Over the last decade, Golden Globe winner Oscar Isaac has proven his versatility. From starring in a Coen Brothers film to voicing an animated Gomez Addams in The Addams Family to playing a supporting role in the most recent Star Wars trilogy, he has become an in-demand actor, and Isaac has played some incredibly likable characters.
His recent performance in the miniseries Scenes From a Marriage has earned critical acclaim, and his chemistry with longtime friend and on-screen wife Jessica Chastain has the internet buzzing. Isaac also starred in Denis Villeneuve’s adaption of Dune. The actor has a lot of upcoming projects, including the starring role in the Disney+ series Moon Knight. With such a varied filmography, which films currently make up Isaac’s top 10, according to Letterboxd?
Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) – 3.50
The first installment in the most recent Star Wars trilogy, Star Wars: The Force Awakens helped make its main cast into household names—including Isaac. Starring alongside Daisy Ridley, John Boyega, and Adam Driver, Isaac plays Resistance pilot Poe Dameron. He’s a charming man who’s incredibly committed to his cause, and also the best character introduced in TFA.
Throughout The Force Awakens, Poe develops a friendship with Finn, the defected Stormtrooper he met during their daring escape. But it’s his relationship with BB-8, his adorable spherical droid, that is one of the best in the trilogy. Isaac returns as Poe in The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker.
A Most Violent Year (2014) – 3.51
Isaac stars alongside Jessica Chastain in J.C. Chandor’s 1980s thriller A Most Violent Year. As fuel supplier Abel Morales, Isaac plays a man under stress due to his competitive field and the rising crime in New York City. Chastain plays his wife Anna, and they are incredibly magnetic scene partners.
Following a series of truck hijackings and intimidation tactics he suspects are from his competitors, Abel must grapple with the idea of arming his drivers. A gritty drama that’s less violent than its title would imply, A Most Violent Year is still a gripping thriller that features great performances from its cast.
Annihilation (2018) – 3.59
Alex Garland’s follow-up to his hit sci-fi film Ex Machina, Annihilation centers around a group of explorers who enter a mysterious zone with alien origins called the “Shimmer.” Isaac plays Kane, the husband of Natalie Portman’s Lena who disappeared in the Shimmer for a year before suddenly reappearing, his health rapidly deteriorating following his return.
Lena joins 4 other women for the next expedition into the Shimmer, the team relying on each other to survive this new environment. While Annihilation wasn’t quite the hit Ex Machina was, it’s still an impressive piece of storytelling. Garland masterfully mixes horror and action with sci-fi, and Annihilation is one of the best obscure action movies of the last decade.
At Eternity’s Gate (2018) – 3.64
Willem Dafoe embodies the famed painter Vincent van Gogh during the final years of his life in the 2018 biographical drama At Eternity’s Gate. In Julian Schnabel’s film, Isaac plays the supporting role of Paul Gauguin, one of Vincent’s artistic peers. Paul visits Vincent in Arles, France, and pushes the man to think about painting and art as a whole in a new light.
At Eternity’s Gate also features Rupert Friend and Mads Mikkelsen in supporting roles, but Dafoe shoulders most of the film’s emotional burdens, much like Vincent did in real life. Isaac narrates a mid-credit scene discussing yellow, Vincent’s favorite color. At Eternity’s Gate is an intimate look at the end of a genius’s troubled life.
Che: Part One (2008) – 3.65
Isaac has a small role in Steven Soderbergh’s Che: Part One, which details the rise of Marxist revolutionary Che Guevara, played by Benicio del Toro. He plays an unnamed United Nations interpreter who meets Che in 1964 before Guevara’s United Nations General Assembly address.
The first part in Soderbergh’s two-part film about the titular Che focuses on the Cuban Revolution and follows a non-linear timeline. Che: Part One is one of Soderbergh’s best works, and the cast’s impeccable performances are one of the many reasons the 2-part biographical film gained critical acclaim.
Drive (2011) – 3.97
The crime drama Drive centers around a skilled stuntman who plays a getaway driver for criminals in Los Angeles, notably the debt-ridden husband of his kind neighbor. Ryan Gosling stars as the unnamed driver, a stoic man who only warms up to Carey Mulligan’s Irene and her son, Benicio.
After Irene’s husband Standard Gabriel, played by Isaac, is released from prison, he enlists the help of Gosling’s driver to rob a pawn shop, but the heist doesn’t go according to plan. A neo-noir for the new age, Drive is based on James Sallis’s 2005 novel and won the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Action Movie.
Ex Machina (2015) – 3.98
Isaac first teamed up with writer-director Alex Garland for the sci-fi drama Ex Machina, which stars another one of Garland’s frequent collaborators—Domhnall Gleeson. A coder wins a competition to spend a week at the secluded home of his company’s CEO. Isaac plays Nathan, the CEO who has Gleeson’s Caleb perform a Turing test on Ava, his humanoid robot with the face of Alicia Vikander.
Nathan is a narcissist with control issues and a tendency to treat Ava and Kyoko, another robot, inappropriately. The affluent man meets a bitter end thanks to Ava, and Nathan is one of Isaac’s darkest characters. Ex Machina earned award buzz and is one of the highest-grossing A24 movies.
Inside Llewyn Davis (2013) – 3.99
The Coen Brothers’ 1960s-era musical drama Inside Llewyn Davis pairs Isaac with up his future Star Wars castmate Adam Driver. Isaac plays the titular talented folk musician who struggles with his complicated personal life as he tries to achieve fame. A fantastic film centered around music, Inside Llewyn Davis is one of the Coen Brothers’ best features and earned Isaac a Golden Globe nomination.
Carey Mulligan, Justin Timberlake, John Goodman, and Garrett Hedlund play supporting roles in the film about the disappointments and frustrations artists face. The musicians in the film, Isaac included, sing and play live, giving the songs featured in Inside Llewyn Davis an authentic feel that would be lacking the polish easily applied by autotune today.
Dune (2021) – 4.04
Filling the paternal role for Timothée Chalamet’s Paul, Isaac plays Duke Leto Atreides in the most recent film adaption of Frank Herbert’s Dune. Leto has his aides educate his son to defend himself in physical fights and political conflicts. He’s also the head of one of the most powerful and influential houses in the Landsraad.
The sci-fi epic has received praise from critics and audiences alike, earning 3 Golden Globe nominations and 10 Critics’ Choice Award nominations. While director Denis Villeneuve’s take on the novel was more faithful to the source material, there are still some notable differences between the Dune book and film.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) – 4.44
His appearance in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse might only be a brief post-credit cameo, but Isaac is reprising his role of Miguel O’Hara AKA Spider-Man 2099 in the upcoming sequel, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Part 1). Miguel is yet another alternate version of Spider-Man featured in the Academy Award-winning animated film following Miles Morales’ early days of becoming the hero as he meets other Spider-Man variants from many different dimensions.
The film also features the voice talents of stars like Shameik Moore, Hailee Steinfeld, Jake Johnson, Kathryn Hahn, Brian Tyree Henry, and Mahershala Ali. Like Isaac, many of these actors have or will play multiple Marvel characters thanks to series like Hawkeye and WandaVision and movies like Eternals.
