Evan Rachel Wood is inarguably one of the finest young actresses of her generation. Since breaking out in the 2003 indie hit Thirteen, Wood has forged a formidable career on the big screen. She’s worked with Ron Howard, Andrew Niccol, Darren Aronofsky, George Clooney, Todd Haynes, Woody Allen, and other top-tier film directors over the course of the past two decades.
Currently, Wood plays Dolores Abernathy, one of the primary players in HBO’s hit sci-fi series Westworld. With Season 3 of the show returning this past weekend, what better time to check out Evan Rachel Wood’s 10 Best Movies According to Rotten Tomatoes? Let’s go!
The Missing (2003) 58%
Not to be confused with the 2014 TV series of the same name, Ron Howard’s The Missing is a severely underrated western starring a pre-Oscar winning Cate Blanchett opposite Wood and Tommy Lee Jones.
Set along the 1885 New Mexican frontier, the drama kicks up when female medic Magdalena’s (Blanchett) daughter Lilly (Wood) is kidnapped by an Apache witch. With no one to turn to, Mag solicits the help of her estranges father, Sam Jones (Tommy Lee). Harrowing, horrifying, hopeful, and human!
Little Secrets (2001) 60%
Prior to her breakout role in Thirteen, Wood took center stage as a budding concert violinist in the well-kept PG family flick Little Secrets. Have you ever heard of it? Us either!
Wood takes top-billing as Emily, a 14-year-old violinist who wants nothing more than to make it big. However, in her downtime, Emily builds a small fortune by charging 50 cents apiece to keep people’s secrets. When a fresh family moves in next door, Emily’s secrets are nearly exposed by her new 12-year-old pal Philip (Michael Angarano).
King Of California (2007) 63%
While Michael Douglas earned plaudits for his weird, wacky, and wild turn as the King of California, those who saw it know that it’s Wood’s caring daughter, Miranda, that serves as the movie’s true heartbeat.
Following his release from a mental hospital, a delusional dad named Charlie tries to convince his daughter Miranda that a treasure-trove of buried gold lies beneath their California suburbs. More specifically, Charlie claims the fortune is buried beneath the local Costco. As Miranda tries to inject sense into her father’s warped mind, they become closer than ever imagined.
The Upside Of Anger (2005) 74%
Although it’s Joan Allen’s hour to shine in The Upside of Anger, she likely couldn’t have been so bright without the bubbly presence of her four gorgeous daughters in the film.
Among said daughters are Wood, Alicia Witt, Erika Christensen, and Keri Russell, all of whom lend their own personality in the Wolfemeyer household. Plot-wise, the film charts the sudden midlife meltdown of dutiful housewife Terry (Allen), and her nascent romance with drunk neighbor Denny (Kevin Costner).
Into The Forest (2016) 76%
Under the guise of a sci-fi genre thriller, Into the Forest is really a celebration of female empowerment, self-reliance, and the inviolable love between two sisters!
Following a cataclysmic power-outage, Eva (Evan) and Nell (Ellen Paige) retreat into the woods where the begin to depend on the natural order of their wooded homeland to survive. At first, they rely on the help of their loving father, Robert (Callum Keith Rennie), who teaches the two to live off the land in self-sufficient ways. In the end, Eva and Nell have only each other to depend on.
Frozen II (2019) 77%
So far in her impressive career, Wood has consciously opted to avoid making many animated movies and superhero blockbusters. However, one of the few exceptions includes voicing the character of Iduna in Frozen II.
In the much-anticipated Disney sequel, Anna, Elsa, Olaf, and Kristoff venture away from their homeland to find the birthplace of Elsa’s magical powers. Along the way, they stumble upon Iduna, Anna and Elsa’s mother. While Wood voices Iduna this time out, it was co-director Jennifer Lee who voiced Iduna’s single line in the 2014 original.
Thirteen (2003) 81%
In her breakout performance, Wood deserved all of the praise in the world for her portrayal of Tracy, a dangerously precocious party-girl headed down the path of self-destruction at far too young an age.
The Catherine Hardwicke film, co-written by fellow star Nikki Reed, explores the honest and frightening pressures young adolescent girls face in modern society. Drugs, sex, crime, peer pressure, parental negligence, and several other issues face Tracy and her cool bestie Evie (Reed). Wood earned a Golden Globe for her role, while Holly Hunter earned an Oscar nod for her work as Tracy’s mother Melanie.
The Ides Of March (2011) 84%
After creating House of Cards for Netflix, playwright Beau Willimon turned his political acumen toward the star-studded The Ides of March, directed by and starring George Clooney.
The tale of webby political intrigue follows Presidential candidate Mike Morris, an open atheist vying for the Democratic nomination. Unfortunately, his ambitious staff puts him in a precarious position when Molly Stearns (Wood), a political staffer is suddenly found dead in the hotel room of Morris’s primary point man.
Kajillionaire (2020) 92%
Although it doesn’t officially come out until June, the fact remains that enough critics have reviewed Kajillionaire to warrant a rating on the Tomato Meter!
The Miranda July film follows a family of criminals who get more than they bargained for after recruiting a new team member to pull off a daring new heist. Richard Jenkins and Debra Winger play the thieving parents, with Wood playing Old Dolio, their grifter daughter who becomes incensed when the new member joins the party. Early word is that Wood delivers the best performance in the film.
The Wrestler (2008) 98%
Wood has rarely tugged at the heartstrings with such sympathy in the way she did in The Wrestler, Darren Aronofsky’s gritty character study of a man driven to his width’s end.
Randy the Ram (Mickey Rourke) is a washed-up wrestler looking for one last shot at glory. As he makes the depressing rounds of local fights, memorabilia events, and the like, he tries to rectify his relationship with estranged daughter Stephanie (Wood). When all else fails, Randy comes to grips with the reality that the only places he feels happy are in the ring.
