What's in the Box

Florence Pugh is currently at the stage of her career where she falls neatly between being a rising star and an established icon of Hollywood. However with every film, she edges closer to the latter. Some performers’ bankability is based upon a consistency of performance-type; Tom Hanks being a prime example as the everyman American, but the extent of range and breadth that Pugh has displayed over her relatively short filmography provides an added dimension to her star quality. While 2019 was the year that catapulted Pugh into the attention of mainstream audiences and film fans, her early work is also tremendous and should not be underappreciated. Her big-screen debut came in Carol Morley’s excellent 2014 drama The Falling and she followed that up with her first leading performance as the titular Lady Macbeth, with her performance being described as “lethally charismatic” by critic Peter Bradshaw. Yet 2019 saw a trifecta of films (Fighting with My Family, Midsommar and Little Women) that fully revealed Pugh’s versatile capabilities as an actress. In Stephen Merchant’s uplifting drama, she excels in portraying the pugnacious angst of an outsider trying to find their feet in an alien and unforgiving environment. She is the shining light of Aster’s disturbing sophomore horror, embodying the film’s torturous depiction of grief with a humanity and pathos that makes its tagline of a “break-up movie” somewhat conceivable. Little Women was her breakthrough in terms of awards recognition, receiving both BAFTA and Oscar nominations for Best Supporting Actress as the notorious Amy March. Breathing a new vivacity and conception into this well-trodden character is arguably Pugh’s greatest achievement to date, and with her upcoming role in Olivia Wilde’s psychological thriller Don’t Worry Darling, it’s likely this is only the beginning of her tenure as an awards contender.