There are movie stars, and then there are silver screen gods.Brad Pittis the latter, and he might be the last one. In the earliest stages of his career, he was the handsome, goofy surfer-bro next door who made all the girls swoon, but he quickly proved that his talent and taste transcended hisTiger Beatgood looks, and by the mid-90s he was a serious force courting the most coveted roles in Hollywood.
As an actor, his choices have only gotten more interesting with age. Unlike, say,Tom Cruise, who’s moved away from the idiosyncratic character material that made him so interesting in the ‘90s and remade himself as the Ageless Action Hero, Pitt is taking more risks than ever. Not all of them pay off, but his failures (War MachineandBy the Sea, for instance) are always admirable. And he hasn’t just starred in some of the best movies of the last 30 years, he’s used (and continues to use) his star power as a force for good, championing exciting new filmmakers and helping risky projects secure funding through his Plan B production shingle.
With 80 acting credits to his name, there’s very little filler and an abundance of killer in Pitt’s filmography. These 20 movies were chosen based on the strength of his performance and the quality of the movie. Some of these are classics in which Pitt’s role is relatively minor (Thelma & Louise,True Romance), a few are not-so-great movies that are nevertheless elevated by Pitt’s presence (Snatch). All are worth watching.
To read our review of Pitt’s latest filmAd Astraclick here, and for more ranked lists from Collider, check out our rankings ofTom Cruisemovies,Quentin Tarantinomovies,Christopher Nolanmovies, andSteven Spielbergmovies.
20) Thelma & Louise (1991)
Thelma & Louiseis a great movie, and, in the era of #MeToo, more relevant than ever.Geena DavisandSusan Sarandonare spectacular as the eponymous doomed heroines whose girls’ weekend turns into a nightmare when Louise (Sarandon) kills a man attempting to rape Thelma outside of a country bar. An early touchstone of third-wave feminism, the movie was weirdly controversial for its unapologetic depiction of put-upon women marginalized (and effectively criminalized) by the cruel buffoonery of men, but its message has only grown more poignant with time. In his breakout role, Pitt plays J.D., a seemingly sweet young drifter who seduces Thelma—but, like almost every other man in the movie, turns out to be an asshole, unwittingly pushing the pair one step closer toward their fated final drive across the Grand Canyon. (It should be noted that the film’s ranking on this list is more reflective of the briefness of Pitt’s appearance than the quality of the movie.)
19) Snatch (2000)
Time has doneSnatchno favors. The British crime caper fromGuy Ritchiefeels like a relic from the post-Pulp Fiction‘90s, when a slew of Tarantino knock-offs (The Boondock Saints, Go, Suicide Kings) clogged theaters and video shelves. Despite its shortcomings, Pitt still shines as the Irish bareknuckle boxer Mickey O’Neill. The ongoing joke about Mickey’s unintelligible regional dialect has only gotten more cringey, but Pitt is fully committed to the role and delivers Mickey’s lines with humor and gusto.
18) The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008)
David Fincher’s weakest movie (not counting his doomed debutAlien 3, a practice round for dealing with studio interference) is ponderous and plodding, but still pretty damn good. As the titular hero cursed with an affliction that causes him to age in reverse, Pitt never allows Button’s humanity to be overshadowed by the film’s uncanny conceit (based on the premise of an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story) or the breathtaking CGI work that brings it to life.
17) True Romance (1993)
A perennial fanboy favorite,True Romanceis the fairy-tale flipside to the methy nightmare ofNatural Born Killers,Quentin Tarantino’s other criminal-couple-on-the-lam script that would be released the following year. For all its violence and mayhem,Romanceis a resolutely sweet movie whose two lovers (Christian SlaterandPatricia Arquette) are relative innocents lost in a violent fantasy world fueled by comic books, kung fu movies, and Elvis apparitions. As the stoner couch-potato Floyd, Pitt’s role is minor, but he owns every second he’s on screen. 15 years later, the character would inspire another classic:Judd ApatowandSeth Rogenreportedly conceivedPineapple Expressbased on Pitt’s performance.
16) World War Z (2013)
Fairly or not, my interest inWorld War Zall but evaporated when the initial December 2012 release date was delayed and word got out that the entire third act was being scrapped and reshot, with significant last-minute rewrites byDamon Lindelof. For me, that was strike three against the movie—the first two were the hiring of directorMarc Forster(hacky journeyman responsible for the worst Bond movie) and the goal of a PG-13 rating (how do you make a serious zombie movie without going for a hard R?). For those reasons, I put off watching the movie for years. Stupid me. Against all odds, the whole thing works like gangbusters. It’s not without its flaws: Pitt’s Gerry is far too passive for a traditional franchise-building action hero, the subplot with his wife and child feels obligatory and goes nowhere, and the wide CGI “swarm” shots are distracting. And yet… The movie is a blast. The lack of gore turns out to be a smart move. The reshot third act is nearly seamless. And Pitt, despite being saddled with a severely underwritten character, anchors the movie in reality and sells the human stakes.
15) Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Some movies work based on the wattage of their star power alone. Such is the case withMr. & Mrs. Smith, an action trifle that borrows from theTrue Liesplaybook with the added twist thatbothhusband and wife (Pitt andAngelina Jolie) are deceiving each other and leading double lives as contract killers. While the movie never quite achieves the screwball charm ofJames Cameron’s 1994 classic, the sexual chemistry between Pitt and Jolie is palpable—they fell in love while shooting, so viewers are basically watching a real romance unfold—and directorDoug Limanshoots the hell out ofSimon Kinberg’s thin script.
14) Ocean’s Twelve (2004)
The secret to the success of the wildly entertainingOceanfranchise is that nobody involved seems to take the movies that seriously. A bunch of cool cats at the peak of their talents hang out and crack jokes in between planning elaborate heists in beautiful locales; the stakes are always low, even when they’re high, and the audience is less invested in the emotion of the characters than they are in the rapport among the actors themselves. OnlyOcean’s 12transcends its surface pleasures and approaches being genuinely interesting.Steven Soderberghshoots it like a French New Wave film, with a loose, wandering camera as effortlessly cool as Pitt’s master thief Rusty Ryan.
13) Burn After Reading (2008)
When theCoen Brotherstry to make mainstream crowd-pleasers, things usually get weird—and sometimes bad (see:Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers), butBurn After Reading, their goofy minor-key follow-up toNo Country For Old Men, has aged well. Like all Coen comedies, it takes a few viewings to fully appreciate its absurd charms, but the work is worth it. In a jaw-dropping cast of top-tier movie stars and character actors (Frances McDormand, George Clooney, John Malkovich, Tilda Swinton, Richard Jenkins, JK Simmons), Pitt steals the show as Chad, a personal trainer and world-class doofus who ranks among the best of the great Coen fools.
12) Allied (2016)
After a trio of stop-motion CGI family movies (The Polar Express, Beowulf, A Christmas Carol), directorRobert Zemeckisannounced his return to serious grown-up filmmaking with the 2012 Denzel Washington blockbusterFlight, but his last three movies (The Walk, Allied, Welcome to Marwen) have bombed with critics and audiences alike. Of those, the World War II spy-romanceAlliedlost the most money (Paramount ate an estimated $75-90 million when all was said and done), which is a shame because it’s not just the best of those three, it’s a legitimately good film, a golden-age epic throwback that lovingly tips its hat toCasablancaandLawrence of Arabia.Pitt andMarion Cotillardare electric as Max and Marianne, star-crossed lovers desperate to escape the complications of their national allegiances for a shot at a real life together.
11) The Big Short (2015)
The Big Shortis compulsively watchable.Adam McKaytakes an impenetrable subject—the math of the 2008 financial crisis, as told by authorMichael Lewis(Moneyball)—and creates a rollicking pop tapestry that manages to be both educational and hugely entertaining. Don’t understand subprime mortgages? Here’sMargot Robbiein a bubble bath to explain them to you. Foggy on collateralized debt obligations? Anthony Bourdain’s fish stew analogy should clear up your confusion. Meanwhile, Pitt, who also produced, takes on a modest but compelling role as Ben Rickert, an elder Wall Street sage who advises two eager young traders (John MagaroandFinn Wittrock) on how exactly one would bet against the U.S. economy.
