Every Adam Driver Movie Ranked Worst To Best

Every Adam Driver Movie Ranked, Worst To Best

From indie gems like Not Waving But Drowning to space operas like the Star Wars sequel trilogy, here are all Adam Driver movies ranked worst to best.

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Adam Driver is known by most for playing Kylo Ren in the Star Wars sequel trilogy, but his career spans movies, TV, even theater; here’s how his movies rank compared to each other. The A-lister has portrayed different characters during his 10-year big screen career, regardless of his being recognized mainly for the main villain role in the last three films of the Skywalker Saga. He collaborated with indie directors and renowned auteurs, national and international alike.

Before reaching worldwide fame thanks to Star Wars, Driver had already acted in movies by acclaimed directors such as Steven Spielberg and Noah Baumbach. Still, at the time, his most prominent role had been in television, where Adam Driver starred in Lena Dunham’s Girls as her on-again, off-again boyfriend, Adam Sackler. His ongoing career as a screen actor started around the same time as his television and Broadway careers. Driver’s first role on Broadway was that of Frank Gardner in Mrs. Warren’s Profession, and his latest was Lanford Wilson’s Burn This in 2019.

2021 has been one of Driver’s busiest years workwise, with Leos Carax’s Annette and Ridley Scott’s The Last Duel and House Of Gucci all opening in theaters. 2022 will be likewise busy, with both Noah Baumbach’s White Noise and Bryan Woods and Scott Beck’s 65, respectively in production and post-production, opening. With Driver working in indie gems and blockbuster movies alike, and his big screen career clearly flourishing, looking back at all his previous acting role is interesting. Here are all of Adam Driver movies ranked from worst to best.

28. Annette

Leos Carax’s dreamlike and dark musical Annette, currently on Amazon Prime Video, received much praise for its actors’ performances. The musical follows the complicated relationship of jet-set couple Henry and Ann and how it changes when their daughter Annette is born. The child is weirdly portrayed by a wooden puppet, and the movie’s tragic approach to telling the story in an excessively long and boring way does not let the viewers empathize with any of the characters. The only good things to come out of it are the actors’ performances.

27. Bluebird

The premise of the 2013 drama, which examines the reactions of inhabitants of a small town in Maine after a tragedy happens, showed promise. Nevertheless, the film only touches upon the themes of guilt and division in the community without thoroughly examining them, despite focusing precisely on how the town reels from the tragedy. Adam Driver has only a small role as the victim child’s mother’s love interest, so it ranks down on this list.

26. Midnight Special

The 2016 sci-fi drama from Jeff Nichols focuses on a dad and his child with special powers on the run from the police and the cult they previously lived with. Driver plays an NSA analyst that tries to sort out where the two are heading, a minor role that is nevertheless central for its ending. The movie isn’t bad per se, but the relationships between the main characters are not as well-developed as they should be, considering the story focuses on them as a family. However, its ending is satisfying and similar in ways to E.T. The Extraterrestrial.

25. Hungry Hearts

The 2014 Italian drama follows couple Jude and Mina and their family life in New York City after their son is born. Their parenting styles are different, with Mina’s endangering the child. The movie is deeply disturbing and its ending does not leave viewers with anything, save perhaps for sadness, the only possible emotion after watching characters hurting each other in the worst possible ways. Driver and Rohrwacher’s performances are nonetheless superb, for which they both won the Coppa Volpi at the 71st Venice International Film Festival.

24. J. Edgar

Clint Eastwood’s biopic about FBI director J. Edgar Hoover isn’t one of his strongest entries, but it does focus on Hoover’s hypothesized homosexuality in a previously unseen way. The main love story being treated as such despite opposition by some historians makes history, especially considering how often LGBTQ+ people are erased from it. Adam Driver only has a minor role in the crime drama, but Eastwood’s movie is his first appearance on the big screen and the promise of great things to come from Driver is readily apparent.

23. House Of Gucci

Driver’s latest release is one of his two collaborations with Ridley Scott, and it’s inspired by the real story of the murder of Maurizio Gucci in the 1990s. The drama is dragged out and uneven, despite being based on one of the most gripping true crime stories of the past 30 years, and some performances are senselessly over-the-top. Nevertheless, Lada Gaga and Driver’s portrayals of Patrizia Reggiani and Maurizio Gucci, respectively, are some of the strongest high points of the movie.

22. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

The final installment of the Skywalker Saga, Star Wars: The Last Jedi, sees Adam Driver reprising his role as Kylo Ren. Star Wars IX’s production surely had many bumps in the road, with the director changing in its midst. It’s certainly an entertaining movie, and Kylo Ren’s arc, in particular, is fascinating. But J.J. Abrams overcorrected after the studio giving too much weight to the backlash from some fans after the previous Star Wars film, resulting in a bloated conclusion that did far too much obvious pandering to an old fanbase rather than innovating.

21. This Is Where I Leave You

The dramedy follows the Altman siblings as they go home for their father’s funeral, which causes them to fight and reconnect with each other. Driver plays the youngest troublemaker son, Philip, and is part of an extraordinary cast that also includes Jane Fonda. Shawn Levy’s film was meant to be a darkly funny retelling of the Altmans’ conflicts and aversion to each other – at least some of them. Despite the fantastic cast, however, the movie doesn’t deliver on its promise of comedy like it might have.

20. Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The first third of the Star Wars sequel trilogy introduces Adam Driver as villain Kylo Ren, and J.J. Abram’s legacy sequel retreads much of the same ground of the original Star Wars from 1977. Still, it also introduces a strong new trio that’s almost as charismatic as the original one. Driver’s approach to Kylo Ren was a new take on a typical Star Wars villain, and a role that old-school fans initially disliked soon grew to be one of most interesting and complex characters since the original 1977 Star Wars.

19. Silence

Martin Scorsese’s 2016 movie of two Jesuit priests traveling to 17th-century Japan to try and convert part of the population has riveting performances from Andrew Garfield and Adam Driver. Set in a country at a time that it banned Catholicism, the story is heavy and emotionally violent. It’s an excellent piece of filmmaking with stellar work from Driver, but suffering is pervasive throughout the movie, and it’s not necessarily one that can be watched again and again.

18. The Dead Don’t Die

The 2019 Jim Jarmusch indie horror-comedy is the second collaboration between him and Adam Driver. The movie follows a seeming zombie invasion in a small town caused by the Earth’s axis slightly shifting. Although ending badly for the characters – as horror movies tend to do – Jim Jarmusch’s movie is weirdly funny and peculiar, and emblematic of his quirky and unique style. It is sometimes slow, but it makes up for it by often breaking the fourth wall and doing so cleverly, captivating viewers.

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17. Gayby

The 2012 comedy by Jonathan Lisecki is Adam Driver’s second big screen role, and it follows two best friends that want to have a kid together, despite not being romantically linked. In a minor role, Driver has limited screen time, so it’s hard to gauge it solely as an Adam Driver movie. However, the film is lighthearted and it feels genuine, in the sense that rooting for their big extended family seems obvious and cannot be avoided.

16. Logan Lucky

The 2017 Steven Soderbergh movie has everything a heist movie should have: relatable characters, clearly identifiable villains, a complex and brilliant plan, and unexpected plot twists. Driver plays one of the Logan siblings, Clyde, and he shines in the role. The cast works flawlessly together, and the action film manages to be fast, funny and adds a social commentary that is often lacking in movies of the genre, earning Logan Lucky great reviews at the time.

15. The Man Who Killed Don Quixote

This 2014 comedy-fantasy by Terry Gilliam took 29 years to see the light of day. It stars Adam Driver as Toby, a director who, while trying to make a movie about Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in Spain, finds himself meeting a man on a horse who thinks he’s actually Don Quixote. In typical Gilliam style, the movie is surrealist and weird but tells a magnificent story about the characters, where Driver’s Toby ends up perfectly embodying Sancho to Jonathan Pryce’s Don Quixote.

14. Lincoln

Lincoln, Steven Spielberg’s 2012 historical drama about the 16th President’s fight to ban slavery in the United States starts slowly. Driver’s role as Morse code expert Samuel Beckwith is minor compared to others in the film, but he has a riveting debate with Day-Lewis’s Lincoln in which Driver more than holds his own opposite the legendary movie star. The movie’s second half gets into the thick of things, showing one of the most heart-pounding and emotional voting scenes, and Day-Lewis’s portrayal of Lincoln dazzles, in Lincoln’s public speeches, but even more so in his private ones with his family.

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13. While We’re Young

The 2014 Noah Baumbach movie is the second collaboration between him and Adam Driver. The four protagonists are two couples, one older and one younger, where Driver plays one half of the younger couple. What makes the movie peculiar is its essence, which is both about growing up and growing old and also about generational differences on what makes a specific type of art – in this case, documentary films – work well. Driver is best in character studies, and this is one of his best.

12. Frances Ha

Driver’s first collaboration with Noah Baumbach sees him first as a love interest, then a friend of the main character, Frances (Greta Gerwig). The movie starts slow but develops in a beautiful story of friendship. Frances and Sophie’s relationship is at the front and center of it. While at first, it seem that the story has no plot, what holds the movie together is how their friendship changes throughout the years, but always still there when it matters.

11. The Meyerowitz Stories (New And Selected)

Noah Baumbach’s 2017 comedy starts the family’s story with Adam Sandler’s Danny, but it then follows the whole family as they deal with their father’s old age and temperament. Driver is only seen in a few scenes but he steals them all. The movie is bittersweet and realistic, well-written and thoroughly planned. In the end, the wholesomeness of how all the Meyerowitz siblings resemble patriarch Howard throughout the movie is what really sells it.

10. What If

Michael Dowse’s 2013 rom-com focuses on two friends who are attracted to each other but already with other partners. Driver plays Allan, the best friend of protagonist Wallace (Daniel Radcliffe). The movie is surprisingly realistic, aptly portraying two people’s unwillingness to proclaim their feelings because it may ruin their friendship. Driver steals every scene he’s in as the free-spirited and brash Allan, who is the wild card to Wallace’s straight man.

9. The Report

The 2019 Scott Z. Burns thriller sees Driver portray Senate staffer Daniel J. Jones, who investigates the C.I.A.’s real-life use of torture in the War on Terror after the September 11 attacks. Driver is excellent in the role of the protagonist as he genuinely reflects the movie’s tone: his private life is not debated, although his moral quandaries may be. Just as the BAFTAs winner Spotlight does, the film tells the story as a procedural investigation, through facts and findings, not expressively taking a side in the story it’s telling. It may be fiction, but it does an excellent job at showing the proof.

8. The Last Duel

Ridley Scott’s first collaboration with Driver is one of the three movies of his released in 2021. The historical drama is a fictional retelling of the 1386 trial of Jacques Le Gris (Adam Driver) after Marguerite De Carrouges accuses him of rape. The same story is told from three different points of view between The Last Duel’s three main characters: First Jean de Carrouges (Matt Damon), then Driver’s Le Gris, and finally Marguerite (Jodie Comer). Particular emphasis is put on Marguerite’s version of events, which is presented as the truth. The clever building up of the men’s viewpoints and their deconstruction in the third act makes it a particularly brilliant bit of storytelling.

7. Star Wars: The Last Jedi

The second installment of the Star Wars sequel trilogy is among the most controversial Star Wars movies, but Rian Johnson’s take on Jedis and the Force is something that was never seen before in the Star Wars universe. Johnson manages to portray all characters as morally grey, and it does so with nuance. Star Wars: The Last Jedi’s ending and character development are some of the most outstanding in the Skywalker Saga, and Kylo Ren’s complexity, in particular, lends depth to the sequel trilogy, making it the best of the three.

6. Paterson

Jim Jarmusch’s first collaboration with Driver finds the actor starring as a poet and bus driver named Paterson. The movie is certainly a slow burn, but all the relationships in it are expertly evolved and grow naturally as the movie moves forward. It’s a love letter to poetry as a medium, and it manages to be sweet, gentle, and sometimes sad. Driver’s quiet but commanding performance keeps one thinking of it after it’s over.

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5. Not Waving But Drowning

Devyn Waitt’s coming-of-age movie, named for the Stevie Smith poem, is Driver’s third film overall. While his time is limited, it shows him really coming into his own as a big screen presence and hints at Adam Driver being an Oscars contender for years to come. It tells the story of Adele and Sylvia, two best friends who long to move to New York, but only one manages to. The story is sad and beautiful, and the emotions the movie portrays are raw, with characters growing up in ways that are unexpected, but truly satisfying to watch.

4. Inside Llewyn Davis

At the intersection of sadness and beauty, the Coen brothers’ is Driver’s seventh movie and he excels as the eccentric folk singer Al Cody. The film follows musician Llewyn Davis (Oscar Isaac) on his quest to become a solo artist after his music partner kills himself. The story is cyclical, heartbreaking, beautifully told, and it’s impossible not to want happiness for the titular character.

3. Marriage Story

Baumbach and Driver’s latest collaboration, Marriage Story, saw Adam Driver garner numerous awards nominations and with good reason. The gripping film recounts how a couple (Scarlett Johansson and Driver) falls apart while learning to cooperate as they are still co-parenting a child. In these types of stories, it’s common for the narration to take one side, but it doesn’t happen in Marriage Story. Its balance makes the movie particularly heartbreaking, as their love ending causes so much hurt despite not being anybody’s fault. Johansson and Driver succeed in making the film feel particularly real and emotionally raw.

2. Tracks

The John Curran biopic of Australian explorer Robyn Anderson has Driver in the role of photographer Rick Smolan. Words really cannot do the movie justice, as the emotions it portrays are just so strong and raw – and accompanied by beautiful shots of the Australian outback – that it needs to be experienced to be fully understood. The relationship between Robyn (Crimson Peak’s Mia Wasikowska) and her black dog Diggity is beautiful. Meanwhile, Driver’s work is, surprisingly, one of the most understated performances of his career. He’s an actor known for eccentricities on screen, but here, he plays it straight, resulting in an interesting contrast to most of his filmography.

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1. BlacKkKlansman

Spike Lee’s 2018 historical movie is the existing proof that there are no topics about which people cannot joke. The comedy is based on the memoir “Black Klansman” by Ron Stallworth, who, in the movie, is played by John David Washington. Stallworth’s operation to infiltrate the local Ku Klux Klan chapter also involves fellow detective, Adam Driver’s Flip Zimmerman, who poses as him when Stallworth is needed to meet the other members in person. BlacKkKlansman reaches the podium for its amazing cast, for its razor-sharp wit, and because it ferociously reminds how racism has never been overcome to any viewer who might have cluelessly forgotten it. Adam Driver’s balance of tension and humor earned him a well-deserved Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 2019 Oscars.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/adam-driver-movies-ranked-every-worst-best/

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