Elisabeth Moss is a force of nature in 'Her Smell'

I am not sure how entirely sold I am on the punk rock drama Her Smell. it felt overlong, a bit repetitive and less original than Vox Lux, which dips a toe in similar enfant terrible pop star waters. I don't think it's a bad movie -- in fact long stretches are riveting, but I'm torn about the project as a whole.

But what I do know, is that Elisabeth Moss delivers another no holds barred, tour de force lead performance -- one of several recently (including a scene stealing turn in Us) -- one that suggests she is undeniably one of the greatest actresses working today.

In this largely backstage drama about a once popular all-girl folk group fraying at the seems, she occupies almost every scene with a wild, over the top performance that somehow never feels out of control. She is by turns funny, terrifying, beautiful, ugly and almost always compelling -- which is no small feat since her character is consistently portrayed as a deeply unlikable sociopath.

Moss is a curious case, she broker through playing a reserved character who slowly came out of her shell and had arguably the most satisfying arc of any character on Mad Men, but she wasn't actually be positioned for movie stardom.

Ironically, the most traditional looking star of that show -- Jon Hamm -- seems to have settled for smaller character roles in films since that show, while Moss has consistently swung for the fences with ambitious, demanding roles in indie fare.

She is not an easy to predict actress -- and her character 'Becky Something' in this film is as big a departure as she's ever made from her work in the past.

However, I do wonder how many people will actually see it, and not just because it's a smaller film with less distribution. Many people seem to think of her Scientology beliefs, in fact save for Tom Cruise, she may be the most prominent supporter of the controversial church.

She recently has tried to defend her religion, while seemingly distancing herself from the more controversial aspects of it (such as alleged homophobia) with a broad plea for freedom of speech, but I think it will continue to dog her, for better or worse, as her career continues to progress.

It's not that her career ins't doing just fine -- she also stars in the acclaimed, popular TV version of A Handmaid's Tale, but as skepticism about her faith only continues to grow, it'll be curious to see how she squares that circle.

Regardless of what you may think of her or her religion, her performance in Her Smell deserves to be remembered come awards season, it's the best performance I've seen this year after Lupita Nyong'o in Us of course.