Adrien Brody’s career is one of the more interesting roller coasters of the 21st century. After winning the Academy Award for Best Actor at a record-breaking youthful age of 29, the Queens native was poised to dominate the decades of the 2000s and 2010s with his stylish charisma and measured approach to acting. Instead, Brody meandered through his 30s and 40s with a handful of solid to great performances without much fanfare or recognition.
If you have watched any Wes Anderson movies in the last 20 years, you would have likely seen Brody appear in some capacity. And while Anderson’s films fit Brody’s persona on screen, they didn’t allow him to capitalize on his superstar lead potential the way people expected. His most recent effort, The Brutalist, earned him a second Academy Award for Best Actor. Only a small handful of legends have achieved this feat, such as Jack Nicholson, Sean Penn, and Tom Hanks. If you’re looking to catch up on some of his other great works, we have you covered. These are the best Adrien Brody movies to watch right away.
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8. Blonde (2022)
167m
Genre
Drama
Stars
Ana de Armas, Adrien Brody, Bobby Cannavale
Directed by
Andrew Dominik
Watch on Netflix
Blonde isn’t really Adrien Brody’s movie, but his performance as playwright Arthur Miller is a highlight of the biopic. This film is the story of Marilyn Monroe’s life, from her up-and-down career to her fascinating romantic flings with famous men that made headlines and added to her aura. The film was controversial for how accurately it depicted some of the more harrowing moments in Monroe’s timeline, but Ana de Armas was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Picture for this movie. Brody shows he can play a supporting role or a lead role equally well with his appearance here.
7. Asteroid City (2023)
105m
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Stars
Jason Schwartzman, Scarlett Johansson, Tom Hanks
Directed by
Wes Anderson
Watch on Amazon
Asteroid City had big expectations when it was on the summer movie docket in 2023. With a variety of Wes Anderson’s most famous muses, the movie was an all-star collaboration that featured Tom Hanks, Brody, and Scarlett Johansson, just to name a few. The plot follows a group of people who appear in a play about a stargazing event in the wake of the space race during the 1950s. There’s plenty of commentary on the time period with references to Cold War tension, the potential of aliens, and America’s general stress in the aftermath of World War II. A unique color palette and superb cinematography make this one of the better Anderson movies of late.
6. Splice (2010)
104m
Genre
Horror, Science Fiction
Stars
Adrien Brody, Sarah Polley, Delphine Chanéac
Directed by
Vincenzo Natali
Watch on max
Splice is a horror film that is more suited for a Halloween binge on the couch than a sophisticated night at the cinema, which is a nice change of pace for Brody. He plays a scientist who tries to splice together the genetic code of a human and an animal to make a hybrid organism. The results are as eerie as you can imagine. Sarah Polley gives a great supporting performance next to Brody in this science-fiction film that allowed the actor to work outside of his typical genre constraints and try new things at the end of the 2000s.
5. The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)
100m
Genre
Comedy, Drama
Stars
Ralph Fiennes, F. Murray Abraham, Mathieu Amalric
Directed by
Wes Anderson
Watch on Amazon
The Grand Budapest Hotel features many of the same Wes Anderson names that we’ve mentioned many times already with some other big actors such as F. Murray Abraham. The plot of the film works as a murder mystery, as the characters at the hotel try to identify the killer who slays one of the mistresses of the main character played by Ralph Fiennes. This is one of the most decorated films in Anderson and Brody’s portfolios.
4. The French Dispatch (2021)
108m
Genre
Drama, Comedy
Stars
Benicio del Toro, Adrien Brody, Tilda Swinton
Directed by
Wes Anderson
Watch on Hulu
The French Dispatch is a collection of stories surrounding the journalists of an American newspaper that operates out of a location in France in the 1970s. An anthology that strives to connect the different characters through their individual journeys, the plot turns into something greater than the sum of its parts. Tilda Swinton and Owen Wilson are perhaps the biggest stars here.
3. King Kong (2005)
187m
Genre
Adventure, Drama, Action
Stars
Naomi Watts, Jack Black, Adrien Brody
Directed by
Peter Jackson
Watch on Netflix
King Kong is one of the biggest movies of Adrien Brody’s career and it capitalized on both Brody’s critical success at the Oscars just three years earlier and director Peter Jackson’s fame from The Lord of the Rings. The classic story of a gigantic ape who falls in love with a gorgeous actress, Brody plays the man who saves her from the clutches of Kong … but why does she even need saving? A love story grounded in decades of tradition, this movie is the epitome of Jackson’s long-winded portrayals of fiction, but any movie fan from the 2000s will tell you it’s worth your time.
2. The Brutalist (2024)
215m
Genre
Drama
Stars
Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce
Directed by
Brady Corbet
Watch on Amazon
Brody’s most recent Oscar-winning performance sees him playing a Holocaust survivor who must figure out where he belongs in America after surviving the most horrific human rights atrocity of the 20th century. Most World War II movies and Holocaust stories are awards-bait, but The Brutalist is truly a delicate and thought-provoking film about the trauma and aftermath experienced by so many Jewish people in the years after escaping Europe.
1. The Pianist (2002)
150m
Genre
Drama, War
Stars
Adrien Brody, Thomas Kretschmann, Frank Finlay
Directed by
Roman Polanski
Watch on Amazon
If The Brutalist shows Brody’s ability to depict the journey of a Holocaust victim post-war, The Pianist shows that story during the thick of the battle. He plays a talented musician who uses his abilities to cope with bloodshed as he traverses Warsaw while his country hangs on for dear life during World War II. This will probably always be Brody’s most famous role.
