Harry Styles, the British pop star known for selling out arenas, has been a fan favorite for quite a while. Styles even currently holds a record for performing 15 consecutive nights at Madison Square Garden. Even though he has had such a successful music career, he has now added a new hobby under his belt, and that would be acting. So why change career paths now? Harry Styles made his way to big screens by joining one of the biggest movie franchises. He played Starfox, Thanos’ brother, in the Marvel film Eternals in 2021. The movie itself did not do well compared to other Marvel films. It received a 42% score from Rotten Tomato, ⅗ stars from IMDB, and also received ⅗ stars from Letterboxd users. Since the movie did so poorly, I believe it affected the way Harry Styles is portrayed in regard to acting. Many people said his acting was pretty average and that it was far from ground-breaking.
Don’t Worry Darling, directed by Olivia Wilde, gained massive attraction due to Harry Styles being one of the leads alongside highly-rated actress, Florence Pugh. This movie also had incredibly mixed reviews. I watched the film as it was recently released on HBO Max for streaming. Overall, I thought Harry’s performance was average. I think that he could perform better if he had more training and practice. The movie overall did score around the same as Eternals, scoring 3 out of 5 stars from IMDB and a Rotten Tomato score of 48%. Personally, I enjoyed the film and would give it around 3.5 stars, but I can see why some people didn’t like it.
His latest film, My Policeman has once again received some pretty bad reviews. Many reviews are redundant and say that Styles needs more training and discipline in acting. A viewer named Robert Daniels stated that “Sometimes I look at Harry Styles and I feel bad for him. Not because he isn’t getting a fair shake, but because someone told him he could be a leading man without warning him about the time and work needed to become one” (Roger Ebert 2022). I recently watched this film and thoroughly enjoyed it. I feel as though his performance has become a treat to watch on screen. I felt that he did a phenomenal job and I would totally recommend this movie. I think that in comparison to Don’t Worry Darling, his performance was exceptional and you can see the growth in his acting.
Overall, I think that Harry Styles is a fine actor. It’s common for singers to switch to acting, so why shouldn’t he try? I do believe that he got these leading roles due to his popularity, but he could be a more highly-rated actor if he had more guidance and instruction.
References
Daniels, R. (n.d.). My Policeman Movie Review & Film Summary (2022): Roger Ebert. movie review & film summary (2022) | Roger Ebert. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/my-policeman-movie-review-2022
Friday, D. (2021, November 23). Eternals Review: Why Harry Styles? Upside Down Shark. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://upsidedownshark.com/reviews/eternals-review/
IMDb.com. (2022, September 23). Don’t worry darling. IMDb. Retrieved November 18, 2022, from https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10731256/