The New Mutants: Anya Taylor-Joy’s 5 Best (& 5 Worst) Movies According To IMDb

Breakout star Anya Taylor-Joy, a character actress known for her convincing performances, has been a name to follow ever since her career-defining appearance in the A24 horror film The Witch. While not her first blockbuster, the Marvel flick The New Mutants seemed to be the next step in growing her brand. Unfortunately, a series of delays and interruptions happened during the film’s production that ultimately doomed the project.

It’s safe to say her path to stardom has been full of ups and downs — her filmography, scattered with entries both shockingly good and frighteningly bad, is evidence of this — but we’re excited to see what she’ll do next.

10 BEST: Emma (2020) – 6.7

Based on novelist Jane Austen’s much-adapted final work, 2020’s Emma (starring a vibrant Taylor-Joy in the titular role) is a period piece with decidedly modern attributes.

The story follows Emma Woodhouse, a wealthy and entrancing social butterfly who attempts to take command of the air of romance encircling her and her Regency-era friends, only to realize that love is not an object to be manipulated for one’s own gain.

9 WORST: Morgan (2016) – 5.8

2016’s Morgan was a well-envisioned but disappointingly inept horror film that, despite its attempts to harken back to a time before 2001: A Space Odyssey — when tales of AI rebellion were more than just a drab cliche — could only veer towards a disappointing payoff that fell flat with discerning audiences.

The film stars Taylor-Joy as Morgan, a nanotech-infused artificial being that, due to its genetic coding, has matured to the level of an above-average teenager despite being just five years old. Lee Weathers, an impersonal behavior expert and “risk-management specialist”, is assigned to prevent the increasingly-claustrophobic Morgan from attempting an escape.

8 BEST: Glass (2019) – 6.7

The third and final entry in the Eastrail 177 saga, M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass at least proved that the infamous director is competent in what he does. The film follows three men who are locked in an institution because they each believe they have superpowers. As they each form their own plans of escape, a psychiatrist attempts to inform them their “powers” are merely illusions.

Whether or not Glass was a fitting fade-to-black for the trilogy became a subjective topic, with critics and audiences oddly polarized by its rollercoaster of a climax. Taylor-Joy, reprising her role from Split, earns her screen time, but her performance is put aside as secondary to those of the leads.

7 WORST: Barry (2016) – 5.8

Netflix’s Barry, an interesting character study/biopic looking into former President Obama’s young-adult years, was a divisive piece. Portraying the coming-of-age of a major, living political figure is no easy feat, but — despite some stilted writing — the film clearly means well.

Taylor-Joy appears as Charlotte Baughman, a woman Barry meets at Columbia University. Her character is somewhat shoehorned in, but at the very least plays an important role in the young Barry’s struggle to find inner peace.

6 BEST: Here Are The Young Men (2020) – 6.9

Based on the novel of the same name, the 2020 drama Here are the Young Men has intriguing characters, an interesting story, and enough “aha!” moments to keep audiences invested. At the same time, its plot often swerves towards sensitive terrain, which may put off some viewers.

The film follows a group of three teenaged boys on a wild summer vacation where they embrace their approaching manhood with an overabundance of energy — when a tragedy forces them to reshape their plans for the future and take stock of their outlooks on life.

5 WORST: The New Mutants (2020) – 5.6

Superhero horror is still very much a rarity, even with recent entries like Brightburn serving to reignite the genre somewhat. The New Mutants clearly wanted to do something similar, but the tepid execution and lack of faithfulness to the source material soon reveals a lack of devotion on the part of the film’s creative team.

The Marvel film follows five young mutants who are held captive in a hospital where they are individually assessed and evaluated, presumably as “superhero training” of some sort. However, a series of incidents happen that seem to point towards something malicious in nature, leading to a growing sense of uneasiness overtaking the group.

4 BEST: The Witch (2015) – 6.9

As a piece of filmmaking, 2015’s The Witch admittedly has very few quantifiable flaws. Anya Taylor-Joy’s performance in the film was so critically acclaimed that it converted her from a virtual unknown to a household name within days of release, and the supernatural horror has a solid plot that leads into a steady stream of action and thrills.

The plot follows the members of a Puritan family in 17th-century New England who are forced to confront evil far beyond their control.

3 WORST: Vampire Academy (2014) – 5.5

While Taylor-Joy’s appearance in 2014’s Vampire Academy is merely a small speaking role, that’s almost better for her considering just how fascinatingly bad the overdosed-on-tropes teen comedy is.

From the director of Mean Girls, the film follows Rose Hathaway, a dhampir (half-human, half-vampire combo) who seeks to expose the layers of injustice at her cliquey academy — and is willing to go innumerable lengths to do so.

2 BEST: Split (2016) – 7.3

While it serves as a secret sequel to director M. Night Shyamalan’s 2001 thriller Unbreakable, Split also stands on its own as a fairly innovative villain original story. The film follows Kevin Wendell Crumb (James M, a man with dissociative identity disorder (DID) who kidnaps a group of girls and locks them underground.

While its insensitive treatment of those with DID turned some against it, from a filmmaking standpoint its cinematic qualities point towards a fresh start for Shyamalan. Taylor-Joy, playing Casey (one of the kidnapped girls), gives a measured performance that beautifully contrasts with Crumb’s unbalanced demeanor.

1 WORST: Playmobil: The Movie (2019) – 4.8

While Playmobil is a big competitor to Lego in several European countries, the success of The Lego Movie — a blissful advertisement satisfying enough to be worth a watch — did not justify the creation of a Playmobil movie.

Indeed, the film, following a girl named Marla (Taylor-Joy) who is transported to the world of Playmobil and has to rescue her brother, suffered from an extreme lack of substance. It was a massive bomb both critically and commercially.

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