Is Emma Stone the greatest female actor of our generation?

My friends and I went to the Avon Theater in Providence RI last week to see the new dark comedy, Poor Things, directed by Yorgos Lanthimos and starring Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo. The movie centers around Bella Baxter (Stone), a brilliant young woman who is brought back to life when mad scientist Dr. Godwin "God" Baxter switches her dead brain with the brain of her unborn child. Imagine if you could live your adult life without having lost your innocence and without consequence, this is how Bella Baxter lived her new life. The movie also focuses on issues such as sexism and does a good job of highlighting everything that is wrong with the patriarchy. 

I enjoyed this movie a lot. It did take a little while to really get going, and at times I felt that it was being strange just for the sake of being strange. But other than that, I found it very enjoyable and a film very worthy of all of its many Oscar nominations. One massive highlight, and possibly the best part of this movie, is Emma Stone's performance as Bella Baxter. I felt she truly embodied her character and really made you fall in love with her. Her performance has earned Stone her fourth acting Oscar nomination. and she is a front runner to win. At age 35, this would make her a two-time Oscar winner, a feat only achieved by twelve female actors before her. 

This got me thinking; is Emma Stone the greatest female actor of our generation? She exploded onto the screen when she played the love interest in Greg Mottola's iconic movie Superbad. This lead her to additional comedic roles such as Zombieland and Easy A. Only a couple years later, she made the difficult, but successful transition from goofy comedies to dramas when she starred in Tate Taylor's The Help. She earned her first Oscar nomination in 2014 for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) before winning her first Oscar for La La Land just a couple short years later. Each role that Stone takes on is wildly different from the last; from the queen's maid in The Favourite (earning her another Oscar nod), to the loveably wicked Cruella Deville in Cruella, Emma Stone exhibits a range that knows no limits and has even been able to make the jump from movie to TV in the 2018 miniseries Maniac and the hit show on Showtime, The Curse. 

 When I was deliberating on whether or not any other female actor of our generation was better, only one name came to mind: Jennifer Lawrence. She has many of the same accolades as Stone:  multiple Oscar nominations under her belt including a win in 2013 for Silver Linings Playbook. Like Stone, Lawrence seems to have a range that knows no limits as she appears to be able to play any role and yes, she has done TV as well.

So, in conclusion, no, Emma Stone alone is not the greatest female actor of our generation. However, I believe that both Stone and Jennifer Lawrence are (again in my opinion), the two greatest female actors of our generation. Only time will tell if they become known as the greatest ever. 

Thanks for reading!