20 Best & Worst Movies From 2017 Oscar Nominees

Best: Elle (2016)

On paper, Elle is a distasteful movie, turning its audience into rape voyeurs and trivialising abuse by fetishising it - it's really no surprise that it has courted controversy since release. But through that difficult material, Huppert's performance as Elle - stoic in her victimhood but passionate and confusing in her action to start a relationship with her attacker.

The film is almost like this generation's Crash, only with more dangerous subject matter, and it's truly remarkable that Huppert stops it from descending into grotesque exploitation. It's undoubtedly one of the most controversial Academy nods, but it's not at all undeserved in performance terms.

Worst: Ma Mere (2005)

Ma Mere isn't necessarily a terrible movie, it's just thoroughly reprehensible, dealing with similarly problematic issues to Elle, but in a way that feels even more provocative and even more dangerous. Huppert does remarkably well to treat the material as seriously as she does, but she cannot stop the whole thing feeling like you've wandered somewhere very wrong on the Dark Web.

And in the end, that feels like it should reflect badly on Huppert.