The Best And Worst Ella Purnell Movies And TV Shows On Rotten Tomatoes

Ella Purnell is only 27 years old as of this writing, but she's already becoming quite a familiar face when it comes to genre projects in Hollywood. The one-two-three punch of "Yellowjackets," "Army of the Dead" and "Fallout" have helped make her an important face in the science fiction and horror worlds, setting her up to become the next Neve Campbell or Sigourney Weaver. She can play distant and moody, bratty and immature, wide-eyed and knowing, and gritty and impassive. That's some nice range from someone who's so young.

Purnell was a child actor, which means she's been building her reputation in the business since she was very young. And yet, her resume is stacked with memorable parts already. But what's the creme de la creme among Purnell's projects — and which are her worst entries? Which shows and movies really stand out in the field and make the case for her superstardom? These five films and television shows are among the best — and very worst — listed on her Rotten Tomatoes page.

"Yellowjackets" made Ella Purnell famous for a good reason. The horror-dramedy has been called many a thing by its fans — "Lord of the Flies" for girls; a black comedy with genuine emotional impact; a horror story with a kooky bent. Call it whatever you dare, but Rotten Tomatoes critics have given it a 96% approval score. It's also hard to ignore the devoted cult following the show's won, which continues to bolster it and helped turn Purnell into a household name.

Purnell plays Jackie Taylor throughout Season 1 and appears a few times on Season 2. Queen bee of the Wiskayok High Yellow Jackets soccer team, Jackie's entire life is turned upside down when the team, its coach, and supporters go down in a plane crash in the Canadian wilderness. As time passes and late summer turns to late fall and finally early winter, Jackie's grip on her control of the team and the situation quickly deteriorates. A spat with her close friend Shauna Shipman (Sophie Nélisse) results in Jackie deciding to sleep outside of the cabin they've been using for shelter. Unfortunately for her, a snow storm comes through that very night, and she freezes to death. Eventually, the starving team ends up accidentally roasting Jackie's body instead of cremating it and, in a fit of desperation, eat it — except for the ear Shauna already munched on before they lit her up. It's a morbid way to go — but hopefully it won't be the last time audiences see Jackie.

With an "Okey Dokey," Lucy MacLean became one of the most popular characters on "Fallout." She's cheerful, plucky ... and living the kind of life she never anticipated out in the wasteland after everything falls apart for her down in the Vaults. On Rotten Tomatoes, "Fallout" has a rating in the low 90s, winning both critical and audience praise.

While "Fallout" also follows the story of the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) — a one-time cowboy star who now works as a bounty hunter — and Maximus (Aaron Moten) — a part of The Brotherhood of Steel who becomes Lucy's closest ally — this is generally a coming of age tale for Lucy. After a disastrous wedding, she finds herself out in the ruins of Los Angeles, looking for her dad, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), a former Overseer who has been kidnaped by a group of raiders. Along the way, Lucy comes into her own, encounters the Ghoul, and makes friends within the Brotherhood of Steel. Purnell handles all of these narrative twists and turns with aplomb, and Lucy turns tough and tender as the circumstances warrant. 

Rotten Tomatoes critics weren't too into "Army of the Dead" when it dropped, and it sits at a more middling 67% approval score compared to the audience's 75%. They were the driving force that made the Zack Snyder-directed action film a big cult hit. 

Purnell plays Kate Ward, a member of a strike team crafted by her father, Scott Ward (Dave Bautista). The millionaire owner of a Las Vegas casino hires the squad to hit up the establishment, which is about to be ground central for a tactical nuclear strike. The future is infested by zombies — well, at least in Las Vegas after a military-driven, alien-related mission gone wrong. Scott and his team have been tasked with breaking into the casino's vault and saving its last payload before it's too late. Trouble, naturally, ensues.

As Kate, Purnell has to carry the story's emotional weight; she does so with aplomb, as Kate eventually becomes the team's sole survivor and copes with her father's death. The film has a sequel upcoming, and with most of the original cast of characters dead, there's only Kate to carry on the Ward legacy. Time will tell if she returns.

Think of it as "Emily in Paris" meets "The Bear." "Sweetbitter" was Ella Purnell's first time playing an adult character, but the Starz series is as generic as they come. It didn't last long and isn't well-remembered by audiences or Rotten Tomatoes critics, who handed it a 30% approval score for Season 1. Though Purnell rises to the parts' demands, the kitchen-based tale misses the mark. 

The story follows New York City transplant Tess (Purnell), who finds herself thrust into the high-pressure world of life in the kitchen of a popular, high-class restaurant. Naïve Tess is subsequently subjected to both the intense pressure of working in a professional kitchen and the drug and sex laden world the chefs occupy after hours. As time passes, Tess makes relationships, begins to get her bearings, and steps out of the shadows as much as possible. All of this is typical coming-of-age dross audiences have seen a thousand times before, and better. When "Sweetbitter" Season 2 ended, the series was gone, to be subsumed in the public memory by better shows about chefs.

Some sequels just don't hit as hard as they ought to, and Hit-Girl's (Chloë Grace Moretz) is no exception. While Ella Purnell has a smaller role in "Kick Ass 2," it still counts as one of her worst big screen outings, a film that disappeared into the cultural ether as soon as it arrived. It stands at a 33% approval score critically at Rotten Tomatoes, and fans have given it a 57%.

"Kick-Ass 2" takes place four years after the events of "Kick-Ass." Mindy Macready (Moretz) is trying to integrate into her local high school, though her superhero side keeps resurfacing — especially with bullies like Dolce (Purnell). Her friend Dave Lizewski (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), the former and titular Kick-Ass, has been training her to become a real life superhero. Chris D'Amico (Christopher Mintz-Plasse) soon rears his ugly head, resurfacing at the top of his family's crime empire with a supervillain name that's unrepeatable on a family website. Both superheroes find themselves coming out of retirement to serve justice. 

A Dave-Mindy romance, a plot involving Mindy getting revenge on her bullies by making them poop and puke, and Jim Carrey disassociating himself from the entire production in the wake of the Sandy Hook School Shooting — this was a doomed project right from the start. You can watch the movie and see it for yourself, but if you're a fan of Purnell's, it's well worth skipping.