The Best Movie Ever | Charlize Theron

Charlize Theron, former model, now the very model of a modern major movie star. A respected actress with a well-deserved Oscar on her mantle, a kick-ass action hero with multiple blockbusters to her name. Charlize Theron may be one of the most well-rounded lead actors in the world, but that just makes our job harder this week, because we’ve got to look at her entire filmography and decide – once and for all – what is her best movie ever?

Our regular panel of judges is here, and as always they only get to pick one film to represent our subject’s finest work. So buckle up, people. Crave’s William Bibbiani and Witney Seibold, and Collider’s Brian Formo are here to take you on a sight-seeing tour of Charlize Theron’s greatest work. And this time, they’ve managed to narrow it down to just two candidates: the movie that won Theron an Academy Award, and a film that just about everyone agrees should have earned her a nomination (but didn’t).

Take a closer look below, and come back next Wednesday for another, all-new, highly debatable installment of Crave’s The Best Movie Ever!

Also: The ‘Gone Girl’ Follow-Up That Nobody’s Talking About

Witney Seibold’s Pick: Monster (2003)

Newmarket Films

The sad and violent saga of Eileen Wuornos had already been thoroughly recorded in several books and documentary films before the release of Patty Jenkins’ Monster. Wuornos was a tortured human being, having been abused and assaulted by many people over the years. She eventually broke down and murdered several men in Florida, where she was eventually apprehended, tried, and executed. She was clearly mentally ill (as one can see in Nick Broomfield’s film Aileen: The Life and Death of a Serial Killer), but she was executed nonetheless. The documentaries, for however great they are, view Wuornos from a distant eye. 

In Monster,  we’re given a more intimate view of the woman, her tortures, and most importantly her romantic longing. Aileen sought a real human connection in her life, and struggled painfully to find it. She would eventually find a brief loving respite in the arms of a sympathetic girlfriend (played in the movie by Christina Ricci), but that didn’t dampen the oddly insistent inner urge toward violence. 

Monster is a psychologically accurate film about the way criminals feel and think, and doesn’t once let us off the hook by declaring she’s an alien or an “other.” That sympathy wouldn’t be possible without Charlize Theron’s Academy Award-winning performance, where she captures the look, the movement, the tics, and the sadness of Wuornos. It is her most convincing, her deepest, her toughest, and her best performance, and it comes from a striking and exhilaratingly tragic film. 

William Bibbiani’s Pick: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Warner Bros.

If you were lucky enough to watch a film called 2 Days in the Valley when it premiered 20 years ago, then you probably remember seeing a young Charlize Theron, in her first real role, beating the hell out of Teri Hatcher and stealing every scene. She was astoundingly attractive and yet her true appeal was in her force of personality. Here was a movie star, in the making, who could also fucking act.

And then two things happened: she became a movie star, and she acted. As a movie star, Theron often floundered in roles that were beneath her talent. Mighty Joe Young, Sweet November, Aeon Flux, the less said about these films the better. As an actress, Theron soared in Oscar-winning and nominated roles (Monster, North Country) and elevated lesser material (Prometheus, Snow White and the Huntsman). But there were no excellent films that gave her an opportunity to capitalize on all that charisma and also give her something meaty to work with, until Mad Max: Fury Road.

I’ve written a lot about Mad Max: Fury Road but I believe I probably summed it up best in the title to my original review: “Holy Fucking Shit.” We all knew that George Miller could turn out a great action sequence, but to do so with as much eye-catching detail was a revelation. As Imperator Furiosa, Charlize Theron doesn’t steal Max’s movie, she hijacks it. She takes Max’s story and makes it a footnote in her own, a more impactful tale of oppression and rebellion. Feminism, politics, strength out of frailty and vice-versa. Miller packs an enormous amount of the human experience into a car chase, for crying out loud, and Theron is the woman driving at the front, taking us all with her. Her force of personality is finally matched by a film that’s just as powerful, one that capitalizes on her expert acting and gives her a role that deserves her.

Yes, Monster is great. But Mad Max: Fury Road is undeniable.

Brian Formo’s Pick: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Warner Bros.

After becoming a movie star, Charlize Theron has reinvented herself many times in her career via methods that we usually applaud our leading men for: for altering her physical appearance when required, for getting dirty, for playing someone unlikeable, and for kicking more ass the older they get. She’s a swiss army knife. But Furiosa is the character that got all the utilities out. 

Previously on The Best Movie Ever:

Top Photo: Warner Bros. / Newmarket Films