The Best Joaquin Phoenix Movies, from ‘Her’ and ‘Joker’ to ‘Beau Is Afraid’ and ‘Napoleon’

It’s another big year for Joaquin Phoenix. After winning Best Actor in 2020 for his sick spin on a supervillain in Todd Phillips’ “Joker,” the Academy Award winner appeared as a journalist taking care of his young nephew in Mike Mills’ A24 family drama “C’mon, C’mon.” Then, Phoenix was back at the indie studio with another project: Ari Aster’s third feature, “Beau Is Afraid.” The surreal horror comedy expands on an Aster short from 2011, and stars Phoenix as Beau — “a paranoid man on an epic odyssey to get home to his mother” — alongside Nathan Lane, Stephen McKinley Henderson, Patti LuPone, Amy Ryan, and Parker Posey.

“Aster’s delirious third feature clarifies his artistic obsessions even as it expands them into surreal new shapes,” writes IndieWire’s David Ehrlich in his review of the film, hitting theaters April 21. “Once again, ‘Beau Is Afraid’ delivers another morbidly hilarious — and fiercely skeptical — look at the unstable relationship between love and obligation, lineage and entrapment. Once again, it’s full of all the haunted attics, headless bodies, and ominous triangular houses that have already become its young auteur’s signature flourishes.”

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This year, Phoenix has also taken on Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” playing the infamous French ruler Napoleon Bonaparte opposite Vanessa Kirby as his beloved Joséphine. The dark two-hander focuses on the fraught passion of the ruthless emperor and his powerful queen, charting the pair’s ambitious rise and cataclysmic fall amid the French Revolution. Not to be confused with Steven Spielberg’s seven-part series for HBO — presently also titled “Napoleon” — Scott’s epic film released this November to positive reviews; Ehrlich gave it a “B-.”

The historical biopic is something of a return to form for Phoenix, who earned his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor with Scott’s 2000 Best Picture winner “Gladiator” as Commodus, the vile son of Marcus Aurelius. The role marked a critical turning point for Phoenix, who appeared in movies and TV throughout his childhood and teen years but earned more serious acclaim in the aughts and 2010s. Phoenix got his first Best Actor nod in 2006 for his performance as Johnny Cash in James Mangold’s “Walk the Line.”

Famously committed to the craft, Phoenix bifurcated his career with the notorious meta-mockumentary “I’m Still Here,” portraying himself on the brink of psychological disaster both on-screen and in interviews. He’d follow that unforgettable confusion up with a second Best Actor nomination in 2012 for his starring role as a World War II veteran swept into a cult in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “The Master.”

With more than 40 credits to his name, Joaquin Phoenix has built his career on slippery performances perpetually pulled toward darkness. Here are the actor’s 15 best movies to date.

With editorial contributions by Wilson Chapman. 

[Editor’s note: This list was first published in February 2023 and has been updated.]

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