Ranking Danny Boyle's Movies

Most filmmakers, if they’re lucky, will see a long career with both ups and downs. Few, though, have enjoyed (endured?) as much of a rollercoaster as Danny Boyle. He came out swinging in the mid ’90s with a pair of films that remain among his best before immediately stumbling with a pair of vanity projects. Boyle then reinvigorated the “zombie” horror scene only to chase it with another misfire. Rinse and repeat a couple more times and you have a wildly unpredictable filmography.

Boyle is back in theaters this weekend with his first film in six years: 28 Years Later. So if you’re looking to revisit some of Boyle’s best, here’s our ranking of all 13 of his theatrically released films to date.

13. Yesterday (2019)

It feels almost like bullying putting such a sweetly saccharine movie at the bottom, but labeling it the worst of Boyle’s filmography still feels appropriate. Yesterday is competently made and performed, and it has an engaging hook – an unknown musician named Jack wakes one day to discover that The Beatles never existed, but he still knows all their songs – but it’s just so cloying and sticky in its desperate need for our affection that it threatens to move from instantly forgettable to mildly irritating. Still, and at the very least, you know the soundtrack is pretty darn good.

12. A Life Less Ordinary (1997)

Boyle isn’t above throwing everything at the wall to see what sticks, and A Life Less Ordinary is exhibit A in the argument against doing just that. In theory, at least, this is a romantic comedy with thriller elements and supernatural asides, but not a damn thing lands here (even as it all slides down that metaphorical wall to find an ignoble end on the floor). It’s a mess, start to finish, but it’s a watchable mess thanks to an absolutely stacked cast including Ewan McGregor, Cameron Diaz, Holly Hunter, Delroy Lindo, Dan Hedaya, Stanley Tucci, Tony Shalhoub, and more.

11. Trance (2013)

Boyle is no stranger to twisty thrillers – his best one sits at number three, below – but Trance shows there’s a limit to how many times you should twist, turn, and pull the rug out from under your audience. Trance goes well past that limit, resulting in a film that grows emptier and emptier the longer it goes leaving it wholly out of steam at the end of its hour and forty minutes. Boyle spices things up on the visual front, and the cast (including James McAvoy, Rosario Dawson, Vincent Cassel) do good work, but nothing can break the increasingly numb feeling you’re left with.

10. The Beach (2000)

You can look at the box-office for The Beach – the third-highest of Boyle’s career – and argue that it’s a success, but you’d be hard-pressed to claim that was due to anything other than Leonardo DiCaprio in the lead role (as Ralph, not The Beach). He was still riding high on the Titanic wave, and seeing him wash up on the shore with other attractive, scantily clad young people was irresistible. The movie itself? Not so much. Its themes and ideals are tossed around like chum in the water, and we all know what that leads to. That’s right, the only great scene in the film.

9. Millions (2004)

Filmmakers aren’t above cannibalizing their own work for something new, and Boyle seems to do just that with his “family friendly” romp, Millions. The film sees two young boys come across some dirty money which leads them on a journey involving visitations from the dead and a determined baddie looking to reclaim his cash. It’s basically a splash of Shallow Grave’s plotting and a dash of A Life Less Ordinary’s ethereal Catholicism, but mashed together with messy thoughts on grief, morality, and the UK’s regret over not adopting the EU’s currency standard, the Euro.

8. 127 Hours (2010)

Conflict in movies is typically presented as a tale of someone against someone else, but 127 Hours shakes things up with a story about a young man at war with himself. Trapped in a desperate situation – his arm, literally trapped beneath an immovable boulder – his will to live goes head to head with the unthinkable realization as to his only chance at survival. The film, based on a true story of survival, is as compelling and engaging a tale of resilience as you’re likely to find. Part character study, part dramatic thriller, it’s a fantastically effective film with a strong lead performance.

7. T2 Trainspotting (2017)

Creating a sequel to a groundbreaking film you made decades earlier in your youth can be daunting, but few have pulled it off as well as Boyle does with T2 Trainspotting. Sure, this sequel can’t touch the highs of the original, but it’s still its own terrifically affecting look at people trapped by circumstances wholly within their control. The energy level is lower, as befitting now middle aged characters, and the laughs are far less edgier, but the palpable sadness and sliver of hope remain as Boyle once again shows love for these people and this place.

6. Steve Jobs (2015)

Just as he did with The Social Network, Aaron Sorkin’s script for Steve Jobs adapts one man’s complex history into a simple but captivating and compelling character study that entertains in its caustic wit and confusingly smooth abrasiveness. Boyle takes that simple framework of following Jobs through three pivotal product launches and finds life and energy despite the frequently and deceptively static environments. Conversations become living, breathing set pieces through Boyle’s kinetic sense of style. His cast (Michael Fassbender, Seth Rogen, Kate Winslet, Jeff Daniels, and more) then brings those sharply written words to fiery life, capturing both the man and the movement he helped create.

5. Slumdog Millionaire (2008)

Haters and people prone to using the term “poverty porn” gonna hate, but Boyle’s energetic ode to luck, fate, and living your best life no matter the obstacles thrown your way remains a thrilling delight. Slumdog Millionaire introduced the world to the great Dev Patel, and his character’s journey from the Mumbai slums to a seat of power on a popular game show is an electric ride winding its way through thrills, pathos, and romance. Where Yesterday (way above) really, really needs you to feel good after watching, this one gets you there effortlessly with style, talent, and enthusiasm to spare.

4. Sunshine (2007)

Sometimes everything just clicks into place, and as the first of four stone-cold masterpieces on this list, Sunshine is a powerful example of that relatively rare occurrence. It’s a sci-fi epic that sends a crew on a suicide mission to reignite the sun in the hope of saving an increasingly chilly Earth. Science and faith go head to head, fundamentalists for truth and fantasy butting heads as their time – our time, because the film is no less prescient for its fantastical setting – races to an end, and their journey is as thrilling as it is profound. It also just looks damn cool and sports a killer cast in Cillian Murphy, Michelle Yeoh, Chris Evans, Rose Byrne, and more.

3. Shallow Grave (1994)

Boyle’s first theatrical feature should be the envy of every aspiring filmmaker as he gathers a small group of insanely talented young actors, plies them with a good time and an airtight script, and then delivers a wickedly entertaining thriller that still holds up beautifully three decades later. Ewan McGregor, Kerry Fox, and Christopher Eccleston are close friends who ultimately tear themselves and their lives apart after finding a lot of cash in their flat, and each gives a brilliant performance in the face of twists, turns, betrayal, violence, and a corpse doing the full monty in their spare bedroom.

2. 28 Days Later (2002)

Call them zombies, call them the infected, call them angry jerks – whatever name you give them, just know that these rabid monsters are as scary now as they were when you first watched this movie over two decades ago. 28 Days Later’s lo-fi cinematography creates a feeling of raw immediacy adding to the nightmare fuel that is a world overrun with violent people (both infected and otherwise). The film got a solid-enough sequel in 2007’s 28 Weeks Later, and a planned trilogy is heading our way starting with 28 Years Later, which marks Boyle’s long overdue return to horror. Our bodies are ready.

1. Trainspotting (1996)

As the list above attests, Boyle’s career is one filled with numerous and memorable highs, but his second feature remains the pop culture fixture sitting atop them all. Beyond capturing a time, a place, and a people, Trainspotting walks a delicate line with its honest exploration of both the orgasmic highs brought on by heroin and the utterly devastating results of its inevitably addictive embrace. Hilarious, heartbreaking, beautiful, and disgusting, the film is a genre-bender (and arguably Boyle’s true first horror film) that implores you to choose life – no matter how you define it.

Those are our rankings, but what do you think? Vote in our poll above, and let’s discuss in the comments!