Aubrey Plaza has become quite the star after a very successful 2022. Her performance in the second season of The White Lotus has garnered her quite a bit of attention. She has already secured a role in the MCU’s sequel to WandaVision, Agatha: Coven of Chaos. While some people are just now coming around to Plaza’s star power, others have known just how talented she is for years. She has wowed in performances in the likes of Parks and Recreation, Legion, and even CollegeHumor classics like the Daria Movie Trailer and Troopers.
While she is known primarily as a television star, that hasn’t stopped her from earning quite the IMDb page full of film roles. In fact, most of her film performances have flown under the radar. These include small roles in hilarious films, memorable roles in terrible films, and starring roles in excellent films few people actually saw. Here are ten of the best Aubrey Plaza performances, ranked!
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10 Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World
Universal Pictures
A talented character actor has to be able to wow audiences in small roles that amount to mere seconds of the film’s runtime. All the best character actors from John Candy to Jack Black have managed to stun audiences in only a few scenes. So it’s no surprise that Plaza has managed to do the same. She plays the foul-mouthed Julie Powers who has absolutely no patience for Michael Cera’s Scott Pilgrim in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Nor does she have any problem telling him so in explicit language that the movie hilariously bleeps out. The movie has a ton of hilarious performances from the likes of Chris Evans, Brandon Routh, Brie Larson, Kieran Culkin, and Jason Schwartzman. Still, Plaza manages to earn that laugh with only a handful of partially-bleeped lines.
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What’s truly special about this is that the entire cast reunited for a table read of the film, and each of them were still perfect in the role, Plaza included.
9 Happiest Season
Hulu
Happiest Season very nearly achieved the impossible by becoming a progressive Christmas classic. The film centers on Kristen Stewart’s Abby meeting her girlfriend Harper’s conservative parents. The twist is that Abby has to pretend to just be Harper’s friend instead of her girlfriend. The relationship between the two characters was a point of instant controversy for those hoping to see a new kind of Christmas film. Stewart and Mackenzie Davis have little chemistry between the two of them, making it hard to root for the pair.
Aubrey Plaza comes in playing Harper’s ex, Riley, who had to go through the same thing Abby did. So this makes the two instant comrades. Audiences were immediately drawn to the undeniable chemistry Plaza and Stewart had in the film. The true Christmas classic fans wanted would’ve happened if the film followed up on this chemistry, letting Riley and Abby leave the narcissistic Harper behind and enjoy Christmas with a new relationship. Perhaps another film will come along and make up for this crime.
8 Funny People
There is an alternate universe out there where Plaza didn’t get her start as an NBC page turned sitcom star in Parks and Recreation. In that universe, Plaza takes her trademark sardonic wit to dusty stages in crowded bars as a standup comic. She would find huge success leading Netflix to fill up with her comedy specials. The only look we have at this alternate universe is the Judd Apatow film Funny People.
Aubrey Plaza plays Daisy, a comic who befriends and later romances Seth Rogen’s Ira. Sure, this film is mostly about Rogen and Adam Sandler dealing with mortality, Hollywood, and lost loves, but the true breakout presence of the film is Plaza. Her few, brief standup performances show that there was an entire career that could’ve been…
7 Dirty Grandpa
Lionsgate
There’s no getting around it, Dirty Grandpa is a truly terrible film. It’s a tragic showing of a once-great actor, Robert De Niro, who has completely sold out and will take any disgusting role that offers him a big enough paycheck. There really is very little about the film that is redeemable in any way. That is, aside from Aubrey Plaza’s delightfully unhinged performance as Lenore. Plaza was famously offered the role of Zac Efron’s love interest which she heartily turned down in favor of being De Niro’s wild old man chasing romantic partner.
Evidently her performance in the film was so wild that De Niro actually requested that she turn it down a notch. From interviews, it seems like this awkward moment is one of the highlights of her career. That tells you all you need to know about Aubrey Plaza.
6 Safety Not Guaranteed
FilmDistrict
Every star who worked through the 2000s needs to have at least one great indie film that pretty much no one has ever seen. For Aubrey Plaza, that film is Safety Not Guaranteed. She plays a journalist who follows up on an ad from a would-be time traveler who is looking for company with one of his experiments. He warns people away, saying “Safety not guaranteed”. This detail is what attracts a gang of journalists to chase the story and find much more than they bargained for.
It’s impossible to discuss this film without giving away any of its twists, but needless to say, it’s one of those indie films of a different age of filmmaking that offers subversive surprises and quiet character moments that films don’t offer much anymore.
5 Child’s Play
United Artists
Every actress needs at least one chance to play a true horror final girl. Aubrey Plaza got her chance in the remake of Child’s Play which featured a different take on Chucky where he was a deranged robot instead of a possessed doll. Plaza plays a down on her luck single mother who buys he troubled child the worst possible present she could. The doll ends up trying to destroy her in a few truly thrilling sequences of complete terror. This film may not have made her a true Scream Queen yet, but it showed that she definitely has the chops for it.
For what it’s worth, the horror hit M3GAN and Allison Williams stole the thunder of Child’s Play and Aubrey Plaza. Even if M3GAN is the better film, there’s no denying how much it takes from the Child’s Play remake.
4 Black Bear
Momentum Pictures
Anyone who is a fan of the fierce relationship drama seen in The White Lotus or the subversive twists of Legion should check out the bizarre Aubrey Plaza film Black Bear. The movie spins in and out of plot lines and realities like a David Lynch movie from the early 2000s. It’s a bizarre exploration of infidelity, jealousy, lust, writing, and filmmaking all centered on a cabin by the lake and the titular black bear that is waiting at the end.
Plaza’s involvement in this bizarre film shows where her interests lie as an actor. She will forever be driven to the bizarre, avant gard roles that give her a chance to explore terrifying realities. It seems inevitable that Plaza will make another Black Bear in the very near future.
3 The Little Hours
Some films have a premise that is so funny that you laugh just thinking about it. Aubrey Plaza playing a violent, repressed nun in The Little Hours is a brilliant piece of casting. Literally every scene with her as Sister Fernanda is hilarious. She frenetically bounces from scene to scene with a violent, unhinged fervor. The film has a cast that includes Dave Franco, Alison Brie, John C. Reilly, Molly Shannon, Kate Micucci, Fred Armisen, Adam Pally, Paul Reiser, and Nick Offerman. As far as comedies go, it is hard to find a bigger all star cast. So the fact that Aubrey Plaza absolutely steals this movie in every single scene that she’s in is truly impressive.
Anyone who is a fan of black comedies and Aubrey Plaza needs to find this movie as soon as humanly possible.
2 Ingrid Goes West
Neon
Every good actor needs a character-driven film where they can really stretch their legs with a meaty role. Robert De Niro had Taxi Driver, Joaquin Phoenix had Joker, and Aubrey Plaza had Ingrid Goes West. This is the ultimate thriller for the influencer generation. The film centers around the titular Ingrid who is a complete social outcast. She becomes obsessed with one of her favorite influencers, played brilliantly by Elizabeth Olsen. Her obsession drives her to move closer to the influencer, and she orchestrates a series of schemes to become embroiled in her life. Things spiral out of control as she starts to succeed in her goal, only to discover that the life of an influencer isn’t as lovely as it appears to be in an iPhone.
This is the epitome of Plaza’s quirky, creepy characters. All of her skills that she amassed over a career of being the strangest girl in the room are on full display. Ingrid is still one of her finest performances, and a personal favorite of nearly everyone who has worked on it. Even O’Shea Jackson Jr. has called out his role as Ingrid’s Batman-obsessed friend as his favorite of all time.
1 Emily the Criminal
Vertical Entertainment
There’s no mistaking that Plaza’s star is on the rise. She is trying to rise out of sitcom stardom and indie movie darling stardom to becoming a big time movie star. Plaza’s big swing towards achieving a new level of notoriety is Emily the Criminal. She stars in this nail-biting crime thriller where an innocent woman gets slowly seduced into a criminal enterprise before inevitably biting off far more than she can chew.
Not only is this the best film that Plaza has done so far, but it shows that she has a lot of talent as a leading lady. What truly makes this role notable is that Emily is a fairly normal person, not a quirky character like most of her other notable roles. This proves all the naysayers wrong who simply think that Plaza’s talents include Kubrick stare and a few quirky quips without much else. This film proves that she is a proper star who is likely destined to win an Academy Award when the right role comes along. Judging from how people have gushed over her role in this film and The White Lotus, it’s likely that those phone calls are coming in right now.
