10 Brilliant Performances Trapped In Terrible Recent Movies

Though Clint Eastwood's Richard Jewell was broadly praised by most critics and Kathy Bates ended up with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination, it's ultimately a deeply problematic and misguided film.

Shortly following its release, Richard Jewell was slammed for its highly questionable portrayal of reporter Kathy Scruggs (Olivia Wilde), who is shown using sex to obtain information from an FBI agent (Jon Hamm).

This was widely refuted by Scruggs' real-life colleagues, and highlighted the underlying hypocrisy of Eastwood's film, in needlessly damaging Scruggs' character while also condemning those who did the very same to Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser) when he was suspected of being involved in the film's central bombing.

To make matters worse, Scruggs died in 2001 and therefore wasn't able to defend herself against the blatantly misleading depiction.

In addition to this, Richard Jewell is simply the bad kind of Clint Eastwood film: the one where every scene feels like it was the first or second take, and that he simply wanted to get everything in the can as fast as possible.

While Kathy Bates earned the lion's share of the critical acclaim, the best performance in the movie is actually that of Hauser himself as Jewell.

It's a turn so brilliantly and unexpectedly understated that it very nearly holds the entire film aloft, and if anyone had any business being nominated for major awards, it was clearly him.

Though the Academy clearly doesn't care much for a film's purported authenticity - just look at how they tripped over themselves to nominate Bohemian Rhapsody last year - beyond Hauser's sublime work Richard Jewell is an agonisingly simplistic rendition of a fascinating story.