Naomi Watts appeared in the dramas Demolition and Three Generations, both of which were screened at the 2015 Toronto International Film Festival. In Demolition, directed by Jean-Marc Vallée and co-starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Chris Cooper, and Judah Lewis, Watts played a customer service representative and the interest of a grieving investment banker (Gyllenhaal). The film had a limited run in theaters and received an overall mixed reception. The Telegraphremarked that Watts "is powerless to make this groaner of a character feel like flesh and blood",[155] while The Wrap felt that she "empathetically captures [her] harried single mom" role as she played "both the wit and the sadness with grace". In Three Generations, directed by Gaby Dellal, she appeared with Susan Sarandon and Elle Fanning as the mother of a young transgender man (Fanning). The film was pulled from the schedule days before its intended September 2015 release,[ but subsequently premiered on selected theaters in May 2017. Watts was cast as Linda, the second wife of heavyweight boxer Chuck Wepner (played by Liev Schreiber) in the biographical sport drama The Bleeder, revolving around the life of Wepner and his 1975 fight with Muhammad Ali. The film had its world premiere at the 2016 Venice Film Festival and a limited release the following year, receiving unanimous critical acclaim.[160] Variety wrote in its review: "Slightly out of place as the feisty bartender who gives Wepner a second chance at his downest and outest, a spirited Naomi Watts nonetheless gives proceedings her best Amy Adams in The Fighter." Also in 2016, she headlined the thriller Shut In, playing a psychologist insolated with her child in a rural house during a winter storm. The film received largely negative reviews and made US$8 million worldwide.
