As Freakier Friday is unleashed in theaters nationwide this weekend, it’s time to look at the quietly impressive career of one of its stars, Jamie Lee Curtis.
The veteran actress has worked in the industry since the late 1970s, and she’s made her mark in a variety of genres and movies that include Trading Places with Eddie Murphy, True Lies with Arnold Schwarzenegger and The Last Showgirl with Pamela Anderson.
But which movies are her best? Watch With Us has compiled a list of Curtis’ five best movies ranked by their critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes and included helpful links to where you can stream them.
5. ‘Road Games’ (1981)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 92 percent
Never heard of Road Games? Don’t worry, neither have I — and I’m a diehard Curtis fan! Yet those who have seen the 1981 Australian thriller seem to love it. Curtis stars as Pamela, the daughter of an influential American diplomat who is hitchhiking across the Australian desert.
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She’s picked up by a kindly American truck driver, Pat (Stacey Keach), but they eventually cross paths with a serial killer who has been murdering young women along Pat’s route. Can Pat protect Pamela in time before they reach Perth? Or will their path lead to a final destination neither one will return from?
Road Games is streaming for free on Tubi and Prime Video.
4. ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’ (2022)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 94 percent
Winner of an astonishing seven Oscars, Everything Everywhere All at Once represented a watershed moment in Curtis’ career when she finally gained widespread critical acclaim for a role that, let’s be honest, isn’t all that great. Curtis plays Deirdre Beaubeirdre, a cranky IRS agent who refuses to give the kind but struggling Wang family a loan to save their laundromat.
Curtis won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her work in the film, and that’s probably due more to her body of work than her performance. It’s not bad, but compared to what costars Michelle Yeoh (who won for Best Actress) and Stephanie Hsu (who was nominated and should’ve won) do in the film, it pales in comparison. Still, Curtis is entertaining, and the movie is one of the trippiest — and heartfelt — sci-fi movies in recent years.
Everything Everywhere All at Once is available to rent on Prime Video.
3. ‘A Fish Called Wanda’ (1988)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 96 percent
A Fish Called Wanda is one of the funniest movies ever made. Don’t believe me? Go to a psychic and ask Danish audiologist Ole Bentzen, who died from laughter while watching it. Curtis is sensational as Wanda Gershwitz, a female con artist who helps her boyfriend George (Tom Georgeson) rob a bank so she can backstab him, steal the loot with lover Otto (Kevin Kline) and then betray him so she can have all the money herself. Things get complicated when George hides the money from both of them, and the only way to find out where it is is for Wanda to seduce his barrister, Archie (John Cleese).
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A Fish Called Wanda has a lot of plot, but it has even more laughs as Wanda must deal with Otto’s stupidity and barely contained hatred for all things British. Everyone is at the top of their game in this movie, with Curtis turning in her best comedic performance ever.
A Fish Called Wanda is streaming on Tubi.
2.‘Knives Out’ (2019)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97 percent
Knives Out not only started a franchise that’s still going strong on Netflix, but also made mystery movies great again. Rian Johnson’s clever take on the crime thriller has Curtis playing Linda Drysdale, the daughter of famous mystery writer Harlan Thrombey. When Harlan dies, she and the rest of her shady family are under suspicion. Only master detective Benoit Blac (Daniel Craig) can crack the case, and he has his eyes firmly on Linda, her husband Richard (Don Johnson) and their charismatic son Hugh (Chris Evans).
I’m not going to tell you who did and why, but I will tell you that Curtis makes the most of her supporting role as a controlling woman who has several plausible motives for killing her beloved father. Curtis’ Linda could’ve easily been a cardboard bitch, but the actress makes her a fully rounded character who is stuck in a bad marriage. Is that enough for her to kill? Well, you’ll just have to watch the film and find out.
Knives Out is streaming on Prime Video.
1. ‘Halloween’ (1978)
Rotten Tomatoes score: 97 percent
It’s no surprise to reveal that the film that launched Curtis into Scream Queen stardom is still her best movie to date. For others, that’d be a bad thing to have never topped your debut movie. But Halloween is a film classic that helped birth a new genre: the slasher horror movie, which dominated the industry in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Curtis plays Laurie Strode, a virginal teenager in Haddonfield, Illinois, who is stuck babysitting Tommy Doyle (Brian Andrews) on Halloween night. Laurie’s already on edge after seeing a creepy man in a William Shatner mask around town, so she’s spooked when her best friend Annie (Nancy Loomis), who is also babysitting across the street, mysteriously disappears. Is this another trick in a night full of them? Or is Laurie going to be treated to a night she’ll never forget — or recover from?
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Chances are, you know the answers to those questions already since just about everyone’s seen Halloween. Over 40 years old, the film has lost none of its power, and that’s due to the simple artistry of Curtis’ performance. Her Laurie is innocent but not stupid, and her work here set the gold standard for the genre’s “Final Girl” archetype that’s still being followed to this day.
Halloween is streaming for free on Plex.
