We rank the 5 best Jennifer Lawrence performances that highlight her versatility and unforgettable screen work.
Jennifer Lawrence rose to prominence with a Best Actress Oscar at just 22 and a starring role in a major franchise. In recent years, she’s taken deliberate pauses in her career, selecting roles that challenge her range; from awards-season dramas to biting comedies, Lawrence has proven herself a fearless performer. With Die, My Love hitting theatres this month, here are her 5 best performances, ranked.
5. The Hunger Games (2012)
Director: Gary Ross
The Hunger Games follows Katniss Everdeen, who volunteers to take her sister’s place in a deadly televised battle where only one can survive. Lawrence grounds the film’s dystopian pageantry with a performance of remarkable control and conviction. Burdened by the weight of survival, Katniss is also fiercely protective of her family, determined to ensure their safety regardless of the games’ outcome. Lawrence captures the duality of a frightened teenage girl and a young woman forced to harden under the circumstances.
4. Silver Linings Playbook (2012)
Director: David O’Russell
In Silver Linings Playbook, Lawrence earned her first Academy Award with her performance as Tiffany, a woman grappling with the aftermath of her husband’s death. Her life is unsettled—until she meets Pat (Bradley Cooper), another lost soul whose chaos mirrors her own. Opposite Cooper’s volatile Pat, Lawrence provides both contrast and complement: unpredictable yet deeply empathetic, her wit masking the ache and loneliness. She embodies the complexities of navigating grief, desire, and self-worth.
3. Die, My Love (2025)
Director: Lynne Ramsay
Throughout Die, My Love, Lawrence balances humour, depression, and mania without ever tipping into excess. She plays Grace, a new mum wrestling with the crushing weight of her own mind after childbirth, her desolation threatening to engulf everyone around her. The film serves as a striking exploration of postpartum depression and the misogyny that often accompanies it. While the story veers into volatility, Lawrence shines in the quiet, internalised moments: the stillness between outbursts, the flicker of awareness in her eyes. Lawrence renders a haunting portrait of a mind in flux.
2. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013)
Director: Francis Lawrence
Following the first film, Catching Fire thrusts Katniss back into the arena, igniting rebellion across the districts. Lawrence embodies a more hardened, battle-worn version of the heroine, delivering perhaps her most memorable turn as Katniss. The film finds Katniss caught between duty and desire, strength and exhaustion, particularly in moments of unexpected intimacy and love. It is here that we truly witness the emergence of a lasting cultural touchstone through Lawrence’s trembling resolve, and growing conviction that mere survival is no longer enough.
1. Mother! (2017)
Director: Darren Aronofsky
Lawrence inhabits the title role with astonishing physical and emotional intensity in Mother! —so taxing it verges on the unbearable. A woman’s peaceful life unravels as her home becomes the site of escalating chaos, testing her sanity in a harrowing, allegorical nightmare. The film’s isolated, claustrophobic setting feels almost suffocating, with Lawrence’s visceral panic seeping through every frame, her mounting anxiety transferring directly to the audience. Her performance doesn’t just depict chaos; it traps you inside of it.