Every Yorgos Lanthimos Film Ranked, from ‘Dogtooth’ and ‘The Lobster’ to ‘The Favourite’ and ‘Poor Things’

[Editor’s note: This list was originally published in December. It has since been updated to include new films from the director.]

Yorgos Lanthimos’ films all look different from each other, but they feel the same. Since the Greek director has made the transition from independent Greek cinema to larger Hollywood productions, the washed-out, largely white palettes and simple trappings of his earliest films have given way to more sumptuous cinematography and staging. Even the frills of thrillers like “The Lobster” and “The Killing of a Sacred Deer” feel bare-bones compared to his recent embrace of the costume drama with “The Favourite” and “Poor Things,” both of which feature alternatively gorgeous and (intentionally!) garish production design and costuming.

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But when you look past the budget and the aesthetics of each film, every movie that Lanthimos has made feels like they share a similar cinematic language. The characters in his films tend to communicate through stilted but natural dialogue that often tilts toward deadpan, and hide their cruelty behind politeness and social niceties. And his films are cruel, often putting the protagonist through hell before denying them a happy ending. His overarching preoccupation is on transgression, focusing on people who go against the social constraints against them — sometimes sympathetically (the anti-love lovers at the heart of “The Lobster,” the feminist Frankenstein figure of “Poor Things”) sometimes less so (Barry Keoghan’s menacing “Killing of the Sacred Deer” villain) — as well as what it means to have control, whether that’s over yourself or somebody else.

Although Lanthimos’ early works never caught on with Oscar voters, he fully broke through in 2018 with “The Favourite,” which became a massive award season contender and netted him a Best Director nod. It also introduced him to Emma Stone, and the two’s artistic collaboration has carried over to “Poor Things” and “Kind of Kindness.”

With “Kinds of Kindness,” a twisted anthology, now in theaters, IndieWire refreshed our look at the director’s film canon. This list includes both the director’s Greek-language and Hollywood films; it does not include his directorial debut “My Best Friend,” a comedy film he co-directed with director Lakis Lazopoulos in 2001 which has gone undistributed in the United States. Here are all eight of Lanthimos’ solo directorial films ranked, sorted from worst to best. Read on to find your film favourite.

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