If Wednesday and the last two Scream movies hadn’t already proven it, then the big opening weekend of Beetlejuice Beetlejuice has made it official. Jenna Ortega is a star on the rise, and it’s hard to believe that she’s turning only 22 later this month. In fact, she had her Marvel movie moment just over a decade ago when she played a small role in Iron Man 3. But with the kind of success that Ortega has been enjoying, we’d be shocked if she doesn’t get a much bigger Marvel role in the future.
In her career to date, Ortega has only appeared in 18 films so far, many of which had small or limited releases. Thankfully, our picks for the three underrated Jenna Ortega movies that you should stream in September are pretty easy to find. That said, one of them is only available for rental.
The Fallout (2021)
The Fallout has what is arguably Ortega’s best performance to date, but hardly anyone saw this movie because it skipped theaters and went directly to Max. Ortega plays Vada Cavell, a high school student who is severely traumatized after living through a school shooting alongside her friends, Mia Reed (Maddie Ziegler) and Quinton Hasland (Niles Fitch).
Vada is simply not the same person after enduring that experience, and she’s so emotionally damaged that she pushes her friends and family away from her. Ortega’s depiction of Vada’s grief and ongoing psychological issues seems very genuine, and the film doesn’t go for a clean-cut resolution to all of her problems. Instead, it overtly indicates that Vada may never fully recover even if she does repair some of her relationships.
Watch The Fallout on Max.
X (2022)
Since Jenna Ortega is a Scream Queen, it’s only fitting that one of her horror movies should be on this list. However, she’s grossly underused in the Scream franchise, so we’re going with her supporting role in X. Ortega’s fellow Scream Queen, Mia Goth, gets most of the screen time here with her dual role as Maxine and Pearl, but Ortega steals nearly every scene she’s in as Lorraine Day.
Lorraine and Maxine are part of a small film crew who attempt to shoot an adult movie on the farm that belongs to Maxine and her husband, Howard (Stephen Ure). And since this is a horror film, both Lorraine and Maxine end up fighting for their lives against the crazed couple. Although Ortega is clearly a bigger star than Goth, that dynamic is reversed in this film, and it makes Lorraine an underdog in the race to be the final girl of this story.
Rent or buy X on Prime Video.
Miller’s Girl (2024)
Miller’s Girl caused a stir earlier this year because of the age difference between Ortega and Martin Freeman (The Hobbit). But the actual film isn’t the Lolita riff you may have expected. Ortega plays Cairo Sweet, a brilliant 18-year-old high school student whose knowledge of literature attracts the attention of her teacher, Jonathan Albert Miller (Freeman).
Jonathan is drawn to Cairo, but he refuses to give into the temptation of an affair with her even after she puts their potential love affair into a story of her own. And when Cairo feels that she’s been wronged by Jonathan’s rejection, she doesn’t just get mad. She gets even.
Watch Miller’s Girl on Netflix.