Despite Jennifer Lawrence being an accomplished comedic performer, her career is more synonymous with performances in landmark action and drama movies. She garnered her first Oscar nomination for the coming-of-age drama Winter's Bone at the age of just 20, before becoming one of Hollywood’s biggest stars via the Hunger Games and X-Men franchises. Throughout the 2010s, she also became known for taking on challenging dramatic roles, such as her Oscar-winning turn as Tiffany Maxwell in Silver Linings Playbook, and the eponymous character in Darren Aronofsky’s Mother!. That’s why the new direction Lawrence’s career seems to be taking is so exciting.
Since her portrayal of Kate Dibiasky in Netflix’s 2021 political satire Don’t Look Up, Lawrence has concentrated on acting in movies with a darkly comic bent. For more than a decade after Lawrence’s sitcom role in The Bill Engvall Show ended, she didn’t star in anything remotely comedic, leaving aside the off-kilter humor of her three David O. Russell collaborations. It was Engvall’s sitcom that originally brought her to the attention of Hollywood, yet no director except Russell seemed to notice her comic potential. That all changed just over three years ago, with the help of Adam McKay.
Die, My Love Will Continue Jennifer Lawrence's Dark Comedy Trend
The Actor Returned To Comedies After More Than A Decade In 2021
McKay’s pitch-black satire Don’t Look Up was the second-biggest movie release of Netflix’s 14-year history as a streaming platform at the time. Suddenly, Lawrence’s brash sense of humor was there for all to see. Don’t Look Up began a winning streak of comedy roles for the actor, which continued in 2023 with the raunchy R-rated movie No Hard Feelings. But her next performance will be even more darkly comic than the role she played in either of these films.
Lynne Ramsey’s upcoming horror movie Die, My Love deals with the topic of postpartum depression by injecting some black humor into its story. It remains to be seen exactly how the film will manage to make light of such a serious subject in a sensitive manner. Still, the subject matter itself isn’t much darker than the apocalyptic climate crisis of Don’t Look Up, or the anxiety-ridden sexual dysfunction of No Hard Feelings.
Postpartum depression is a harrowing experience for any woman who goes through it, but striking the right note of humor with a subject of such gravity can actually shed new light on the experience. If anyone can strike this note in Die, My Love then it’s surely Jennifer Lawrence, whose comedy roles on the big screen have it all, including aspects of pain and pathos.
No Hard Feelings And Don't Look Up Demonstrate Lawrence's Comedic Range
The Two Characters She Plays Are Polar Opposites
Lawrence’s last two comedic performances alone demonstrate just how prepared she is for the challenge. Dibiasky, her sincere and straight-talking scientist, plays wonderfully against the willfully ignorant politicians and business leaders who hold the keys to humanity’s salvation. If all of Don’t Look Up’s characters are based on real people, then Lawrence is portraying Greta Thunberg in a room with Donald Trump and Elon Musk. She copes admirably with the task of being the wise young adult in the room opposite Meryl Streep and Mark Rylance.
In No Hard Feelings, meanwhile, Lawrence plays a human car crash – quite literally at one point – who struggles to guide a younger sexual partner into adulthood. It’s a polar opposite performance from Don’t Look Up, showing just how far the actor can push her comedy when required. It’s actually her comic performances that have cemented Jennifer Lawrence’s status as one of the finest actors of her generation. If she puts in another convincing performance in Die, My Love, then her dark comedy could continue for the remainder of the decade.
