When looking at all of the actors from the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Mark Ruffalo has arguably enjoyed the greatest amount of success outside of the superhero realm. Ruffalo experiments with different genres and Oscar-worthy films to carry a high level of respect from his peers and fans at home. Watching any Mark Ruffalo movie instantly allows someone to see how he absorbs himself into a role and becomes an entirely different person.
Ruffalo started his career in supporting roles before becoming the Hulk. Since his worldwide fame as the green antihero, Ruffalo has been granted opportunities in large ensemble casts next to some of Hollywood’s best talent. These are the best Mark Ruffalo movies you can watch that have nothing to do with Marvel, and they will give you a complete picture of his dramatic and comedic skills on the big screen!
10. Begin Again (2013)
Ruffalo and Keira Knightley create a dynamite pairing as a singer and music producer both down on their luck and looking for a break to save their careers. Ruffalo and Knightley’s palpable energy and electric chemistry carry what would otherwise be a benign music film. Begin Again was released during the prime of Ruffalo’s Marvel surge but doesn’t get a lot of critical recognition a decade later.
9. Collateral (2004)
Mark Ruffalo often receives no recognition for his role in Collateral, an action film most known for forcing Tom Cruise into an antagonist role. Cruise plays an assassin who forces Jamie Foxx’s character to drive him to his killing destinations. Ruffalo plays the main police officer caught in the crime spree, desperately trying to prevent it.
8. Dark Waters (2019)
Dark Waters puts Mark Ruffalo in a different position than fans would expect: starring in a legal thriller. Ruffalo plays Robert Bilott, a lawyer who tried to make DuPont accountable for unethical business practices and pollution. Ruffalo was already familiar with the genre of “trying to dig up dirt on powerful people” because of Spotlight, but Dark Waters has a different tone and makes Ruffalo carry more of the weight.
7. The Kids Are All Right (2010)
Mark Ruffalo plays a man who gets involved in the lives of his biological children after serving as a surrogate to a lesbian couple. The movie examines the ups and downs of queer people raising kids, how society wears down people through discrimination, and how the people surrounding same-sex couples can help and hurt the success of a family. The Kids Are Alright should be at the top of your Pride Month movie list.
6. Zodiac (2007)
Everyone loves a good serial killer film, right? Mark Ruffalo compliments the uber-talented cast of Zodiac, the story of several San Francisco detectives who try to identify and capture the titular psychopath from the 1970s. The fact that the real criminal who committed the heinous acts still hasn’t been arrested over 50 years later makes the plot of the movie ripe for interpretation by genius director David Fincher.
5. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind will always be Jim Carrey’s dramatic masterpiece. The movie follows Carrey’s character as he attempts to overcome heartbreak through memory removal, a creative genre mixture of sci-fi and romance that many films today don’t possess. Ruffalo plays another man struggling with his love affairs, and it fits nicely into his portfolio of sidekick roles that make up a large majority of his non-Marvel career.
4. You Can Count on Me (2000)
Laura Linney (mainly known by younger audiences for her performance in Ozark) and Mark Ruffalo bombastically resonate with audiences who know the joys and pain of tumultuous brother-sister relationships. Linney and Ruffalo play siblings who come together after a period of estrangement, desperately trying to make a change in their lives, both to varying degrees. The film represents the peak of good, old-fashioned family dramas, and it’s unfortunate that it has gone under the radar almost a quarter-century after its release.
3. Poor Things (2023)
The most recent effort on this list featuring Ruffalo, Poor Things cleaned up at the Academy Awards with special consideration given to Emma Stone’s performance. Yorgos Lanthimos’ film looks at a woman whose body and mind don’t match in maturity levels after an experiment places a baby’s brain inside a fully grown conduit. Willem Dafoe steals the show at times as the doctor who completes the procedure, but Raffalo’s chemistry with Stone makes the proceedings inescapable. The movie is one of the best romantic science fiction stories of the 2020s so far.
2. Foxcatcher (2014)
Foxcatcher examines the murderous corruption within the du Pont family, specifically the violent John du Pont. While the film is most known for Steve Carell’s depiction of the aforementioned rich convict, Mark Ruffalo goes bar-for-bar with Carell as du Pont’s victim, Olympic wrestler David Schultz. Anybody interested in the messy, behind-the-scenes madness of America’s ultra-wealthy and the abuse that happens behind closed doors when it comes to Olympic athletics will jump right into this story and become immersed instantly. The movie proved both Ruffalo and Carell’s worth outside of their typecastings.
1. Spotlight (2015)
When you combine a strong moral compass to a historical biopic, use incredible actors to tell the story, and care deeply about making a different through filmmaking, you get the wonderous Best Picture winner, Spotlight. Mark Ruffalo stars as one of the main reporters at The Boston Globe who dug up dirt on the despicable pedophilia and child abuse within the Catholic Church in the early 2000s. The movie might be a sore spot for devout Catholics, but the message is clear: organized religion must be held accountable for the bad it causes in the world just as much as the good it inspires. Ruffalo’s performance stood out in the ensemble cast and helped bring renown and respect to his name at the height of his career.
