Eiza Gonzalez

Gonzalez is often the person in an action ensemble who looks equipped to get on with the job. Her characters can be physically capable members of a largely male group without needing a romance to explain their presence. We like the energy she brings to that company, and we rate her as an effective action performer. The caveat is that being useful to a film is no guarantee that the film will give an actor much to work with.

Baby Driver (2017) was her wider Hollywood breakthrough, playing Darling for Edgar Wright. Its musical timing suits an actor at ease with high-energy action and the demands of an ensemble. We were delighted by the car chases because the music gives their movement such a precise rhythm. The romance is thin and the later stretches less nimble, so there are limits to our enthusiasm. It is still the film we would recommend first.

Her subsequent Hollywood work has stayed largely with action, science fiction and ensembles. Alita: Battle Angel (2019) and Michael Bay’s Ambulance (2022) keep her within that pattern, while 3 Body Problem (2024) gives her a leading television role as Auggie Salazar. It is a sensible use of her strengths, but we would not treat the variety of settings as proof that the parts are equally varied. The repeated work with Guy Ritchie is the more definite turn.

The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024) casts her as Marjorie Stewart and benefits from the easy company of its ensemble. Ritchie stages the action clearly, but the killing is treated as a lark and nothing anyone does seems to cost them anything. We found too little here to recommend, despite the clean staging and agreeable cast. That limits how much we can take from it as evidence of what Gonzalez might do with more demanding material. We would like their next collaboration to make things harder for her character.