funny.
Which shouldn't be surprising, really. Since women aren't funny. Period!
tina fey is over-rated but funny. amy poehler is adam sandler in drag. so highly over-rated and there is nothing worse than a comic actress/actor who admires their own "talent" more then the audience. she's annoying and sucks. and the only reason she and jimmy fallon have careers is thanks to adam sandler's unbelieveable ability to make a nation of idiots think a mediocre baby talking moron is the height of comedic genius. just serves to prove how stupid the average american has become. poehler should have been left off of this list. i can think of at least three different performances from BRIDESMAIDS that are funnier then all of her work combined. with the one exception . her to the tee imitation of chris walken. now that was genius. as far as firebrand's comment goes, i guess someone didnt get enough attention from mommy.
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