(Photo by Courtesy Everett Collection)
Daniel Day-Lewis Movies, Ranked By Tomatometer
We’re ranking the films of Daniel Day-Lewis! We start with his Certified Fresh movies, and he just might be the actor with the most proportionally against his overall filmography. That’s because Day-Lewis has always had a strong and selective career, starting with appearances in Gandhi and The Bounty. By 1985 he was a leading man, in the seminal gay comedy/drama My Beautiful Laundrette. By the 1990s, he became fully established as a generational talent, with a Best Actor Oscar win in My Left Foot, a nomination for In the Name of the Father, and lead roles in Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence and Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans.
Day-Lewis famously took years off of acting afterwards, apprenticing as a shoe cobbler in Italy, before being lured back to film by Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio for Gangs of New York. His method acting style became the stuff of legend, including staying in character off-camera and remaining dressed in era-appropriate clothing. Day-Lewis radiates in these total inhabitation of roles, leading to consistent Oscar nominations for his years-apart movies, including winning for There Will Be Blood and Lincoln. Day-Lewis has long asserted his retirement from acting was imminent, and made good after his last film role in P.T. Anderson’s 2017 Phantom Thread. —Alex Vo
#1
Adjusted Score: 101621%
Critics Consensus: No doubt most will come to My Left Foot for Daniel Day-Lewis' performance, but the movie's refusal to go downbeat will keep it in viewer minds afterwards.
Synopsis: No one expects much from Christy Brown (Daniel Day-Lewis), a boy with cerebral palsy born into a working-class Irish family....
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#2
Adjusted Score: 101782%
Critics Consensus: My Beautiful Laundrette is fast and all over the place because it has so much to say, and show, including a highly watchable fresh-faced Daniel Day-Lewis.
Synopsis: In a seedy corner of London, Omar (Gordon Warnecke), a young Pakistani, is given a run-down laundromat by his uncle...
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#3
Adjusted Score: 98321%
Critics Consensus: Impassioned and meticulously observed, In the Name of the Father mines rousing drama from a factual miscarriage of justice, aided by scorching performances and director Jim Sheridan's humanist focus.
Synopsis: Unemployed young Irishman Gerry Conlon (Daniel Day-Lewis) gets by as a petty thief in 1970s Belfast. When local IRA leaders...
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#4
Adjusted Score: 99775%
Critics Consensus: The Last of the Mohicans is a breathless romantic adventure that plays loose with James Fenimore Cooper's novel -- and comes out with a richer action movie for it.
Synopsis: The last members of a dying Native American tribe, the Mohicans -- Uncas (Eric Schweig), his father Chingachgook (Russell Means),...
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#5
Adjusted Score: 110875%
Critics Consensus: Phantom Thread's finely woven narrative is filled out nicely by humor, intoxicating romantic tension, and yet another impressively committed performance from Daniel Day-Lewis.
Synopsis: Renowned dressmaker Reynolds Woodcock and his sister Cyril are at the center of British fashion in 1950s London -- dressing...
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#6
Adjusted Score: 100854%
Critics Consensus: Widely touted as a masterpiece, this sparse and sprawling epic about the underhanded "heroes" of capitalism boasts incredible performances by leads Daniel Day-Lewis and Paul Dano, and is director Paul Thomas Anderson's best work to date.
Synopsis: Silver miner Daniel Plainview (Daniel Day-Lewis) leads a hardscrabble life with his son, H.W. (Dillon Freasier). When he hears about...
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#7
Adjusted Score: 103891%
Critics Consensus: Daniel Day-Lewis characteristically delivers in this witty, dignified portrait that immerses the audience in its world and entertains even as it informs.
Synopsis: With the nation embroiled in still another year with the high death count of Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln brings...
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#8
Adjusted Score: 100542%
Critics Consensus: Director Richard Attenborough is typically sympathetic and sure-handed, but it's Ben Kingsley's magnetic performance that acts as the linchpin for this sprawling, lengthy biopic.
Synopsis: This acclaimed biographical drama presents major events in the life of Mohandas Gandhi (Ben Kingsley), the beloved Indian leader who...
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#9
Adjusted Score: 93917%
Critics Consensus: Equal measures romantic and wistful, Martin Scorsese's elegant adaptation of The Age of Innocence is a triumphant exercise in both stylistic and thematic restraint.
Synopsis: Wealthy lawyer Newland Archer (Daniel Day-Lewis) is engaged to sweet socialite May Welland (Winona Ryder) in 1870s New York. On...
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#10
Adjusted Score: 85547%
Critics Consensus: The Boxer is a standard drama that packs a true emotional wallop thanks to the highly tuned central performances.
Synopsis: Rising teen boxer and Belfast native Danny Flynn (Daniel Day-Lewis) was imprisoned for 14 years after getting involved with the...
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#11
Adjusted Score: 80222%
Critics Consensus: Though flawed, the sprawling, messy Gangs of New York is redeemed by impressive production design and Day-Lewis's electrifying performance.
Synopsis: Amsterdam Vallon (Leonardo DiCaprio) is a young Irish immigrant released from prison. He returns to the Five Points seeking revenge...
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#12
Adjusted Score: 103006%
Critics Consensus: The hard edges of E.M. Foster novel maybe sanded off, but what we get with A Room with a View is an eminently entertaining comedy with an intellectual approach to love.
Synopsis: In this British drama based on the novel by E.M. Forster, Lucy Honeychurch (Helena Bonham-Carter), a young Englishwoman, is touring...
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#13
Adjusted Score: 89013%
Critics Consensus: Exploring sexual mores against the backdrop of real-life social upheaval, The Unbearable Lightness of Being artfully blends the political and the erotic.
Synopsis: Successful surgeon Tomas (Daniel Day-Lewis) leaves Prague for an operation, meets a young photographer named Tereza (Juliette Binoche), and brings...
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#14
Adjusted Score: 74064%
Critics Consensus: This staid adaptation of The Crucible dutifully renders Arthur Miller's landmark play on the screen with handsome production design and sturdy performances, if not with the political anger and thematic depth that earned the drama its reputation.
Synopsis: After married man John Proctor (Daniel Day-Lewis) decides to break off his affair with his young lover, Abigail Williams (Winona...
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#15
Adjusted Score: 50744%
Critics Consensus: Heavy on the symbolism and overly contrived.
Synopsis: Jack Slavin (Daniel Day-Lewis) is an environmentalist with a heart condition who lives with his daughter, Rose (Camilla Belle), on...
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#16
Adjusted Score: 47172%
Critics Consensus: It has a game, great-looking cast, led by the always worthwhile Daniel Day-Lewis, but Rob Marshall's Nine is chaotic and curiously distant.
Synopsis: Italian film director Guido Contini (Daniel Day-Lewis) grapples with epic crises in his personal and professional lives. At the same...
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