Shes played wisecracking kids, waspish moms and a whole catalogue of women pushed to their limits.

Except, that is, when theyre strong, independent girls.

So why, when faced with a survey of her career, is it so frequently frustrating?

Somehow it doesnt quite match up with her extraordinary reputation: award-winner, superstar, icon.

But it doesnt have to be this way.

Foster is one of the few actors in Hollywood utterly in charge of their own destiny.

All the more impressive when you consider just how hostile an environment Hollywood is to stars like her.

Jodie Foster, like her career, is difficult to second guess, but thats what makes her great.

And I know what youre thinking, that wholeThe Beaverthing.

And you know what?

Good luck to her.

Now, here are her best bits.

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10.

Nell

Oh crikey, this is weird.

by going to the police station and looking in on the file.

So far so non-vigilante.

But you know what pushes Bain over the edge?

Thing is, shes pretty trigger happy and is soon taking out the scum of NYC.

Its kind of likeTaxi Driverif Travis Bickle had a field recorder and a show on Resonance FM.

Hows that for career development?

However, remove Fosters central performance, and the thing would be in zero gravity.

After all, its her characters story that is supposed to represent the universal curiosity of the human spirit.

Does she find what shes looking for?

See also:looking back atContact.

She ends up with rapist extortionists, a punch up in a diner and some lame bromance baggage.

Here though, shes allowed to hold centre stage.

Oh, and that scene where she hustles those local girls at the Pull-A-String?

Fosters reaction conveys that heartbreaking realisation that all parents have at some point.

Now, I dont mean that Ill just hurt you.

I mean that Ill kill you.

Alice Doesnt Live Here Anymore

She looks like a boy and talks like a man.

A pad formerly owned by a secretive millionaire and boasting en suite bunker.

Foster stepped in and made the film hers.

She plays a mum rich, probably sophisticated but excruciatingly uncool to her Sex Pistols t-shirt wearing daughter.

She cant even swear right.

In fact, it was so good, Foster made it again in the form of 2005sFlightplan.

The Accused

The Best Actress category at the 1989 Academy Awards was a Platonic ideal of Best Actress categories.

Its eternal, immutable, the Best Actress category against which all Best Actress categories will be judged.

Meryl Streep, Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver and, of course, Jodie Foster all duked it out.

By the time shes taken another drag on her cigarette, its hardened into determination.

A masterclass in conveying so much with the slightest of gestures.

Even, or perhaps especially because Jodie Foster plays her with such street-hardened maturity.

She wasnt first choice for the role, with Linda Blair originally cast in the role before withdrawing.

The Silence of the Lambs

Here it is.

You knew it was coming, and its no real surprise.

But ultimately, its difficult to really overstate how incredible this performance is.

You also know that Jodie Foster plays top FBI student Clarice Starling as her archetypal tomboy all grown up.

Revealingly, Demme uses tight close-ups on Fosters face during Hopkins lines, capturing her reactions in unflinching detail.

But of course, what did you expect?