The Essential Aubrey Plaza Movie Ranking: Her Greatest Cinema Roles
From Indie Icon to Deadpan Dramatic Powerhouse
Explore Aubrey Plaza's definitive filmography, featuring her best performances in dark comedies, indie dramas, and blockbuster hits.
About Aubrey Plaza
For years, a specific brand of deadpan nihilism was the primary currency of Aubrey Plaza. During her tenure as the world's favorite office misanthrope on television, she cultivated an onscreen persona so distinct it threatened to become a permanent shadow. But looking at her trajectory over the last decade, it is clear that the trademark monotone was never a limitation. Instead, it was a foundation for one of the most unpredictable and daring careers in modern cinema. She has transformed from a generational indie darling into a formidable prestige powerhouse, all while maintaining an aura of chaotic mystery that makes her every talk show appearance a viral event.
The brilliance of her evolution lies in her refusal to play it safe. While she could have spent twenty years playing the sarcastic sidekick in studio comedies like Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates or 10 Years, she chose to dismantle her own image. In the mid-2010s, she began producing and starring in prickly, uncomfortable narratives that explored the dark side of the female psyche. Ingrid Goes West offered a chillingly prophetic look at social media obsession, while The Little Hours proved she could weaponize her modern cynicism in a historical, sacrilegious setting. These roles signaled a shift from passive observation to active, often dangerous, screen presence.
Her true renaissance arrived when she began leaning into high stakes and dramatic tension. As the desperate title character in Emily the Criminal, she stripped away the irony to reveal a raw, jagged survival instinct that surprised even her most devoted fans. This gritty turn proved she could anchor a thriller just as easily as she could steal a scene in a romantic comedy like Happiest Season or the raunchy coming of age tale The To Do List. She possesses a rare ability to ground absurdity in reality, which made her the perfect foil in the high octane Operation Fortune Ruse de Guerre and the psychological labyrinth of Black Bear.
Audiences gravitate toward her because she represents a specific kind of uncompromising authenticity. She never seems to be asking for permission or approval. Whether she is facing off against a demonic doll in Child is Play or navigating the sweeping, polarizing ambition of Francis Ford Coppola's Megalopolis, she brings a fierce intelligence that demands attention. Even in her early breakout work like Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and Safety Not Guaranteed, there was a sense that she was the smartest person in the room, albeit the one most likely to burn it down.
As she moves toward future projects like Honey Don't! and continues to challenge the industry's penchant for pigeonholing, her cultural impact only deepens. She has become the patron saint of the outsiders, the awkward, and the fiercely ambitious. In an era of carefully curated celebrity personas, her willingness to be strange, difficult, and profoundly human is a gift to the medium. She has moved far beyond the satirical tropes of her youth to become an essential actor for a complicated age, proving that a sharp tongue and a blank stare are merely tools for a much more profound artistic vision. From indie dramas like Best Sellers to the biggest screens in the world, she remains the most interesting variable in any equation.
Damsels in Distress
2012A trio of beautiful girls set out to revolutionize life at a grungy American university: the dynamic leader Violet Wister, principled Rose and sexy Heather. They welcome transfer student Lily into their group which seeks to help severely depressed students with a program of good hygiene and musical dance numbers.
Playing It Cool
2014A young man meets and instantly falls in love with an engaged woman.
Mystery Team
2009A group of former Encyclopedia Brown-style child-detectives struggle to solve an adult mystery.
Life After Beth
2014Zach is devastated by the unexpected death of his girlfriend, Beth. When she mysteriously returns, he gets a second chance at love. Soon his whole world turns upside down...
Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You
2012Precocious yet sensitive teenager James has a deep perception of the world but no idea how to live in it. Finding no help from his divorced parents nor his older memoir-writing sister, he decides to reject the beliefs adults try to push on him, starting with the college career that is looming over his last summer in New York, and embarks instead on a search for wisdom through nontraditional means...
Best Sellers
2021A cranky, retired author reluctantly embarks on a final book tour to help out a young publisher.
10 Years
2012A group of friends reunite ten years after their high-school graduation.
Megalopolis
2024In a futuristic New York known as New Rome, visionary architect Cesar Catilina dreams of building "Megalopolis," a utopian city that redefines society’s limits. Opposing him is the corrupt Mayor Franklyn Cicero, who clings to power and profit. Between them stands Julia, the mayor’s daughter, whose love for Cesar forces her to choose between loyalty, ambition, and the fate of humanity.
Child's Play
2019Karen, a single mother, gifts her son Andy a Buddi doll for his birthday, unaware of its more sinister nature. A contemporary re-imagining of the 1988 horror classic.
Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates
2016Mike and Dave are young, adventurous, fun-loving brothers who tend to get out of control at family gatherings. When their sister Jeanie reveals her Hawaiian wedding plans, the rest of the Stangles insist that the brothers bring respectable dates. After placing an ad on Craigslist, the siblings decide to pick Tatiana and Alice, two charming and seemingly normal women. Once they arrive on the island, however, Mike and Dave realize that their companions are ready to get wild and party.
Safety Not Guaranteed
2012Three magazine employees head out on an assignment to interview a guy who placed a classified ad seeking a companion for time travel.
This foundational performance captured the precise moment Plaza's guarded vulnerability became a cinematic force. It remains the definitive showcase for her ability to find the profound humanity buried beneath layers of defensive sarcasm.
Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
2023Special agent Orson Fortune and his team of operatives recruit one of Hollywood's biggest movie stars to help them on an undercover mission when the sale of a deadly new weapons technology threatens to disrupt the world order.
Slotting seamlessly into the glossy world of international espionage, she proves that her localized cynicism translates perfectly to large-scale action. She balances technical jargon and suave flirtation with a breezy confidence that rivals seasoned veterans of the genre.
The Little Hours
2017Garfagnana, Italy, 1347. The handsome servant Masseto, fleeing from his vindictive master, takes shelter in a nunnery where three young nuns, Sister Alessandra, Sister Ginevra and Sister Fernanda, try unsuccessfully to find out what their purpose in life is, a conundrum that each of them faces in different ways.
Transporting her signature modern vitriol to a medieval convent creates a hilarious, anachronistic friction that only Plaza could execute. Her participation here solidified her reputation as the reigning queen of the subversive indie ensemble.
Ingrid Goes West
2017Ingrid becomes obsessed with a social network star named Taylor Sloane who seemingly has a perfect life. But when Ingrid decides to drop everything and move west to be Taylor's friend, her behaviour turns unsettling and dangerous.
Plaza's portrayal of a social media stalker is a hauntingly precise dissection of modern loneliness and performative identity. She captures the pathetic desperation of the digital age with such discomforting accuracy that the performance feels more like a mirror than a window.
Honey Don't!
2025Honey O'Donahue, a small-town private investigator, delves into a series of strange deaths tied to a mysterious church.
Reuniting with high-concept genre stylings, Plaza continues to refine her status as a muse for idiosyncratic auteurs. This project signals her ongoing evolution into a sophisticated character actor who can anchor even the most surrealist cinematic landscapes.
Black Bear
2020At a remote lake house in the Adirondack Mountains, a couple entertains an out-of-town guest looking for inspiration in her filmmaking. The group quickly falls into a calculated game of desire, manipulation, and jealousy, unaware of how dangerously intertwined their lives will soon become.
Navigating a hallucinatory, dual-layered narrative, she delivers a raw and feral performance that blurs the line between actress and architect of chaos. This role dismantled any lingering typecasting, proving she could thrive in the most demanding and experimental corners of independent cinema.
The To Do List
2013Feeling pressured to become more sexually experienced before she goes to college, Brandy Klark makes a list of things to accomplish before hitting campus in the fall.
This unapologetic dive into adolescent curiosity allows Plaza to sharpen her comedic timing through rare, uninhibited physical humor. It serves as a vital bridge between her television persona and her ability to anchor a studio comedy with fearless commitment to the bit.
Happiest Season
2020A young woman's plans to propose to her girlfriend while at her family's annual holiday party are upended when she discovers her partner hasn't yet come out to her conservative parents.
By playing the one character with genuine emotional maturity, Plaza inadvertently walked away with the film and birthed a thousand internet subcultures. It is a masterclass in understated longing that proved she could be a romantic lead without relying on a single quirk.
As bass guitarist for a garage-rock band, Scott Pilgrim has never had trouble getting a girlfriend; usually, the problem is getting rid of them. But when Ramona Flowers skates into his heart, he finds she has the most troublesome baggage of all: an army of ex-boyfriends who will stop at nothing to eliminate him from her list of suitors.
Even behind a veil of bleeped-out profanity, her turn as Julie Powers weaponizes the deadpan hostility that would become her early career trademark. She manages to steal entire scenes from a massive ensemble by projecting a singular, terrifyingly focused brand of apathy.
Emily the Criminal
2022Desperate for income, Emily takes a shady gig buying goods with stolen credit cards supplied by a charismatic middleman named Youcef. Seduced by the quick cash and illicit thrills, they hatch a plan to take their business to the next level.
Plaza sheds every ounce of dry irony to reveal a jagged, desperate edge that redefines her screen presence. This film marks her graduation into a formidable dramatic powerhouse capable of carrying a gritty, high-stakes thriller through sheer kinetic anxiety.
Frequently Asked Questions
Everything you need to know about this list and SnakeDrafts
- The listicle highlights Aubrey Plaza's versatility across dark comedies, indie dramas, and thrillers, showcasing her ability to bring depth to deadpan and complex characters, such as in "Emily the Criminal" and "Black Bear."
- In "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," Aubrey Plaza delivers a sharp-witted and edgy portrayal that blends action and comedy, revealing her capacity to handle genre-mixing roles with a unique flair.
- "Happiest Season" features Aubrey Plaza in a romantic comedy setting where she balances humor and emotional nuance, demonstrating her adaptability beyond her typical deadpan persona.
- "Emily the Criminal" marks a turning point by highlighting Plaza's dramatic and thriller capabilities, earning critical acclaim for portraying a character embroiled in crime and moral complexity.
- Movies like "The To Do List" and "The Little Hours" emphasize Plaza's impeccable comedic timing, showcasing her talent for delivering humor through deadpan expression and situational comedy.
- Yes, she has collaborated with acclaimed directors such as Edgar Wright in "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World," Guy Ritchie in "Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre," and Francis Ford Coppola in "Megalopolis."
- Her films often explore themes of identity, social alienation, and dark humor, as seen in titles like "Ingrid Goes West" and "Black Bear," highlighting complex character studies.
